The Crossing

Dexter Bip

Just finished watching this documentary on RTE on the work of the Irish Naval Services in the Mediterranean in rescuing the migrants. I rarely have felt so proud of anything Ireland has been involved in. Well done to those extraordinary people. Every one a hero(ine)!!.

muddypaws

It is an incredibly hard job, and I hadn't really thought about how much danger they are in, doing it, they pick up so many people, that they are outnumbered on the ships, if it turned nasty they wouldn't stand a chance. Sobering programme to watch.

mauraf

100% agree! Astounding and heart wrenching footage.....hats off to the faboulous Irish men and women working with the naval service - not sure how they do it, a true vocation.
Brings an awful reality to our sitting rooms....I really just hope and pray some of these people escaping conflict in their own home countries, do find their happy ever after...

Dr Crayfish

Fair play to these boys. Any thread here about refugees doesn't think Ireland should be helping them at all. Wonder how long it'll take for such a poster to show up here?

Dexter Bip

I was amazed by how likely it could get nasty. Right from getting off them off the boats, all through the voyage to Italy.
Heartbreaking to see the crew dealing with the fatalities when not everyone was able to get aboard the rescue ship.

biko

I didn't see the programme but it must be very hard, and often dangerous, work.
Some info here on RTE website https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1212/838390-crossing/

Junkyard Tom

Incredible humanitarian work these lads are doing. Much respect.

Dexter Bip

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

Fair play to these boys. Any thread here about refugees doesn't think Ireland should be helping them at all. Wonder how long it'll take for such a poster to show up here?

Looking at the poll on Claire Byrne Live right now I'm afraid you have a point.

Boaty

Amazing work being carried out by the Irish Navy and the other rescuers but I still feel that resources would be better utilised by stopping these migrant boats from leaving Libya in the first place which would ultimately reduce the amount of deaths.

midnight city

Our navy should not be out in the med facilitating people smuggling to Italy. Its good that they can save these people but they should be brought back to North Africa.

c montgomery

These boats are not fit to reach Europe and the people on them know this. They are relying on being picked up by Europeans. This further encourages more of them.

We should not involve ourselves with them. Europe doesn't need/want more migrants.

muddypaws

c montgomery wrote: »

These boats are not fit to reach Europe and the people on them know this. They are relying on being picked up by Europeans. This further encourages more of them.

We should not involve ourselves with them. Europe doesn't need/want more migrants.

No, the people on the boats don't know it, they are told that the crossing is 4 hours.

Dexter Bip

midnight city wrote: »

Our navy should not be out in the med facilitating people smuggling to Italy. Its good that they can save these people but they should be brought back to North Africa.

I see your point. If there isn't a market the traffickers won't be able to sell boat crossings with 50km of fuel etc.. but the OP was about the work of the navy. Not the political background. They don't decide policy. They just go out and do what is needed.

Junkyard Tom

midnight city wrote: »

Our navy should not be out in the med facilitating people smuggling to Italy.

They're rescuing desperate people not facilitating smuggling. The smugglers are actually providing a service albiet a very substandard, often deadly, one.

thomil

Boaty wrote: »

Amazing work being carried out by the Irish Navy and the other rescuers but I still feel that resources would be better utilised by stopping these migrant boats from leaving Libya in the first place which would ultimately reduce the amount of deaths.

I know what you're getting at, and believe me, there's nothing I'd love to see more than special forces hunting down and taking out the smuggling rings, with air support if needed, but that doesn't solve the situation. In fact, it might make the situation worse by destroying whatever tenuous hold the interim government has on the coast. Meanwhile, the refugee caravans across the Sahara are still coming, and won't stop for the foreseeable future. South Sudan is turning into a slaughterhouse again, Somalia is a cluster***k, and Eritrea is basically North Korea without the well orchestrated propaganda. Then there's Mali, Chad, the Central African Republic, etc.
What's needed is an effective approach to stabilising Sub-Saharan Africa to remove the incentive for making the trip in the first place. Until that is achieved, plucking refugees out of the Med is the only civilised option available.

Wibbs

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

They're rescuing desperate people not facilitating smuggling.

The plain fact is - as Australia proved - the former supports the latter.

The smugglers are actually providing a service albiet a very substandard, often deadly, one.

Now you're just having a laugh TBH.

Boaty

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

They're rescuing desperate people not facilitating smuggling. The smugglers are actually providing a service albiet a very substandard, often deadly, one.

They may be desperate at sea but it seems like they are not desperate while on land. A lot of people in Ireland wouldn't have 5000 euro per person to emigrate.

Ken.

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

Fair play to these boys. Any thread here about refugees doesn't think Ireland should be helping them at all. Wonder how long it'll take for such a poster to show up here?

Dexter Bip wrote: »

Every one a hero(ine)!!.

Never mind weather we should or should not be helping refugees,The bigger question is did Dexter just assume the gender identities of our fine fighting people.


On a more serious note I think the Navy and army do a fine job be it rescuing refugees or peacekeeping in some of the most dangerous places in the world. They really are a credit to us as a nation.

midnight city

Dexter Bip wrote: »

I see your point. If there isn't a market the traffickers won't be able to sell boat crossings with 50km of fuel etc.. but the OP was about the work of the navy. Not the political background. They don't decide policy. They just go out and do what is needed.

They are doing great work saving these people. But a political decision was taken to bring them to Italy rather than back to North Africa.

Junkyard Tom

Wibbs wrote: »

Now you're just having a laugh TBH.

Nope.

prinzeugen

Thought this was about the Big Country album..

Will this be on the RTE player? Sounds like a good programme.

Boaty

I wonder how traceable the 600million spent on foreign aid is. Maybe it needs to be rerouted.

bob50

The Irish Naval service isnt the only ones in the Med rescuing the migrants


Plus I feel for Italy having to take all these migrants And we are not helping Italy dropping all the migrants to their shores Italy has enough problems without the likes of Ireland dropping off migrants there

Dexter Bip

ken wrote: »

Never mind weather we should or should not be helping refugees,The bigger question is did Dexter just assume the gender identities of our fine fighting people. .

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101933894
You know what you're doing. :D

ohnonotgmail

May as well merge this one with the multiculturalism thread. It only took 10 posts before the same nonsense got spouted.

Wibbs

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

Nope.

People smugglers providing a service eh? TBH I really don't know where to go when faced with that level of eye swivelling daft that is being passed off as an argument. For me it just about perfectly describes the point where the Right On position goes so far up its own fundament that it needs a glass navel to see out.

Dexter Bip

Q

bob50 wrote: »

The Irish Naval service isnt the only ones in the Med rescuing the migrants


Plus I feel for Italy having to take all these migrants And we are not helping Italy dropping all the migrants to their shores Italy has enough problems without the likes of Ireland dropping off migrants there

All agreed. The Irish Navy doesn't have that as part of their brief. Their job is to pick drowning people from the sea. Watch the documentary to see the motivation for my original post. Easy to get caught up with the political scenario. I was just talking about the heroic people in the Irish navy who responded to the call of duty that most of us never need to address.

Boaty

What about the risk of bringing extremists into Europe. I'm sure the Special Detective Unit are busy enough already

Junkyard Tom

Wibbs wrote: »

People smugglers providing a service eh? TBH I really don't know where to go when faced with that level of eye swivelling daft that is being passed off as an argument. For me it just about perfectly describes the point where the Right On position goes so far up its own fundament that it needs a glass navel to see out.

Calm down man. You seem to be getting hung up on the word 'service' - let me use the word facilitate instead to spare you the trauma.

The smugglers are odious scumbags, no doubt, but there are people desperately trying to get away from miserable hell-holes and there are smugglers there who will take advantage of this and facilitate it.

Dexter Bip

Boaty wrote: »

What about the risk of bringing extremists into Europe. I'm sure the Special Detective Unit are busy enough already

Ok Easy to get off point. My op was about the people who do great work saving people from an uncertain fate on the sea to safety. They just rescue them. No politics. No religion. Just doing the right thing.

Boaty

Dexter Bip wrote: »

Ok Easy to get off point. My op was about the people who do great work saving people from an uncertain fate on the sea to safety. They just rescue them. No politics. No religion. Just doing the right thing.

Yes I agree they are doing great work but unfortunately this great work has consequences not only in Africa by indirectly supporting the smugglers who will use the funds for killing more people in Africa but also in Europe by putting strain on resources.