Refugees Real and Fake

 This article first appeared in New English Review.

The war in Ukraine and the resulting flood of refugees is presenting a stark contrast between Ukrainian refugees, overwhelmingly women and children, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into Europe from places like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and both Sub-Saharan and North Africa (Maghreb). As we should, let us set aside the issue of race or skin color, a point that has been raised by some, including voices from the US-based Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR). These voices are questioning why the West is opening its arms to the (white, Christian) Ukrainians while resisting the aforementioned refugees, predominantly Muslim and black/brown.

On the surface, it may seem like a fair question. It is not that the West has refused to accept what I will hence refer to as Muslims; Europe and North America have allowed in over a million of this group. The resentment comes from the fact that many-not all-but many of these “refugees” are committing crimes and bringing an ideology with them at odds with Western principles of equality to say nothing of the threat of terrorism, acts of which have already played out in Western countries, particularly Europe.

It is true that some Muslim refugees come from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, but many do not. Those include people from North African, sub-Saharan African, and Middle Eastern countries that are not at war.

But what really stands out from a visual point of view (again, let’s set aside racial features, which should not be considered) is that with the Ukrainian refugees, what we are seeing is predominantly women and children. For the most part, men of fighting age are staying in Ukraine to fight the Russians. Many accompany their families to the border and watch them cross before returning to defend their nation. That is just one of the images that have won the hearts of the world.

Now contrast that with what we see from the aforementioned countries. Take the Spanish border enclaves in North Africa of Ceuta and Melilla. Just this week, thousands stormed the fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Hundreds made it over the fence and into a migrant center in the city. Forget the fact that they are overwhelmingly black Africans. What stands out is that there are virtually no women or children. Virtually all are young men in their 20s. What wars are they fleeing from? Where are their families?

No, they are not real refugees. They are fortune seekers.

The same mostly holds true with the situation in the Mediterranean where Western NGO ships patrol the sea picking up “refugees” and bringing them into the Italian port of Lampedusa, as well as other ports. They are almost all young males from various and sundry countries in the Middle East and North/Sub Saharan Africa. How many of their countries are actually at war?

As for Afghanistan, even before the takeover by the Taliban last year, Europe has been absorbing untold thousands of Afghan refugees, most of whom tend to be young, unaccompanied males, many in their early 20s but claiming to be 14-15. The reason for that? If they are convicted of crimes, they can be treated as juveniles. The result is a wave of crime throughout Western Europe committed by young Afghan males who arrived unaccompanied. We are not talking about simple street crime. We are talking about murder and rape.

Why is it that Italy now has a Nigerian Mafia involved in drug/human smuggling and various acts of extreme violence? Why is it that the Netherlands has a Moroccan Mafia, known as the Mocro Maffia? (with two Fs) This bunch is involved in drug trafficking and murder, not to mention assassination plots against prominent politicians and journalists. They are so notorious that there is a famous TV series about them in the Netherlands (“Mocro Maffia”). To be accurate, there is a Moroccan community in the Netherlands complete with women, children, and grandparents.

The Ukrainian case should be a lesson for Europe and the US. There are real refugees and there are fake refugees. It does not matter the color of their skin, hair, or eyes. It does not matter what Europeans and Americans look like 25-50 years from now. What matters is the belief system of who we are allowing into our countries. If done properly and wisely, with proper identification and vetting, we can admit refugees and immigrants from many different places and maintain our values and freedoms. The Ukrainian diaspora in Western Europe, Canada, and the US have already proven they will assimilate and contribute to their adopted countries.

The world is literally swimming with refugees, real and fake. We must not turn our backs on the real refugees, but we have no more room for the fake ones who are opportunistically using world crises to migrate to the West and be taken care of. In trying to identify just who is who, a good starting point would be to take a very close look at all these young, unaccompanied men from countries that are not even at war. Where are the women, the children, and the old?