Pictures of migrant children on fb

[FuryFowler]

Has anyone seen these pictures, of poor poor children washed up on the beaches of Libya and Greece, drowned from their failed crossing.

I know the pics are there to shock but it's devastating to see

I signed a petition the other day, which had a pic of a drowned child on the front page. I signed and shared but then felt uncomfortable about sharing such a graphic picture.

It's makes me cry what is happening there, but was I U for sharing?

"But then I don't think MN posts are the be all and end all of activism against injustice, or even an objective measure of how people actually spend their time."

Well, no. It's a parenting site. People post about their kids and their relationships first and foremost. It's not a barometer of the state of social activism. And that's fine. Personally I follow a lot of charities on social media and use those mediums as a place to debate and discuss.

BritabroadinAsia, right now I prioritise myself. I lost my job a few months ago, but since I live with my partner I'm entitled to nothing at all. So, I cannot donate a penny either home or aboard, as I literally do not have a penny to my name. In this case I'm lucky - I've been in worse positions, where people still didn't care. You can be sad about the bad things that go on in this country or others to your hearts content, but believe me no one takes petitions or letter writing seriously. When you've actually lived it, lived in starvation, lived not knowing if you get through the day, then you'd understand my anger at the whole 'picking and choosing' what people get outraged about. I, like everyone else want to see the people of Syria helped, no one seems to be looking at long term solution so they can rebuild their own country. Bring them here, to Germany, put them in camps in Turkey, then what? We feed and home them (again, more than some get when already here), and great, they can start whole new lives. Except for everyone else, who can't. Anyway, going around in circles now.

"There is no reason asylum seekers AND the needy people already living in the UK can't both be helped."

what a silly thing to say, no one is helping the most vulnerable in this country, the tories were voted in again, even though they target these people with the cuts.
so no one is going to help them.

You can be sad about the bad things that go on in this country or others to your hearts content, but believe me no one takes petitions or letter writing seriously.

Petitions, maybe. Letter writers - if MPs get enough, it can spook them. Usually closer to election time than now, but it still helps - particularly if a particular party is isolated.

I, like everyone else want to see the people of Syria helped, no one seems to be looking at long term solution so they can rebuild their own country.

Er, bollocks?

You're making some awfully big assumptions about other people's lives and experiences, you know.

I think the reason people are feeling as though more refugees should be allowed in this country is due to the sheer number of people who are displaced out of their own country. It is truly unprecedented and needs really robust decision making by EU countries to safeguard everyone. David Camerons response in my opinion has been woeful and Phillip Hammonds non existent. If they can't work with the EU to help lead the way and find solutions then he is making this country part of the problem.

what a silly thing to say, no one is helping the most vulnerable in this country, the tories were voted in again, even though they target these people with the cuts.

No, it's not silly. There is no reason they can't be helped. The reason the current government won't help them more is ideological and cynical shoring up of their base. It is not financial (apart from, again, ideology that isn't necessarily based on sound economics).

The experience of many refugee crises is that, once the conflict or other reason that forced them to leave their countries in the first place is resolved, many return.

For example, according to UNHCR, since 2002 more than 5.8 million Afghan refugees have returned home - returnees are about 20% of Afghanistan's population. However, returnees have dwindled in recent years due to instability (and of course those seeking refuge from various parts of the country are correspondingly increasing).

Again according to UNHCR, of the three 'durable solutions' (repatriation when safe, integration or resettlement), repatriation is the majority one.

Of the 14.4 million refugees of concern to UNHCR around the world, less than one per cent are submitted for resettlement.

The news is interesting tonight. Apparently we pay the most in aid to the Syrian refugee camp than any other nation.

Which refugee camp? Today's news said the Syrians were refusing to go to organised camps

Apparently there is one in or around the Turkish border.

The ones in Hungary are refusing to go anywhere but Germany. Also the refugees in Hungary aren't just from Syria but Afghanistan and North Africa and mixed up with economic migrants too

I know the thread has moved on slightly from the morality of posting the photos in question, but;

Mr Kurdi told reporters gathered outside the facility: “The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this.”
"We want the world’s attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last," he said.
"My kids were the most beautiful children in the world, wonderful. They wake me up every morning to play with them. They are all gone now," he told AP reporters.

He wants us to see the photos.

I feel so sorry for this poor man. The strength he will need to carry on after this.

If my child had died I wouldn't want strangers sharing the photos of his death everywhere. That little boy has become a commodity.

sorry i cant face that picture they keep posting it everywhere isn't there a petition without pictures that i could sign

Has anyone else seen some of the beautiful art which is starting to appear online? There is one where he is asleep in a warm, safe bed with stars above and one where he is building a sand house on the beach next to a little sleeping sand-boy figure.

I can't look at those without it being physically painful, either. I suppose it's motherhood which causes that visceral response, but Christ, it's strong, isn't it?

although i will add what irritates me is this has been happening since 2011 more people died back then and they died in there own country so no one cared now there is a little boy dead on a beach and a photographer to sell the picture and suddenly everyone is screaming at david cameron to do something these are the same people who wanted the migrants refugees and everyone else to stay away from our country who agreed with the initial agreement to only take a few in and give them money and help the same people who said other countries should take more than they have already

it just feels as if they are reacting because one child died publicly and before this they didnt give a monkeys

I don't like people making you see images like that on FB and taking away your choice. I saw the story in the paper etc, but that was my choice - wasn't foisted on me by someone else.

"Has anyone else seen some of the beautiful art which is starting to appear online? There is one where he is asleep in a warm, safe bed with stars above and one where he is building a sand house on the beach next to a little sleeping sand-boy figure."

Thank god no, sounds absolutely hideous.

It isn't that nobody cared about what was happening in Syria before. I for one found photos of children gassed in their homes by criminal weapons of mass destruction heartbreaking. Plenty of people I know were talking on Facebook about the situation and worrying about how, if at all, they could help. But the difference is simple: the war was happening on their soil, and while we could and should send aid, which we did, it was not our immediate responsibility. Now, those people suffering have decided it is just not tenable to stay in their homes, and are making the heartbreaking choice to leave all they have ever known, to travel miles in extremely dangerous conditions over to Europe. And too many are looking at photos of drowned children, and rather than asking what they can do, are asking why they should do anything.

I can't comprehend that. This isn't a different country with internal issues any more. It's people on the borders of the EU, hammering at the doors, desperately needing help. And as for asking why the nations around Syria aren't helping - have you really no clue? Lebanon is taking in huge numbers of refugees, and it isn't a rich nation. Huffily asking why people fleeing a civil war and ISIL, fgs, don't want to stay in nearby countries such as Libya or Iran... gosh, I can't imagine. And finally, Africa - why the hell is it the responsibility of the poorest continent to deal with this? We are the richest federated state in the world, in the EU. We can afford to help out more than anyone else.

If we can't, who the hell can?

It's very easy to say that I'm misconstructing posts, when no one (plural) will actually address the fact that they haven't been horrified by world atrocities up to now

And this is quite easily one of the stupidest things I have ever read on MN. You know absolutely nothing about the backgrounds of the women here. Nothing. But I would put good money on there being aid workers and NGO lobbyists on MN, not even mentioning the numbers who campaign and donate and engage with world affairs all the damn time. It's a straw man argument, and a particularly contemptible one, because even if some people had never cared before - would that make this humanitarian disaster somehow less worthy of notice? Wouldn't it be the problem that they hadn't, before, not that they did, now?

Arguing that it's wrong and irritating of people to care about children drowning on EU shores because they don't care about other terrible things is chilling. You appear to believe that it would be better if people cared about nothing at all but their own interests. Then again, perhaps that would provide you with company.

Sleep, thanks for articulating that so well.
Finding social media so depressing this morning.

Why is it only now we need to 'do something', especially when that something does not help in the long term.

Perhaps we should just do nothing.

The fact is that is no long term solution to this. There are no goodies or baddies - there is Assad who massacred his own people, there is Isis and a host of other rebel factions all funded by wealthy Arab countries and others.

we can only do the moral thing - take our share of these people, settle them and let them be productive. There's truly nothing else we can do.

Bil shared a photo of the white cliffs of Dover that said 'Pissed off. We're full.' I found that pretty offensive, as well as a so-called church going Christian lady liking it. So I posted the photo of the little boy in response and said I hoped people would find room for me and my child had we chosen a sinking boat over returning to our homeland. I was so fucking angry. His response? "I blame the parents for choosing the wrong route out of the country." Fucking ignorant dick.

Christ, Lions, that's awful. Sorry you're having to deal with such a prick.

Can I ask a stupid question? I agree that we should take more Syrian refugees (though not economic migrants) but how will this stop tragedies like this little boy's? These people still have to get out of Syria and get to Europe to claim asylum, don't they? So they are still at the mercy of dangerous boats and high seas.