Richard Gere boards migrant ship stuck in the Mediterranean

a reply to: FreeFalling

To get aboard the ship he only needs the ship's permission, to get people out of the ship to a specific country he (or anyone else) needs permission from that country's authorities.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: McGinty
I don’t personally care what they are labelled.

I care, as it shows more about the person doing the labelling than about them.

I think this comes down to whether or not their lives were actually in immediate danger. Do you think only lives that are correctly labelled should be saved?

From the BBC:

It didn't take Mr Salvini long to respond. "Given this generous millionaire is voicing concern for the fate of the Open Arms migrants, we thank him: he can take back to Hollywood, on his private plane, all the people aboard and support them in his villas. Thank you Richard!" he said in a statement.

It’s a fairly cogent argument. Be interesting to see Gere’s response, if any. I’d love him to illuminate my grasp of the situation with a good answer for allowing the ship to dock that isn’t simply an emotional appeal.

As I’ve argued here, I applaud Gere for supplying these people with the supplies to keep them alive. But I don’t agree with an open doors to all policy, since it undoubtably attracts an unmanageable economic migration. Better to focus on solving the problems in their homes so that they don’t need to flee.

If nothing else, Gere’s involvement has made some people reengage with this and surely that’s no bad thing.

1st world nations letting people suffer and die, when there’s opportunity to help is unthinkable. The ship should be given all the help it needs to return to its departure point. But the burden shouldn’t be solely upon the port nations, such as Italy and Greece. Maybe an EU naval border force could be tasked with safely escorting boats/people back to their origin.

Furthermore, perhaps vetting of refugees from migrants could be established by the EU at strategic African ports. Those with passports from war zones etc, or whatever proof of imminent threat is necessary can then be ferried safely to EU countries in a more evenly distributed fashion.

But maybe something similar already exists and doesn’t work, or people with first hand knowledge could tell why that’s not possible. That’s the problem with this whole remote debate - does any of us have first hand knowledge to justify playing god with these people’s lives? The irony is that the person being lampooned - Gere- has now been there and has far more first hand knowledge than us lot put together, despite his privilege, which seems to annoy many.

So, like I said, it’ll be interesting to hear his response to Salvini’s simplistic, but cogent argument.

a reply to: McGinty

I suppose I didn't make my position clear.

To me, the labelling means nothing in regards to the person being labelled, it only shows what the person doing the labelling thinks, so any action in favour or against the person being labelled should never be affected by the labelled they got from one or more persons but by their actions and needs.

In this particular case, if they were in danger then they should have been helped.

a reply to: ArMaP

Thanks for clarifying and I agree wholeheartedly.

originally posted by: McGinty
Furthermore, perhaps vetting of refugees from migrants could be established by the EU at strategic African ports. Those with passports from war zones etc, or whatever proof of imminent threat is necessary can then be ferried safely to EU countries in a more evenly distributed fashion.

The EU has been trying to do that, with little success.

African Union seeks to kill EU plan to process migrants in Africa

a reply to: McGinty

I have being following this migrant crisis since 2016. And have being following these NGO ships on different sites and tracking them. Many of the ships and migrants are no real immediate danger what these NGO ships do every time. They can always turn on the engines at will.

Once they arrive near Italian borders whatever its Sicily or lampedusa what they do is simply they turn off their engines. Its a form of blackmail especially when they include a small number of children on their boats while the majority of the migrants are all men, they use those small children for propaganda.

I have no issues with legit migrants and refugees that need to be protected and saved however some of these current migrants from the current migrant waves don't seem to be fleeing from wars.

a reply to: ChefFox

Maybe he just wants to help human beings.

a reply to: Willtell

Well if he wants to help people he should practice what he preaches and invite them to his mansions. Wouldn't you agree?
Because if he really wanted to help "People" why then did he say that Italy should Open its ports? are they all upset that the Italian govt is stopping the human trafficking? because what these NGOs are doing is not rescuing.

a reply to: McGinty

I applaud Gere for supplying these people with the supplies to keep them alive. But I don’t agree with an open doors to all policy, since it undoubtably attracts an unmanageable economic migration. Better to focus on solving the problems in their homes so that they don’t need to flee.

But Richard Gere is exactly and actually hoping for Italy to open doors and its ports again. Because once Italy opens its ports again human smuggling business continues.

They think that putting weirdhollwood actors would force the Italian gov to open its doors.

Italian liberals have being profiting from the black markets.
2014

Italy discovered it was no longer in a recession today thanks to a change in data calculations across the European Union which includes illegal economic activities such as prostitution and drugs in the GDP measure.

Of course human trafficking counts as a data but its not reported by MSM outlets.

originally posted by: ChefFox
I have no issues with legit migrants and refugees that need to be protected and saved however some of these current migrants from the current migrant waves don't seem to be fleeing from wars.

That's why they are considered migrants and not refugees.

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
Just look at all those women and children suffering in those photos, breaks your heart doesn’t it.

What I want to know, and this is a serious question, if these people are genuinely fleeing war and persecution why are they leaving their families behind?
What kind of man flees and leaves his mother, sisters, wives, girlfriends behind?

We are left with 2 options
1) there is no immediate danger and these men are at best economic migrants or
2) they are feckless cowards who will gladly abandon their families at the chance for a better life for themselves.

I say sink the boats as we find them and let the word spread that Is the fate of working with the people smugglers who want you in Europe.
Sure a few hundred will die but if it stops the boats it will stop the over 1800 who drown in the Mediterranean every year, from a mathematical perspective it’s the humane thing to do

I'm sure all of them self identify as 13-17 year old girls and their asylum papers will state as much. That way authorities can say, "We rescued 20 million little girls and zero military aged males this year."

originally posted by: GenerationGap

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
Just look at all those women and children suffering in those photos, breaks your heart doesn’t it.

What I want to know, and this is a serious question, if these people are genuinely fleeing war and persecution why are they leaving their families behind?
What kind of man flees and leaves his mother, sisters, wives, girlfriends behind?

We are left with 2 options
1) there is no immediate danger and these men are at best economic migrants or
2) they are feckless cowards who will gladly abandon their families at the chance for a better life for themselves.

I say sink the boats as we find them and let the word spread that Is the fate of working with the people smugglers who want you in Europe.
Sure a few hundred will die but if it stops the boats it will stop the over 1800 who drown in the Mediterranean every year, from a mathematical perspective it’s the humane thing to do

I'm sure all of them self identify as 13-17 year old girls and their asylum papers will state as much. That way authorities can say, "We rescued 20 million little girls and zero military aged males this year."

Ah yes, the daily fail famously mislabelled some 30 year old as claiming to be 14 as part of a usual scare headline they later retracted some years back. Im humoured people still use that trope.

a reply to: ArMaP

Sponsored migrations/migrants I have no issues with as they always bring people, actual families on a plane with documents these on the boats do not.

You know they Italian navy coast guard did film a fishery boat unloading migrants upon one of those NGOs boats once. I saw one of the videos on twitter and YouTube.

This clearly becoming quite a business if you ask me. I do believe this amount of human trafficking has to do something with the Italian near banking crisis that happened a few years ago or so?

Good for him, just like Jesus

a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

what if their families were all killed ?

its normally only the strong that survive , women and children are more likely to die in a war torn country or meet a grizzly fate . not that men aren't , but young men are more likely to survive .

Also they may have traveled on foot for thousands of miles just to get to a port to get onto a ship
and their families may have perished on the journey .

Here you are though judging people for fleeing a war that was probably created by the west
is it wrong for people to want to survive from a war ?

Could you imagine fleeing your own country because of war and then getting to a border to have someone judge you for wanting life and liberty?
Some randoms on the internet just judging your own survival , who are they to determine your right to survive ?

Instead of sinking boats which is just as bad as those who start wars we show them some compassion .

originally posted by: contextual

originally posted by: GenerationGap

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
Just look at all those women and children suffering in those photos, breaks your heart doesn’t it.

What I want to know, and this is a serious question, if these people are genuinely fleeing war and persecution why are they leaving their families behind?
What kind of man flees and leaves his mother, sisters, wives, girlfriends behind?

We are left with 2 options
1) there is no immediate danger and these men are at best economic migrants or
2) they are feckless cowards who will gladly abandon their families at the chance for a better life for themselves.

I say sink the boats as we find them and let the word spread that Is the fate of working with the people smugglers who want you in Europe.
Sure a few hundred will die but if it stops the boats it will stop the over 1800 who drown in the Mediterranean every year, from a mathematical perspective it’s the humane thing to do

I'm sure all of them self identify as 13-17 year old girls and their asylum papers will state as much. That way authorities can say, "We rescued 20 million little girls and zero military aged males this year."

Ah yes, the daily fail famously mislabelled some 30 year old as claiming to be 14 as part of a usual scare headline they later retracted some years back. Im humoured people still use that trope.

Who are you to dictate how they identify, especially for immigration purposes? If they believe they are 14 year old girls, and it helps them invade Europe, who are you, or anybody else for that matter, to say otherwise?

Obviously someone needs to woke up and let these little girls storm Europe.

Different actors, different positions.

Javier Bardem posted a video on Twitter in which he says that Spain, specially being the country of origin of Open Arms and of all the members of crew, should be the first to receive the people aboard and organise their distribution among European countries.

a reply to: ArMaP

Many Italians who follow this kind of news believe that there was a secret deal where only Italy was being made and forced to accept migrants/refuges in Italy.

They wanted to turn Italy as a migrant/landing center. You know what is happening and has being happening it does make a lot sense.

However doing this though would further destroy the Italian tourism and economy.

originally posted by: ArMaP

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
What I want to know, and this is a serious question, if these people are genuinely fleeing war and persecution why are they leaving their families behind?

They are not refugees, they are migrants.

Even the news sources used called it "migrant ship", so I don't understand why are you talking about it as if they were refugees.

Why would people with little infants risk this trip?