A person from the humanitarian side just asked me a question:

Rather than ignoring trapped civilians, would the EU have already announced humanitarian assistance for them were this not on the #Poland-#Belarus border? If it were elsewhere?

1/
If it were elsewhere on the EU border, I'd say no. The EU has been turning a blind eye to abuses or is downright complicit in abuses in, for example, the central Med: hrw.org/news/2021/11/0…

& Greece: hrw.org/news/2021/06/2…
Poland is hardly the only border where EU leaders ignore both the law & basic human decency.
My personal sense is that EU leaders only listen to the most extreme voices - the xenophobes and the racists - when it comes to making policy on these issues.

They ignore legal experts, human rights experts, religious authorities, or just anyone with a shred of morality.

4/
That's "leadership" in the EU and its member states today - and it's about as far from the founding ideals of the bloc as it is possible to be.

5/5

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More from @astroehlein

19 Nov
Bad Eggs and Ham(-Fisted Policy)
By dr sEUss

- -

Would you save them in a boat?
Would you rescue lives afloat?

We will not save them in a boat.
We will not save those lives afloat.
Would you save lives in a wood?
Would you, would you, if you could?

Not in a wood. No, that is no good.
Not on a bus, not from Belarus.
Not on the beach, not on the sand.
Not down in Greece, not up in Poland.
What then do you fear?
A thousand there, a hundred here?
These are such small numbers.
You risk looking like a big bunch of dumb bumblers.
Over twenty score million, that’s how big we are.
They’re a drop in the bucket. No problem, by far.
Read 11 tweets
19 Nov
The EU announced €700k for #Belarus: 200 for Belarus Red Cross & 500 for other “partner organisations”.

But Lukashenka liquidated civil society in Belarus, so where is this money going exactly? Which groups? Are they independent of the dictatorship?

ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…
Dear @balazs_iravju: Could you answer this question for us?
I’m going to guess he won’t answer, because the Commission actually doesn’t know where that money’s going. It would be embarrassing to say that, wouldn’t it?
Read 4 tweets
18 Nov
No single country can vaccinate itself out of a global pandemic.

Rich countries now trying to do that are taking a huge gamble. New variants may emerge that evade current vaccines.

- Dr David Nabarro, World Health Organization special envoy on Covid

theguardian.com/world/2021/nov… Image
“If there is a hoovering up of vaccines for the boosters, that is just going to have a global consequences that are really quite extreme, and everybody needs to know that,” he said.
Of course, some might argue that this has been the pharma companies' plan all along... Image
Read 5 tweets
17 Nov
3 days ago, on Sunday, @balazs_iravju, EU Commission spokesperson for humanitarian aid & crisis started following me - just after I’d been tweeting on the EU's "let them all die" policy re #Poland-#Belarus.

Did he try to defend the policy?

Nope.

A self-damning silence. Image
I've tried many times to get him to speak, both in public and in DM...

People are dying. Why is he silent?

Does he know the “let them all die” is an indefensible policy?

Is that what his silence means?

Is that what @balazs_iravju is subtly telling us?
Read 4 tweets
14 Nov
Does he have a case for asylum or not?

It's not a question for you & me on Twitter.

He has a right to ask at the border for asylum & to have his case heard - and to be treated humanely in the process.

Maybe his claim is successful, maybe not. But he can ask. That's the law.
International law was not scribbled in crayon by a bunch of numpties.

No, the laws were created by experienced, knowledgeable people for exactly this kind of situation.

And it makes sense: evaluate each case individually, and treat people decently as you do.
It's not down to a popular vote by people who can't possibly have access to all the facts of the case.

It's not a social media free-for-all.

This is about the thing we all hold most sacred - human life - and the laws were created for a reason.
Read 4 tweets
14 Nov
I was tweeting this morning about the EU’s “let them all die” policy re migrants on #Poland-#Belarus border…

Suddenly, I had a new follower: the EU Commission spokesperson on humanitarian aid & crisis…

I asked him to defend the policy here in this thread…

And then…
🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
To be fair, I don’t blame him. The EU’s “let them all die” policy is indefensible.

If they won’t change this inhumane, illegal policy, trying to hide in shame is his only option.
Read 5 tweets

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