Light at the End of the Tunnel? - A "Mental Health Emergency" in Lesbos

A disturbing recent report from Medecins sans Frontieres has called for an emergency evacuation of vulnerable individuals from the perilously overcrowded Moria refugee camp on  Lesbos. The reason for this desperate plea is the dramatic increase in self-harm and suicide rates amongst the ‘trapped’ population of the camp, many of whom are being held indefinitely on the island waiting to be given asylum in one of the EU’s member states. As time wears on, the hopes that this passage will be granted are diminishing.

MSF reports that nearly a quarter of the children (aged between 6 and 18) they observed between February and June this year had self-harmed, attempted suicide or had thought about committing suicide. Others were suffering from panic attacks, anxiety, nightmares or had voluntarily become mute. In a separate report from Moria published in July this year, MSF spoke to Kasim al Salih, who had fled Syria with his family a year prior to the interview for a chance of a better life away from Assad’s barrel bombs. Despite risking everything to get to safety, his treatment in Moria and the lack of support from the European community prompted him to tell MSF “I wish I had stayed in Syria and died”. With 1,500 new refugees arriving on Lesbos in the first two weeks of September alone, the hopelessness of Moria has led MSF to declare a “mental health emergency”.

With around 15 to 18 MSF referrals a week for cases of acute mental health problems in Moria, including in children, something must be done to end this suffering. The period of 1^st January to 22^nd April this year saw 18,939 refugees arrive in Europe via the Mediterranean routes, and 570 die in the process, according to IOM. These people are predominantly fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, the DRC and Sudan, and are risking their lives to make it to the safety of Europe. Once here they are subject to further violence, dangerously overcrowded living conditions, rampant disease and a sense of hopelessness. As Greece argues that it is carrying the greatest “weight” of the refugee crisis, EU member states squabble over how best to respond, or rather whose responsibility it is to do so. Meanwhile, people die.

Part of the reason that it is so difficult for the refugees at Moria to leave the camp is the unwillingness of the rest of Europe to accept their presence within our borders. The wave of anti-immigrant fervour that shapes attitudes towards the refugee crisis continues to grip much of the Union, with nationalist parties gaining political support in Sweden, Germany, Poland and other states. Hungary’s Viktor Orban has been particularly vocal in passing anti-immigration laws and threatening a backlash against EU immigration initiatives. On the 10^th of September it was announced that the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, would be sending teams to Italy and Austria to investigate “alarming” anti-migrant violence in the countries. In Czechia and Slovenia, anti-migrant militias have prompted security fears. In the UK, 58% of people would like to see immigration levels reduced, though anti-migrant, and anti-refugee, views appear to have softened since the Brexit referendum. 

But this negative view of refugees (and immigrants more broadly) is largely unfounded. Reuters UK reported in 2015 that despite claims across Germany that increased immigration from Syria and Eastern Europe was responsible for rising crime in the country, young males from those countries were in fact less likely to commit crime than their German counterparts. A 2013 LSE study found much the same for immigration and crime rates in the UK, even suggesting that increased crime rates in high-migration areas were attributable to crimes committed against the migrants, not by them. In relation to the recent rise in crime in Germany following the influx of refugees in 2015, the BBC reports that whilst the new arrivals do account for a higher percentage of crime than their representation in the population, this is largely attributable to the demographics of the refugees in question. Young, poor, disenfranchised males are often more likely to commit crimes than other sectors of society. In addition, much of this increase in crime was perpetrated against other refugees, not the German population. Such reports match those of MSF regarding violence, theft, sexual assault and other crimes in the camps in Lesbos. Again, in desperate situations crime is more likely to occur, and overwhelmingly it is the victims of the societal inequalities that lead to crime that also become the victims of the crime itself.

Refugees can benefit their new host societies as well. You can read endless stories of successful refugee integration on the UNHCR’s stories page. Immigration more widely can, and does, (contrary to what many tabloid newspapers in the UK might suggest) benefit the economy. It promotes a greater understanding of the world and opens up minds to new ideas, which is something that I believe we should value greatly. More importantly than all of this, and something that transcends the argument over whether immigration and the acceptance of refugees is a help or a hindrance to us as European citizens, is a simple fact: these refugees are human. They are just like us.

And they are dying. Not those that stayed behind in the warzones that were once their homes. Not those that drowned in the deadly Mediterranean crossing trying to reach our shores. Not even those that made it to Europe but were struck down by illness in the camps that were supposed to only be temporary. They are dying because they think they have nothing left to live for. They are dying because they are killing themselves, because they see no end to the misery they have been subjected to through no fault of their own. They are dying by their own hands, after doing the bravest thing imaginable. They are dying because we are failing them.

Find out more about MSF’s work in Lesbos here.

The Bar Stool Preachers - DIY Punk with a Heart

It’s a small achievement, but I like to think that in general I know more about punk music than my mum. However, she made me question that assumption a few weeks ago when she introduced me to a new Brighton-based band called The Barstool Preachers. Blending angsty politically-charged anthems with bouncy ska tunes reminiscent of ‘90s California bands such as Operation Ivy and Rancid, The Barstool Preachers are quickly becoming one of my favourite new bands. And, judging by the number of records and t-shirts they are sending off through the post office my mum works in, I’m not alone.

Their new album, Grazie Governo, is a 13-song powerhouse that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until it’s done with you. Never letting energy levels drop, Grazie Governo delivers both scathing political commentary on angry songs like DLTDHYOTWO (a title that took me a shamefully long time to decipher, despite listening to the lyrics repeatedly), Warchief, and Grazie Governo alongside rock radio-friendly hits like Choose My Friends (with a great guest appearance from The Interrupters’ Aimee Interrupter). This blend ensures that the album never starts to sound preachy (ironically) or self-important; this is still just a group of guys singing from the heart about stuff that matters to them and having some fun with it.

The Preachers are at their strongest when they tackle topics closer to the heart, and the tortured love songs dotted throughout Grazie Governo are the ones that have kept me coming back. Songs like 2:22, (8.6 days) All the Broken Hearts, and Raced through Berlin – my personal favourite song on the album – tell the whiskey-soaked tales of against-all-odds love that manage to be at-times melancholic but also mostly hopeful. The album works because of this dynamic. The energy levels are never allowed to drop throughout the 45-minute run-time and this leaves the songs that could otherwise be depressing instead feeling impassioned and defiant.

The lyrics, the musicianship, and the feel of the album is desperate and relentless, and in that way, it engages the listener throughout. Personally, I have not heard an album that has kept me enthralled the way Grazie Governo has in a long time. It captures the attitude and feel of the old-guard punk and ska groups (and the nod to Madness in the lyrics to All the Broken Hearts – “she doesn’t know why she likes him, she says it must be love” – hint at this inspiration) with a youthful exuberance that heightens the intensity driving the record.

You can tell that this album was a labour of love by a group doing it all on their own. This is DIY, and that passion shines through. You get the feeling that they would still be doing this even if nobody was listening. Fortunately, for us as much as for them, more and more people are. The success of Grazie Governo and their excellent live shows will undoubtedly keep their profile growing and put them firmly on the map as a band to watch out for. Here’s hoping that as they grow they keep that relentless energy pushing them forward.

On top of this, my mum says they’re really nice people too. So make sure to check out the video for All the Broken Hearts here and give Grazie Governo a listen. You won’t regret it.

From Complicity to Consent - The Role of Myanmar's Civilian Government in the Rohingya Crisis

In November last year, at the height of the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar, I wrote a piece for the Post-Conflict Research Center examining Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the military’s ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State. In it, I argued that whilst she absolutely deserved international condemnation for her refusal to speak out against the actions of the military, she in fact had little power to prevent General Min Aung Hlaing from continuing his violent crackdown. Myanmar’s military is a force that is both independent of the civilian government, and extremely influential in the politics of the country. Suu Kyi’s complicity in what is now being referred to as a genocide by the United Nations was, and is, reprehensible, but until now she has not actively contributed to the suffering of the Rohingya, merely stood by and allowed it to happen.

However, on September 3^rd 2018, two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were sentenced to seven years imprisonment for their role in uncovering a massacre of 10 Rohingya men by the Myanmar military and Buddhist villagers in September 2017. They were convicted for a supposed breach of a colonial-era law, the Official Secrets Act, despite the fact that a key witness (and member of Myanmar’s police force) testified that senior police chiefs had in fact framed the defendants in order to suppress the story. The decision was immediately condemned as a brazen attempt to discredit and suppress journalism critical of the regime, with several civil society organisations from Myanmar taking to Twitter to declare the case “neither free nor fair and… completely manipulated”.

For Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, this arguably marks a step away from disinterested accomplice in the anti-Rohingya violence and into the realm of explicit supporter. As Ye Htut, a spokesperson for a previous administration, told Reuters: “If you arrest and punish the journalists who are doing their job in Rakhine it means you have something to hide”. In response, Deputy Information Minister Aung Hla Tun told the same journalist that the government was simply following the rules the law had laid out, and that they were aware that these were unfair and were trying to change them. However, this statement ignores the fact that the Official Secrets Act is often left unenforced due to its status as an out-of-date law that no longer applies to the modern situation in Myanmar. Rather, Suu Kyi’s government, at first a supporter of press freedoms, has gradually taken steps to discredit the media throughout her tenure as de facto leader of the country.

Around 20 journalists were prosecuted in 2017 under dubious ‘defamation laws’ and one US official claims that when he confronted Suu Kyi about the now-convicted Reuters journalists when they were awaiting trial, she angrily referred to them as “traitors”. Meanwhile, she has also vehemently denied other reports of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine as “fake news”, at the same time that evidence has emerged that the Myanmar military has released faked images of Rohinyga refugees in a “sinister re-write of history”. Suu Kyi denounces the free press whilst the military cover up their crimes. As a result, support for both the civilian and military arms of the government remains relatively strong in Myanmar.

Any aspiring genocidaire will tell you that in order to get away with murder you must first gain the support of the people by moulding them to conform to your agenda. A free press prevents the party line from becoming the only line, and that is why it is instrumental in securing a healthy democratic system. Without it, alternative opinions melt away and all that is left is the voice that silenced the others. In Myanmar’s case, this is the voice of the military. Suu Kyi continues to be outside of the decision-making element within the military brass – Min Aung Hlaing remains the architect of one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time – but she is an integral, and increasingly important, cog in a machine that allows the killing to continue.

On August 21^st of this year, Suu Kyi asserted that the biggest threat to Rakhine state remained terrorism, and that violent Rohingya factions posed a major threat not just to Myanmar but to the region. The implication here is that the military crackdown in Rakhine is not only necessary but should be actively encouraged. In the August 25^th 2017 militia attacks on police checkpoints in Rakhine that sparked the military response and the start of the crisis, around 71 people were killed. The suspected figure of 43,000 dead Rohingya, and well over 1 million displaced, suggests either an overreaction on the scale of absurdity, or a planned-out military operation for which Aung Hlaing and the military brass simply needed an excuse.

Meanwhile, clearing operations in Rakhine continue as 48 investment projects in the state, many backed with Chinese and Indian money, are given the green-light. Despite international condemnation, both the Indian and Chinese governments continue to support Myanmar’s stance on the Rohingya ‘terrorists’ in Rakhine.

Whatever the reasons for the violence perpetrated against the Rohingya population, the Myanmar military now undoubtedly has the blood of thousands of innocent civilians on its hands. No longer content simply to bury her head in the sand, Aung San Suu Kyi instead has doubled down on her support for the military operations and hardened her rhetoric against the Rohingya. This is a very slippery slope and the bottom is a long way down. As the UN calls for military generals in Myanmar to be summoned to the International Criminal Court to face charges of genocide, Suu Kyi, the peace icon and Nobel Laureate, plants herself firmly on the wrong side of history.