The whole world was shocked with a picture of a Syrian boy named Aylan Kurdi, only 3 years; the child died next to his brother and his mother; the only survivor of the family was his father. They came from the city of Kobane and were fleeing the atrocities of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, of the NATO bombings and the reactionary ISIS, which emerged as another force in Syria to destroy the struggle of the Syrian and Kurdish people.
The family was trying to get to Canada, where they had relatives. They had tried several times to get asylum in that country, which was denied. The same is true with the imperialist governments in Europe. What happened to toddler Aylan is part of the daily drama of thousands of immigrants and refugees who die or risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean.
The European governments build walls, fences and «shield» their borders with police, military, patrol boats, expulsions and immigration laws. While they let run, in fact, the dictatorship of al-Assad which is one of the reasons why thousands of Syrians flee their massive bombings and chemical attacks. The cynicism of the governments of the European Union (EU), of Merkel or Hollande, has no limits. They remember the war when the consequences reach them in Europe. These NATO governments which close their borders today are the same that directly or indirectly support the dictator Bashar al-Assad and his massacres, now totalling 300,000 victims. The refugees come from Syria and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and other African countries. They are about thousands and thousands of young people, workers, and families fleeing violence, persecution or poverty imposed by the economic and social crisis of the capitalist-imperialist system.
For the EU it is only about building walls, of addressing immigration as a problem of public interest. Each wall that arises in Europe opens a new business for the mafias that profit from despair. Its «market» is inexhaustible. The best way to fight against traffickers is to open the door to the legal entry of refugees and to end with the Schengen Agreement and immigration laws, it is to put an end to the pillaging, it is to stop endorsing and arming the tyrants.
The peoples of Europe, in contrast to their governments, are giving a show of solidarity with the refugees. The population of Iceland offers asylum in their homes to refugees; the Serbs in Belgrade give open solidarity; or the mobilisation of 30,000 people in Vienna (Austria) expressing their solidarity and willingness to open the borders to immigrants. It is urgent to open all borders in Europe allowing and facilitating the free movement of thousands of refugees, granting asylum, housing and work to each. They should be assisted to escape from their countries of origin and that they do not die in the attempt. This requirement extends to the world’s governments, to cease immediately their support for dictatorships like the one of Syria and of imperialist interventions and the reactionary ISIS. For all this, we must denounce the rulers of Europe and the United States who keep sentencing to death thousands of refugees, and instead we call to give support to the refugees and the struggle of the Syrian people. We call for the mobilisation of the people, of the workers and youth of the world; we call the workers’ organisations and of solidarity with refugees, to confront the immigration policies of governments and against the regime of al-Assad and ISIS, in solidarity with the Syrian people.
International Workers Unity –Fourth International (IWU-FI)
3 September 2015
