Attacks on migrants threaten Europe's safety
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 8, 2016
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Waiting for Godot [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] |
Masked men dressed in black stormed through a train station, attacking migrants. That was the scene wit-nessed in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29.
It is part of a growing trend of violence against migrants, many of whom are coming from countries where no wars are taking place and who are flooding Europe in unexpectedly large numbers in search of better eco-nomic opportunities. By the end of 2015, the number of refugees who had entered Sweden neared 100,000, far more than the 66,000-80,000 projected by the Swedish Migration Agency. A string of suspected arsons took place at migrant housing facilities in 2015 and some street beggars were hit with acid.
Europeans are growing angry about their government's apparent inability to stem the mass entry of migrating people who aren't complying with the immigration laws. On New Year's Eve in Cologne, Germany, a large number of sexual assaults and rapes reportedly committed by a group of unruly migrants in a public square inflamed public opinion against plans for granting asylum or permitting immigration.
Violence to solve this problem, however, is immoral and counterproductive. Political issues should be decided democratically in the public square. Violence harms people, including many seemingly innocent migrants, and violates the tenets of democracy. Democracy demands issues be solved non-violently at the ballot box or through other legitimate political avenues. This way, people can express themselves without fear of reprisal.
The Swedish Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi group, took credit for the recent attack. They said they were "clean[ing] up criminal immigrants" who "have robbed and molested Swedes for a long time". This came after an aid worker was murdered reportedly by a Somalia-born young migrant. Some ordinary people who aren't neo-Nazis have even excused the assault on migrants by saying, "The public was bound to take matters into their own hands," if the government didn't show any signs of action.
There is no due process, however, in randomly attacks on those who didn't do anything. The alleged murderer of Alexandra Mezher, Youssaf Khaliif Nuur, is standing trial. The migrants in the crowd are accused of no crimes beyond potential border violations. What it really boils down to is that the Neo-Nazis and the white supremacists are actually just against people of different ethnic groups.
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