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game over...,
2004-09-17 22:02:58
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"HAVGON TO RURAL RE-EDJUKASHUN KAMP."...,
2004-09-19 10:43:51
japan is crowded:
Between 1982, when Japan joined the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and 2002, nearly 2,800 foreigners applied for refugee status. However, only 298 applications were approved. The approval rate last year was even lower, when just 11 of 336 applications were granted.
The numbers are even more dismal for Turkish nationals seeking asylum, 90 percent of whom, according to activists, are Kurds. Over the past five years, none of the 330 applications filed by Turks have been approved.
Japan lags far behind its western industrialised counterparts. The United States and Britain accept about 40,000 refugees annually, while Germany takes in 20,000.
The plight of the Kurds is an apt illustration of the cold reception for refugees in Japan.
Which is, you know, as far as I can tell we don't even have a policy towards the Kurds, which is where this came up while I was looking for some news. Allbritton was covering what was going on in Iraqi Kurdistan early in this war, and I had a wierd dark-city moment today where I couldn't remember the last time I heard anything about what was going on there outside the ethnic conflict in Kirkuk. Nobody reports - you decide.
In the meantime they continue to be trotted out to justify the war, apparently the sole purpose of their existence in some circles, but to be fair maybe I should echo that "beyond the Straussian hoobajoob is a genuine idealism against tyranny". The problem is incomplete narratives that lead to idiotic policy, not the sentiment, should it, in fact, exist.
:: posted by buermann @ 2004-09-18 23:46:30 CST |
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