That shocking photo of the drowned migrant toddler is not what it seems!

Pickering Post: TRUTH – ANOTHER REFUGEE OF WAR

By Paul Zanetti BLOG / FACEBOOK / WEBSITE
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A picture, they say, paints a thousand words. This one made the world sit up and take notice at the true cost of criminal human trafficking. As confronting as it was, editors everywhere chose to plaster the photo across front pages and websites – not for its shock value but because it was important to instantly illustrate the tragic toll of refugees and asylum seekers desperately hopping on leaky boats to escape war – or so they thought.

As tragic as this image is, it is not what it seems.

The story of the father, Abdullah Kurdi and his family, is being misreported as refugees or asylum seekers who were fleeing ISIS and the general conflict in Syria. The photo has been used as a reference point by our TV, radio and print news coverage and by our politicians over the past day as a resounding reason why we need to open our borders to more refugees.

Aylan Kurdi was a three-year-old boy from Kobani, a war-torn Kurdish town on the Turkey-Syria border. His five-year-old brother Galip and his mother Rihan, 35, also died when their boat sank while trying to reach Greece.

The family had planned to emigrate to Canada to join the father’s sister and her family. Twelve others also drowned.

The truth is the Kurdi family were living in Turkey the past three years where the father worked, hoping one day to join his sister in Canada.

Tima Kurdi confirmed this by telling a reporter her brother Abdullah wanted to get his teeth fixed.

“The situation is that Abdullah does not have any teeth. Another story about it. So I been trying to help him fix his teeth. But is gonna cost me 14,000 and up to do it. He need teeth implant. So when I told him there is no way I can get you the money in one time because dentist need to get paid right away and Western Union usually – if I send them the money – they only allowed 1,000 at a time – not under their name of course – has to be a third person to collect the money and give it them. So I said to him, actually my dad, he come up with the idea, he said to me, ‘I think if they go to Europe for his case and for our future, I think he should do that, and then we’ll see if he can fix his teeth.’ And that’s what I did three weeks ago.”

I can’t even begin to imagine the guilt and grief Abdullah must now feel about the loss of his family.

After the emotional shock, it’s worth looking at why little Aylan died.

It wasn’t because his father was seeking sanctuary from war. He had enjoyed safe refuge in Turkey for three years where he was working.

He was, as former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr defined, an ‘economic refugee’ – someone seeking a better life, not refuge from conflict or persecution.

Economic ‘refugees’ do not meet the qualification for refugee status, which is why they seek the back door route – paying people smugglers, using their papers to country-hop until the last leg to their preferred country, at which point they dispose of their documents to hide their true identity. It’s often referred to as ‘country shopping’.

It’s a massive con, which this present Australian government has been able to stop.

The New York Times used the conflict and the humanitarian consequences, unfairly, dishonestly and opportunistically, to attack our Prime Minister.
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Much more here…