Thursday, September 10, 2015

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, September 9, 2015 democracynow.org
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German Lawmaker: At the Root of Refugee Crisis are Wars Led by the United States in the Middle East

The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Already 366,000 people have arrived in Europe this year. Earlier today, the president of the European Commission called on European Union member states to accept a total of 160,000 asylum seekers from war-torn countries. We speak to Annette Groth, member of the German Parliament and spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party. She just returned last week from a trip to Hungary, where she saw thousands of migrants stranded at the Budapest train station. "What is the root for this massive migration?" Groth asks. "It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it."

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The United Nations is now estimating at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next, seeking refuge in Europe to escape violence and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Three hundred sixty-six thousand people have already arrived in Europe this year. On Monday, a single-day record of 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. Earlier today, the president of the European Commission called on the member states of the European Union to accept a total of 160,000 asylum seekers from war-torn countries. Jean-Claude Juncker made the remarks during the State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg, France.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: I’m not talking about 40,000. I’m not talking about 120,000. It’s 160,000. That’s the number Europeans have to take in charge and have to take in their arms. And I really hope that this time everyone will be on board. No poems, no rhetorics. Action is what is needed for the time.

AMY GOODMAN: Under the European Commission proposal, quotas would be set for all 22 nations across Europe to take in refugees. Germany, which supports quotas, has already said it can accept half a million refugees each year. Many other European nations, including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, have opposed a compulsory system. On Tuesday, leaders from nearly 60 countries met in Paris to address measures to aid the rapidly growing number of people fleeing to Europe. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres called the European asylum system, quote, "extremely dysfunctional" and "completely chaotic." He called on the rest of the world’s leaders to do more to help those seeking asylum.

ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: There are no reasons to be optimistic about forced displacement in the world. The Syria crisis is not the only one. It is, of course, the biggest one and the one that is closer to the European borders. But either the world increase its capacity to improve prevention and to more effectively solve conflicts, or I think that the refugee problem is going to go on increasing in the years to come.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, approximately 2,500 people are believed to have died or gone missing trying to reach Europe so far this year. Just over a week ago, 37 people died when a boat capsized off the Libyan coast. This came just days after another boat capsized off the Libyan coast, killing more than 200 people. Around the same time, 71 refugees were found dead in an abandoned truck on the main highway between Budapest and Vienna, the victims of negligence by the smugglers they entrusted to bring them to safety. And the world was stunned as images of one of the youngest victims of the migrant crisis, three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, went viral. Photographs show the boy’s body washed up on a Turkish beach after his boat sank in the Mediterranean. His family was attempting to reach Canada when they drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, today we’ll spend much of the hour discussing the migrant crisis with policymakers, volunteers and organizers. We’re going first to Stuttgart, Germany, where we’re joined by Democracy Now! video stream by Annette Groth. She is a member of the German Parliament, spokesperson for human rights for the Left Party. Annette just returned last week from a trip to Hungary, where she saw thousands of migrants stranded at the Budapest train station.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk about what you saw and what, Annette Groth, you think needs to happen?
ANNETTE GROTH: Well, I saw really horrible pictures—I mean, families, many, many families, lying there on the ground, babies on the ground, hardly any water, hardly no toilets, no sanitation, no medical service. It was really appalling. And I’m glad that some of the people I met there made it to Germany. I am in contact with several of them. And I hope that every German, you know, will warmly welcome them, because they deserve it. They have such a horror story behind them. And so, I only appeal to every person in the world: Please welcome refugees.
The thing is, I listen carefully to the news. I mean, what is the root for this massive migration? It is war, it is terror, and it is the former U.S. government who is accountable for it, and the NATO state governments. I’m very sorry to say so, but it is the truth. It was Bush who invaded Iraq. It was Bush—then Libya, destroying Libya, then Syria. Now Saudi Arabia, with the help of German weapons, is invading Yemen. This is the next country, you know, where we will receive refugees. The whole area of the Middle East is a zone by war and terror, so therefore people are leaving their countries.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Annette Groth, the whole issue of the migrants, once they get to Europe, being able to be transported to the country that they’d like to ultimately get to, what—your assessment of the different reactions of various member states of the European Union and this whole issue of our seeing them trekking through one country after another in these makeshift camps?
ANNETTE GROTH: Well, I mean, I perfectly understand that the refugees rush from Greece. I mean, you know that we are forcing them on the boats. They risk their lives, because there is no legal access to European member states or European countries. So they have to take the illegal way, unfortunately, which is very risky. So, they are landing in the islands, in the Greek islands. Then they’re being transported to Thessaloniki, for instance, take the bus or march up to the border, where I was before I went to Budapest, in Idomeni, close to—at the border to Macedonia. And they want to cross Macedonia, Serbia, before, you know, the fence, which Hungary is building between, on the border between Serbia and Hungary, will be completed. And most likely this will be the case next week.
So, and I ask myself, "What is going to happen then?" Because nobody wants to stay in Serbia nor in Hungary. And Hungary is a very, very hostile environment, therefore I am really against setting up a quota system for refugees, because they should choose the countries where they want to go to. I wouldn’t go to Hungary. The camps there are terrible. It is not human. I met a family with a little baby. They were in such a camp for two days, handcuffed, and then no water, no food and nothing. I mean, this is not Europe. We are really—we are not safeguarding human rights, European values, as our politicians always say it. But it is horror. So, therefore—and nobody wants to go to Poland either.
So, people want to go to Sweden, to Germany, some to Belgium, because many, many Syrians have family members in our countries. There are many, many Syrians living in Germany. I met—you know, somebody had a sister here, somebody had a two-years-old son here, because she gave it away to her sister. He has no residence permit, and the mother is now in Berlin, and so on. So, yes, this is what we need to do. We are obliged by international law and by the Geneva Protocol to accommodate and to receive peoples in distress, in need.
AMY GOODMAN: Annette Groth, you are a member of the German Parliament, and you have made a link between the massive refugee catastrophe that’s now unfolding and arms sales, German arms sales, U.S. arms sales. Can you explain?
ANNETTE GROTH: Well, I mean, it is our arms, you know, which are also killing and destroying these countries. My constituency is Lake Constance, which is in the southern part of Germany, where is all the arms industry of Germany located. It is a very affluent region. And you know Germany is the third biggest weapons exporter, and we have very good relations, to a fault, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and despite massive protest—and my party always protests, like the good peace movement. We are still—our government is still delivering arms to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is also supporting IS, the jihadists. What is this? I mean, we are rather stupid to do so. So, therefore, it is the arms business—arms export should be stopped immediately. I mean, I say there are more arms in the Middle East region than bread. And I remember a discussion with ambassadors from this region about three years ago, and he looked at us, other parliamentarians, as well, and he said, "It is time that the West collects the weapons you have brought us." Very, very true, and very simple [inaudible].
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Annette, I’d like to ask you about the response in Germany. Chancellor Merkel has been among the leaders of opening up the country to—your country, to a large percentage of the refugees that are coming and to also—to earmark billions of dollars in financial aid. But at the same time, there is a still strong and growing right-wing movement in Germany, as in many other European countries, that is anti-immigrant. Could you talk about what’s been happening with this right-wing movement?
ANNETTE GROTH: Yes, this is not a new phenomenon. But with the increasing, let’s say, arrival of refugees and increasing, let’s say—or high unemployment rate, etc., etc., particularly, I must say, in East Germany, but we have also these attacks in West Germany—I don’t to deny that at all. I am very, very concerned about this. And really, I hope that the police is now much more prosecuting the Nazis than they did before. You know, the leftists, as the radical lefts are called, were always under scrutiny, you may say, and our secret service, you know, made the extreme left, as they call it, as the worst enemy for the government, for the state, whereas the growing Nazi movement was completely neglected. And this is now—you know, now we see the result.
I mean, I must say I feel so ashamed. If my friends, who are now here in—not far from Stuttgart, is a family of 16 persons. The head of the family is a medical doctor. I met them at the station in Hungary. If, you know, they—something would happen to them because some Nazi right-wing gangster would throw something into their house now, because they are now in a sports hall, it would be so terrible for me. And I don’t understand. I think these people should really—you know, put in prison for many years. I have no—how to say—pardon for them. And I think our secret service, and as well as police, they need to carefully watch the Nazis, growing Nazi movement, here in Germany, and if something is happening, they should be really heavily penalized.
AMY GOODMAN: You just came from Hungary. There are reports there an Internet television channel associated with Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party fired a camera operator after images of her kicking and tripping migrants spread across social networks. She was captured on video tripping a migrant fleeing from the police at a makeshift relocation camp a hundred yards from the Serbian border. But it is not just about her. The bishop, the Roman Catholic prelate in southern Hungary, cited the chant of Muslims fleeing war in the Middle East, "Allahu Akbar," saying, "They’re not refugees. This is an invasion," supporting the Hungarian prime minister’s position on preventing refugees from coming in. Annette Groth, your response?
ANNETTE GROTH: Yeah, I saw it on my Facebook and on the social media, as well. I was shocked. If I had been there, I guess I would have slammed her in her face. And I am glad if that is true that she was immediately fired. But concerning the bishop, I must say I am shocked. My father was a pastor. I am really, you know, a church person with this background. And I closely follow the pope’s saying, and he just said every Catholic priest and, say, church should accommodate at least two refugees in their houses, because most of these priests have big houses. I found this rather remarkable. But this, what the bishop in Hungary said now, this is complete—it is un-Christian, for me. And he should be immediately expelled. He should lose his bishopcy, whatever the name is. And I—
AMY GOODMAN: Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, said, "Migration from Muslim lands undermines efforts to keep Europe Christian."
ANNETTE GROTH: That is not a Christian saying. I mean, he is very un-Christian, I would say. It is just the opposite what I believe is Christian. Look at the Bible. We should give, you know, the poorest persons everything we have and share it, and so on and so on. I cannot say now, out of my hands, exactly the part of the Bible where it is, but I was brought up in this sense, and for me this is crystal clear. Wherever I see injustice, racism, poverty, whatever, I need to help. This is the human attitude, I think. And I met lots of people thinking like me in Hungary, Macedonia, Greece and in Serbia. It is actually the local population supporting the refugees, because the governments are failing, and the EU, as well. It’s a big shame. And the church, I must say, including my own one, I missed really loud statements, you know, requesting Mrs. Merkel, for instance, open the border. There was silence last week. I mean, I called up several politicians, including, for instance, one colleague of mine, Liberal Party in Switzerland. She’s like me, member of the Council of Europe. When I saw this in Budapest, I said we have to do something about it. And luckily—[coughs] sorry, I got a bad flu in Hungary. So whatever made Merkel open the borders then, I don’t know. But it would have been an explosion. This is what I said. And when I was there, I was the only politician. There were many, many journalists. And like, they felt like me, appalling. They were shocked. So—and Hungary is not a government based on human rights. There are the quotations made behind one of the co-founders of the Fidesz party, you know, [inaudible]: "They are enemies, they should be sent into the sea," and so on and so on. No outcry in Europe. I once mentioned that in plenary in the Council of Europe. They stare at me. Silence. Shocking silence.
AMY GOODMAN: Annette Groth, I want to thank you for being us, member of the German Parliament, spokeswoman for human rights for the Left Party, joining us from Stuttgart, Germany. She has just returned from Hungary, where she saw thousands of migrants stranded at the Budapest train station. When we come back, we’re going to Vienna, we’re going to London, and we’re going to be right here in the United States, looking at the various countries’ policies around refugees. Our guest in London just wrote a piece in The New York Times headlined "Open Up, Europe! Let Migrants In." Stay with us.

"Open Up, Europe! Let Migrants In": Former EU Adviser Urges Opening of Borders
Under a new European Commission proposal, quotas would be set for all 22 nations across Europe to take in a total of 160,000 refugees. Germany, which supports quotas, has already said it can accept half a million refugees each year. Many other European nations — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland — have opposed a compulsory system. We speak to former European Commission adviser Philippe Legrain, who recently wrote a piece titled "Open Up, Europe! Let Migrants In" on how Europe could benefit from an influx of refugees.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: "Open up, Europe! Let Migrants In." That’s the name of a recent New York Times article by our next guest, Philippe Legrain. He served as an economic adviser to the president of the European Commission from 2011 to 2014. He’s the author of European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess—and How to Put Them Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Philippe Legrain joins us now from London.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about what you’ve proposed, what you see Britain doing, where you live, what you see the European Union doing, and what they should be doing.
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN: Well, I mean, clearly, at the moment, there is a moral panic in Europe about the new arrivals, unwanted new arrivals, and notably refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. And basically, the prevailing wisdom is that these newcomers are a threat, that they’re going to drag society down, and that they’re going to be a cost to the economy and to taxpayers. And I think that’s incorrect. So I think that you need to make an argument first that it’s Europe’s humanitarian duty to allow in refugees. And in that respect, the debate has been shifting since those tragic pictures of a Syrian child washed up on a Turkish beach. But in the other aspect, which is that this is actually a benefit to Europe and not a cost, I think there’s still a long way to go. The narrative is still prevailing that somehow refugees are a burden that need to be shed out.
You need to see the context, which is that Europe’s working-age population is shrinking by around a million people a year, while the number of pensioners is increasing by about 2 million. So, Europe needs young workers to do jobs that need doing, to pay taxes, to help pay for the pensions and healthcare and social care of the growing ranks of elderly people, to help care for those people, to start businesses which in turn create jobs, and to innovate. So, in all sorts of ways, migrants have a lot to contribute to Europe, and we ought to be having a positive narrative about that, looking at it as an opportunity rather than as a threat.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, and, Philippe Legrain, the United States confronted a similar crisis back in 1980, when over a few-week period about 125,000 Cubans came to Florida shores in the Mariel boatlift, and that created enormous debate across the country. Some argue it helped Ronald Reagan win the presidential race against Jimmy Carter, who opened up our country to the Mariel refugees. Your sense of the political debate going on in Europe now and the impact it could have depending on how some of these governments decide whether they’re going to open up their borders to the refugees?
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN: Sure. I mean, the first point to make is about numbers. Clearly, you see very vivid TV pictures of seemingly large numbers of people on the move. And yet the 340,000 people who have entered Europe without permission since the start of the year are equivalent to 0.07 percent of Europe’s population. So the idea that somehow this is going to overturn society or somehow be an impossible disruption is simply not true. It’s actually a relatively small number. In a crowd of 1,500 people, only one of them would be an unwanted new arrival.
In terms of the political impact, of course, you know, there is a rise of—long before this crisis, of far-right, populist, xenophobic and racist parties, who sound a lot like Donald Trump does in the U.S. And they are making hay out of this crisis and arguing, as indeed does the prime minister of Hungary, that somehow the refugees are a threat to Christianity, civilization, law and order, a burden on the welfare state and so on. I think that Chancellor Merkel is to be commended that so far she is ignoring the voices who are telling her to take a hard line, and that even those governments which have been much more skeptical have been forced by public opinion to make a more constructive approach. So you see in my own country, Britain, the prime minister, initially dead set against letting in Syrian refugees, now has announced a relatively small program, but still it’s a step forward, of allowing in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years. I think also the United States needs to do more. The United States has allowed in only 1,500 Syrian refugees, and that really is a drop in the ocean. And I think this is not just a matter for Europe, it’s a matter also for the United States

Help My People, Let More War Refugees Settle Here: A Syrian American's Message to Washington
The United Nations has described the Syrian refugee crisis as the "biggest humanitarian emergency of our era." More than 4 million Syrians have fled the country, and millions more are displaced inside the country. We speak to Syrian-American community organizer Sarab Al-Jijakli, who is calling on the United States to accept more Syria refugees. So far only 1,500 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the United States.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In fact, we are joined here in New York by a Syrian American. In a moment, we’ll go to Vienna, where we’ll be joined by a Syrian refugee. Here, we’re joined by Sarab Al-Jijakli, a Syrian-American community organizer. He recently wrote a piece for The Guardian headlined, "The US must do more to help Syria. Step one: let more refugees resettle here." He’s currently president of the Network of Arab-American Professionals.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: Following up on what Philippe Legrain is saying about what should happen in the United States, I mean, I think a lot of people may be seeing this as a European issue. What do you see it as?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: No, I mean, we pride ourselves in America as being the leaders of refugee resettlement, yet, as our previous guest has said, only 1,500 Syrians have been allowed entry into this country for resettlement. This is 1,500 over the course of four-plus years. Now, if you look at that, that’s a terribly tragic number and shows how ineffective American policy has been regarding refugees. One thing to note, the quota this year for allowance of refugees from all over the world into the United States is about 70,000. And to look at less than 1,500 allowed in for the biggest humanitarian catastrophe is problematic, to say the least.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what do you—how do you think those Americans who are concerned can put the pressure on now, on our lawmakers, to change those—basically, change those quotas, and on the White House to take action?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Sure. There’s a petition going around, for example, that has in a few days gained over 50,000 signatories—a White House petition, that is. But I think, even more so, just jumping on this swell of energy and emotion related to the tragic losses that we’ve seen over the past week and a half, everyone in America can do something to reach out to their elected reps to push this agenda forward. As your previous guest said, this is a drop in the bucket. It’s not necessarily something that will impact jobs in America, for example. You know, a lot of the concerns that are raised by the far right here are really null and void when it comes to refugee resettlement. We all know this. So we can do more as a nation to help those in need, especially us.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you’re organizing a public event this weekend?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Yes, we are. This Saturday in Union Square, there will be a rally, "welcome refugees" rally. And obviously we’re focused on the Syrian crisis and the Syrian catastrophe; however, this is "welcome refugees" across all aspects of life, wherever they are from.
AMY GOODMAN: And what the U.S. is doing in Syria now?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Pardon me?
AMY GOODMAN: What the U.S. is doing in Syria right now?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Yeah, I mean, what the U.S. is doing in Syria, I mean, U.S. has had a four-plus-year ineffective policy in Syria. But the second piece—part of the piece in The Guardian, I think, is to get at the root of this issue. And the biggest problem that we have in Syria, from a Syrian perspective, is who are the overwhelming perpetrators of violence that are driving these refugees out. And overwhelmingly, we know and we find that 85 to 90 percent of all civilians killed are killed by the Assad regime. And we know that the overwhelming driver of fear, of displacement, is this regime that has waged a war for four-plus years on their own people.
AMY GOODMAN: Is it clear who are bombing those in Syria? How do Syrians on the ground perceive it?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Sure. Well, there’s two forces that control—that are in the sky, let’s put it like that, that are waging war from above. First and foremost, the United States for a year now has controlled the skies over Syria. So, much debate is being made over a no-fly zone, etc., but the United States controls Syrian airspace. What’s even more perplexing is that with that control, they’ve allowed the Assad regime to utilize their helicopters and air force to bombard and kill tens of thousands of Syrians from the sky. So it begs the question not about no-fly zone or this, but why the United States, which is the overwhelming broker of power in the sky over Syria, is allowing so many Syrians to die.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask you—there’s been so much emphasis now on Europe having to contend with this huge refugee crisis, but yet there are countries in the Middle East now that have been dealing with this for years on a much bigger level. I’m thinking of Lebanon and Jordan, Turkey, which have hundreds of thousands of—
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Millions.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Millions of refugees that have escaped into their countries. Could you talk about the relative lack of attention to those?
SARAB AL-JIJAKLI: Sure. I mean, literally half of Syria’s population is displaced: 4-plus million refugees who have fled outside the country and about 8 million people inside the country. Even those refugees that we see on those boats today, they are fleeing for the second and third time in their lives. The picture we saw of that poor child drowned on the beach, his father initially lived in Damascus, was detained by the regime and had to flee Damascus a first time as a refugee with his family. He went back into Syria to Kobani and then again had to flee again. So, you see this is not a new issue. It’s four-plus years of dispossession and displacement.
AMY GOODMAN: And then you have, for example, what’s happening in Yemen with the U.S.-backed, Saudi-backed bombing of Yemenis, the crisis that’s being caused there. The front page of The New York Times today: "Iraqis Join Exodus, in Another Blow to Their Battered Country." The number of refugees who are fleeing war—we’re going to CONTINUE this discussion after break. Our guests are Sarab Al-Jijakli, who is a Syrian-American community organizer here in the United States. We’re joined in London by Philippe Legrain. We are going to Austria to speak with an organizer of refugees there, as well as a 23-year-old Syrian refugee who made it to Vienna. Stay with us.

"There is No Safe Place": Syrian Refugee Recounts Harrowing Journey by Boat to Escape Violence
The United Nations estThe United Nations estimates that 4 million Syrians are displaced outside the country’s borders by the ongoing war. Today, we speak to one of these refugees: 23-year-old Zaher Majzoub, who fled Syria after finishing his degree in business administration at a university in Damascus. His months-long journey included first traveling to Turkey and then traversing the Mediterranean en route to Greece by boat. Along the way, his overcrowded boat took on water, inspiring Zaher to jump overboard because he was one of the few who knew how to swim, and he feared for the lives of the women and children. From Greece, he CONTINUED his journey to reach Vienna, hoping eventually to reach England. We speak with Zaher and Erik Leidal, a volunteer with the community-run relief group Train of Hope in Vienna.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We go now to Vienna, where we’re joined by a 23-year-old Syrian refugee named Zaher Majzoub. With him is Erik Leidal, a volunteer with the community-run relief group Train of Hope, which is providing assistance to the migrants passing through the Central Train Station in Vienna, Austria.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
ERIK LEIDAL: THANK you.
ZAHER MAJZOUB: Thank you.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Erik, could you start telling us what your—what the Train of Hope is and what you’ve been seeing in your efforts to help the refugees?
ERIK LEIDAL: Sure. The Austrians, they don’t take to the streets in protest very often, but they’re showing enormous compassion with their help during this crisis. Train of Hope isn’t run by the Red Cross or Caritas. It’s self-organized, and well over a thousand volunteers have helped out over the past week at the Central Train Station here in Vienna. It’s a very diverse group of individuals who want to make a difference together. And I’d say Train of Hope is resonating off of Occupy in many ways and is taking full advantage of the capacity for social change through social media, like Twitter and Facebook. We’re even using an Indiegogo campaign to fund transportation, as well, and that’s at "Help Syrian Refugees Get to Germany." And essential to our team are translators of Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages. We have doctors and lawyers on our staff who volunteer. And I’ve even met volunteers who have only been in Austria for less than a year, who are able to help translate and help us with the assistance.
The train station where we meet them, for many, this is the first stop in Austria and after getting out of Hungary. And most of them are exhausted and confused. A lot of them don’t even realize that they’re not in Germany yet. Many want to travel on to Germany immediately, but those who do want to get off can do so at our center. The trains are often filled to the brim, and many of them have not eaten for days. Many must wait overnight, some for longer, at the train station for further travel. And many sleep in the West Train Station of Vienna, but others travel on to Munich or wherever the train can take them in Germany. Most describe their experience in Hungary as hell, hell on Earth.
AMY GOODMAN: Zaher Majzoub, can you describe your journey, where you left and how you made it to Vienna, Austria?
ZAHER MAJZOUB: Yes. I started, first of all, from Turkey. We take a boat from Turkey, from Izmir, to Greece, to Greece island. We go to the beach at about 1:00 a.m., and we got in the boat. And it’s about 43 people in it, and it’s long, seven-and-a-half meters. We were in it—we were in it for about—we keep sailing for about two hours, and then the boat started to leak, started to leak after two hours. And I decided—it was full of water. I decided to throw myself in the water, me and another person, because maybe we are the only people that we can swim. We throw ourselves in the water, and the ship or the boat kept sailing. And it’s far from us, for about one kilometer. Then they about—they almost reach the island—I don’t know its name, a small island. And the police guard coast hear them, their screaming, their lighting, their whistle, and came and rescued us. And they told them, the police, that the two other persons throw themselves in the water. And the police keep searching us for about half an hour, until I took out my phone, until I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight and waving with it to police, and they immediately see me. So they saw me, and they immediately came and rescued me with the other person I have, yes, and took us to this small island. And they rested us for about 12 hours, until a ship, a big ship, came and moved us to Samos island. And from Samos island, we took a plane to Athens.
Next day, we went to a bus station. We go by a bus to the Macedonian border, Macedonian-Greece border. We let about for—we keep walking together border after we—the bus send us to there. We keep walking for about three hours. Then we cross the border. We cross the border, and then we took a train across Macedonia to reach the border of Serbia. After that, we wait about for six hours to get into the Serbia, to Serbia. Then, after they gave us—the U.N. was there. They gave us water and food and medical care to some injured or some patients. We cross the border and go to bus station and take—we took a bus to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Then we took another bus to Kanjiza, which is on the border of Hungary-Serbia border. Then we go inside Serbia to cross. We bribe the police there to reach us—to could us enter the border. We obligate of this. We bribed him. And then we walked for about six hours to reach a razor-wire fence. And we go—we go under them. We go under the razor-wire fence. And the planes always go and see if there is refugees to catch them, to arrest them, or to obligate them to have fingerprint in Hungary. But the plane couldn’t see us, so we cross the border and go to somebody who has—know a taxi driver. We went there, and we took a taxi, and we paid for him about 300 for each person to reach, to go to—to reach us to Budapest.
After that, after we reach Budapest, we stayed there for about three days. Then, after we know that there is a taxi driver could reach us to Vienna, we talked to him, and we agreed that he will take us to Vienna. But there is—there was a lot of police, and he let us on the border of Austria, Hungary. And we keep swimming to reach—sorry, we keep walking to reach the first village in Austria. We kept walking for about six hours until we find this village, and somebody told us that we have to go to station, to train station, to take a train and to reach Vienna then. We decided to walk there, and we reached the station. Then we took a train and go—we went to Vienna. And that’s what happened until now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Zaher—
ZAHER MAJZOUB: It take about, from Syria—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to—let me ask you, if I can—
ZAHER MAJZOUB: Yes, yes.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, let me ask you, if I can—that’s a harrowing journey that you’ve been through now. Could you tell us, so for our viewers and listeners to know, why you felt you had to take that journey? What made you decide that you had no other choice?
ZAHER MAJZOUB: I don’t have any other choices, because there is in Syria no safe place to go in. And maybe it’s more dangerous thanthis journey even. That’s why I left Syria.
AMY GOODMAN: And you have family that remains in Syria?
ZAHER MAJZOUB: Yes, I left my family there. They can’t go. They can’t went, because we don’t have any other choices. I left Syria because I don’t want to be a part of what’s happening in Syria, just the personal problems that I have in Syria. That’s why I left Syria. I can’t tell you now.

"Protect People, Not Borders": Report from the Macedonian-Greek Border
On Monday, a single-day record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. We go to the Macedonian-Greek border to speak with Gabriela Andreevska, one of key organizers who has been working on the ground for the last four months to provide food, transportation and medicine to refugees crossing the border.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to end by going to Macedonia, one of the places you talked about, Zaher. We’re joined on the telephone right now by Gabriela Andreevska, a Macedonian activist, one of the key organizers who has been working on the ground for the last four months to provide food and transportation and medicine to refugees like you who are crossing the Macedonia-Greece border. In this last minute we have on this broadcast, if you could tell us what the situation is there, Gabriela, and what needs to be done?
GABRIELA ANDREEVSKA: So, currently, the refugee camp location has been relocated to a place outside of the border town. So when the refugees cross the border, they have [inaudible] across the Greek-Macedonian border and continue on toward the EU. So when they do that and when they go to the camp location, things are much more organized. So, organization-wise, things have improved. But the refugees still are obligated to cross borders illegally, so we must work on providing more safe transport to them.
AMY GOODMAN: And your biggest challenges?

GABRIELA ANDREEVSKA: I would say that’s the biggest challenge. Why are people fleeing wars obligated to walk hundreds of kilometers on foot to cross borders illegally?

AMY GOODMAN: What do you want Macedonia, the European Union—how do you want countries around the world to respond right now?

GABRIELA ANDREEVSKA: Protect people, not borders—that’s how I would like them to respond. If people need safe passage, who are we protecting our borders from? From people fleeing wars.

AMY GOODMAN: Gabriela Andreevska, I want to thank you for being with us, from Macedonia; Erik Leidal from Austria with Train of Hope; and Zaher Majzoub, for describing this harrowing journey you took from Syria. I want to thank our guests today in our studio here in New York. Sarab Al-Jijakli, who is a Syrian-American community organizer; they’ll be having a major protest in New York on Saturday. And thank you to Philippe Legrain, who joined us from London.

Headlines:

U.N.: 850,000 People Expected to Cross Mediterranean in 2015 and 2016

U.S. Under Pressure as Latin American Nations Vow to Take Refugees

Josh Earnest: "We continue to be concerned about the vulnerable position of so many people who are fleeing violence in their home countries. And the United States, in the way that we play a leading role in confronting so many other thorny and difficult problems, are prepared to continue to play a leading role in trying to assist those organizations that are trying to meet the needs, and basic humanitarian needs, of these individuals."

The United States has resettled only approximately 1,500 Syrians since the violence began. We’ll look at the global refugee crisis after headlines.

U.K. Defends Drone Strikes That Killed 2 British Citizens in Syria

Michael Fallon: "There are a group of terrorists out there in Syria, inspired, working with ISIL to try and carry out armed attacks here in Britain, on our streets, at major public events, involving significant loss of life. So that’s the danger. That’s the threat that we face. And our agencies are working extremely hard to try and identify who is involved and what can be done to prevent those attacks. And if there is no other way of preventing them, then, yes, we have to carry out strikes like this."

Turkey: Nationalists Attack Gov’t Buildings, Pro-Kurdish Newspaper

Turkish Forces Enter Iraq to Pursue Kurdish Rebels

British Vice Journalists Imprisoned in Turkey Are Released

4 More Democratic Senators’ Support Seal Iran Nuclear Deal’s Future

Dick Cheney: "The Iranians get the better of us in these negotiations — "

Michaela Anang: "Dick Cheney is a war criminal! Why should we be listening to him? He was wrong in Iraq, he’s wrong in Iran."

Hillary Clinton to Address Iran Deal

Hillary Clinton Apologizes for Use of Private Email Server

Hillary Clinton: "In retrospect, certainly, as I look back at it now, even though it was allowed, I should have used two accounts — one for personal, one for work-related emails. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility. And I’m trying to be as transparent as I possibly can to not only release 55,000 pages of my emails, turn over my server, but I am looking forward, finally, to testifying before Congress, something I’ve been asking for, for nearly a year."

Guatemala: Judge Orders Ex-President Pérez Molina to Remain in Jail

Kentucky: Jailed Clerk Kim Davis Walks Free to Song "Eye of Tiger"

Kim Davis: "I just want to give God the glory. His people have rallied, and you are a strong people! We serve a living god who knows exactly where each and every one of us is at. Just keep on pressing. Don’t let down. Because he is here. He’s worthy. He’s worthy."