movie:fortress europe

  • Syria: a crisis at Fortress Europe’s gates – #vidéo

    Since the war began in Syria, thousands of refugees have made the precarious journey through Turkey into Europe in search of safety. We follow the lives of two refugee families as they encounter people-smugglers, border guards and shocking conditions. They find themselves torn apart – not by the war back home – but by a new enemy: ’Fortress Europe’

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jan/13/fortress-europe-syria-refugee-crisis-video?CMP=twt_gu

    #Syrie #réfugiés #asile #migration #Turquie #documentaire #itinéraire_migratoire #témoignage #frontière

    • Extraits tirés du film:
      Commissioner Hristo Stefanov, Border Control Center, Bulgaria:
      Obviously we can’t live without borders. Mankind hasn’t reached that point yet. Borders divide different worlds, different countries, sometimes enemies. Borders secure the place"

      Syrian refugee:
      “Either you make it, you get caught, you get beaten up, or you die. It seems we have left one war to enter another”

      On smugglers, the Syrian refugee:
      “You are forced to deal with them, and all they care about is money. They don’t care wheather you can cope and will make it, or wheather you die”
      A Syrian smuggler interviewed by the journalist by phone (a Syrian national):
      “We’re not doing it for money. But because those people who get out are the same who will return and rebuild their country”

      A Bulgarian journalist (min. 9’28):
      “I believe at the border they have super-modern technologies. They can see 14 km into Turkey, they have helicopters, and all sort of things. They’ve spent loads of money and yet they can’t even spare a joke sum of a million Lev (425’000 pounds) to build a decent camp? They have not travelled 2000 or 3000 km to get here to set up businesses or for their leisure. I saw mothers, children, elderly people with basic, ripped clothing, small amount of luggage, and I realized that they are desperate”

      Commissioner Hristo Stefanov (min. 12’28):
      “Now to the numbers, officially, there are more than 600’000 illegal migrants in Turkey. Unofficially around 1,2 mio. These people don’t move alone, they move with smugglers. People-smuggling in Turkey is actually an industry. It’s not just a business, but a whole industry. So our main opponents are the ringleaders of this people-smuggling, not just the people who physically smuggle them”

      Syrian refugee:
      “The situation really deteriorated in Syria. We were comfortably off. I was a housewife and my husband had work, thanks God. We moved to the village, because the villages were safe. And then the war came to the villages. [Tahira wonder if staying in Turkey would have been better] Is there a way back? I would go if there was. I feel like a criminal here. We are imprisoned, we can’t get out”

      Commissioner Hristo Stefanov (min. 17’58):
      “I do feel sorry for the ones who are really escaping war, but not all fall into that category. I can feel only pride to serve at the Bulgarian-Turkey border, one of the most difficult. We are at the frontline of securing our country”

      Syrian refugee:
      “Wheather they like it or not I will keep trying. I don’t care about their precious borders and national pride”

      #liberté #prison #criminalisation #nationalisme