[CAF Note: Nothing is more valuable then direct intelligence from the ground. Here is feedback on the European refugee migration from a wonderful subscriber in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, who has kindly given us permission to post for subscribers.]
Dear Catherine,
I am writing to you to give you some direct input from Croatia regarding this recent refugee (or migrant as some like to call it) crisis that is going on right in front of us these days. It started all of the sudden, since up until basically beginning of September there were not big numbers of refugees coming into Croatia or region for that matter. There were some sporadic cases on their way to Western Europe, but nothing like that. Since then, there are some 3000 – 7000 people coming in each day and going thru, for now that is. It is widely speculated when the border with Hungary will close. Actually, the first week refugees were coming in Croatia from Serbia and were then transported towards Zagreb in centers organized for them and further to Slovenia or first to center Opatovo in Slavonia region of Croatia and then to few borders to Hungary. Since then practically the only border where Hungarians didn’t put up a fence is small crossing Botovo in the region of Podravina in Croatia, where refugees are transported by train from Opatovo and then they have to walk some 2 km thru mud and dark in the evening to Hungary. Slovenia has not been taking in any refugees to transport them further since weeks.
A part from dubious and political rhetoric full of lies and deception, that one can read all over the world, it has pretty little to do with the reality one can see on the ground. Since the beginning of this situation I have joined the group of people from town Koprivnica, in Podravina, who volunteer and bring some food and basic necessities to the border crossing of Botovo. In next weeks this group has grown and now we are able to give something to at least 1 – 2 trains of people coming in every day (there are usually around 1500 people in one train). At Botovo there is Croatian police, Croatian red cross (useless as usual) and volunteers. There are also volunteers from different countries. I know that you might think it is strange that we help those people, but you need to understand that we were in war 20 years ago and many were refugees themselves. That is something average Westerner does not comprehend at all, they always tend to think that by some magic “institutions” are going to resolve it and only thing one needs to do is ask how much is that going to cost and what is it going to take away from us locals… Unlike especially Western Europe, I am glad that we are still having a heart and compassion in this part of the world, even though there are different opinions all over the country. I thought we lost most of that humanity by looking up blindly to EU and US, but good thing is we did not, at least some didn’t.
When they started arriving in Slavonia, which is the part of Croatia that was especially affected by war, people were bringing out food, water, letting them come in and take a shower and letting kids play in the garden, saying this reminds me a lot of them and how could they just watch these people in such a situation and do nothing? I agree, a part from what they all might be and what the motivations behind that are, it is simply so, some of us could not do nothing. So, from my experience I can tell you that especially in first few days, there were more young men and they were pretty ruthless in coming in front of others on the busses and trains. They would push families with children and policemen had to react different times to prevent especially kids from being run over. It looked as there were 2 types of refugees: young men and people who really were escaping bad situation. There was also difference in financial situation of these 2 groups. It was confirmed by my clients in Serbia that there were huge differences between refugee groups in Belgrade too: some were sleeping in the parks in Belgrade without nothing and others in hotels and driving around in taxis. Very strange combination…
Now, regarding cell phones, I think personally that this story about great phones that has been circulating is a bit of a myth. First of all, if you ever traveled to so called third world countries, which I have and I spend lots of time in southern countries of Africa, you would have seen nice phones literally in every village without electricity. The cells they have are like ones we have and Mr. Global made sure it was like that. You yourself sustain that the customer of the future is one with smartphone and indeed they all have them. As you surely know, banking industry made a huge business in Africa by reaching “unbankable” population exactly thru their mobile phones. So, what you can see here are the phones like ours, and why would they not have them too? They are sold all over the world and surely are not the exclusive right of Western world. Also, if I was going to try my luck to get to some country as refugee, I surely would not throw my cell away… I would try to buy better one if I could!
As for the mess that they do, honestly most of these people are very polite and don’t make any mess. They are really cold, tired, many without money by now, since they had to pay pretty much everybody up to our border (that’s what they say), hungry and thirsty. They can hardly believe when you give them food, water or some warm clothes and shoes, some baby dippers or some basic hygiene items. Nobody takes more than they need, usually only one thing. They thank you, don’t throw stuff around and don’t throw food. The biggest mess is always around the place where Red Cross is and this always puzzles me, we all pick up garbage after they went by, if we made any, but these guys just throw stuff around and don’t care. They even photographed this garbage and posted it saying: here is what they did! Honestly, they make less mess and problems than one average group of football fans!?
Croatian authorities were surely not well organized from the beginning, but with time they got better at it (surely things could be done better, but at least there is an effort made) and our police I must say really surprised me positively. There were policemen changing babies’ dippers, helping with kids, dressing them up, helping to carry bags, etc. They are there many hours with those people in not very nice situation, but there have not been really any problems in Croatia. People simply collaborate with them, probably also because they see that they are not treating them as shit. Hungarians on the other hand really outdid themselves. A part from the politics and fencing and arresting some 40 something Croatian policemen that accompanies train with refugees and releasing that train back yesterday, after few weeks, at the border you can see fat and arrogant young guys, dressed like US seals from Hollywood movies, who think they are I don’t know what and refugees passing by, probably hungry, and they keep on eating and drinking and laughing at them… honestly, it is said thing to see from purely human point of view. Also, the other day one of the volunteers went thru the border to the Hungarian side, to finish distributing food, and on the other side, while refugee were entering busses, one little boy needed to go to the toilet. First they would not let him, even though they still were not ready to leave, but at the end they managed to agree that his father comes out of the bus with him. When they came out, so the boy could do what he needed to do by the road, the group of 4 fully armed Hungarians circled the boy with their guns pointing at him… i am amazed that he managed to do anything under those circumstances… these 2 where surely a huge threat for Hungary!?
I am not trying to paint the picture of “perfect” refugees, since nobody is that and so they are not too. I am sure that among them there are some seriously shady characters, especially among that group of young men, but they blasted thru in first days and are probably already at their destination. Who they are, who financed them and why they came thru is a big question. A part from Germany giving signals they need additional immigration for their industry from the beginning of 2015, which culminated with Merkel openly inviting them, these are all sorts of other theories and probably we will only see with time. As far as fears of changing Europe’s culture go, in whole honesty that is also a bit overrated. I can tell you from my living and working experience within and with EU, I think that the vision of Europe that you guys in US have is somewhat romanticized. You consider it to be the ultimate place where culture comes from, but that was in the past. Your average German (or Western European in general) is really of very poor culture, often arrogant, sure he is the best and has no problems showing it to you, does not go to the exhibitions or opera, does not read books, does not speak many languages, but would like to be entitled and even in business, at higher levels, allows himself or herself to act practically as a pig. Especially when they work in for example here in Eastern Europe.
My point is that honestly, there is not so much that could crumble in Western Europe, especially in the north of Europe, if these people come in, because they have destroyed it already themselves, in these very “liberal” societies, where family and some basic human values are not important anymore and the only god is money. Sure, there might be more violence, there might be more Muslim communities, some funny looking dark skinned people around them, but if they all want to keep their standard, have good pensions in 20 years, enjoy while these refugees do the hardest jobs, they will simply have to find a way and live with them or with some other people from somewhere else, since there are not enough of “original” Western Europeans to pull it off. Some of them will stay in Croatia for sure, but it is not such a bad idea maybe, we lack in doctors, nurses, etc. because they went to Germany too… I am honestly more sorry for most of the refugees, for those that are normal people, because I am not sure that they understand which kind of sick societies they are going to end up in and that slave labor is pretty much going to be their future.
On the other hand, Europe has in particular ruled the whole world and extracted huge amounts of wealth from different continents and lived of if for centuries. It looks to me that the luck is changing this time and personally, why not? US was also a colony and then learned well from its masters. The fact that some other parts of the world are waking up and that the power balance changes is not necessarily the bad thing, unless of course you are not one of those who are on the losing side…. but they will also have to get used to it I guess.
I apologize for the long comment, but I hope that some of this might give you more info on the situation on the ground.
Wish you all the best and please do keep up the good work!
Many regards from Zagreb
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