Estonia announced that the country may be forced to close its border crossing points with Russia due to increased migration pressures, Estonian Police and Border Guard announced on Feb. 13.
“In recent weeks, Russia has deliberately directed to the Estonian border groups of foreigners lacking the legal right to enter the European Union,” the statement reads. “If these activities continue, we will be forced to close border crossing points to protect national security and public order, as has already been done in Finland due to migration pressure.”
The Estonian government has noted an influx of migrants and asylum seekers from Russia over recent months.
There are innocent civilians trying to flee Putin’s regime. Civilians who want no part of his war. They should be allowed to seek asylum like any refugee.
Estonia is a tiny country of a little over a million people and we already took on the most Ukrainian refugees per population and we currently have issues housing them. If Russians need refuge in another country they need to look elsewhere.
Estonia can definitely afford spare a little bit of goodwill imo.
And it has, Estonia accepted the most Ukrainian refugees per population. Currently all the refugee facilities are still full and the government is paying hotels to keep refugees. If Russian refugees come here in the winter they would likely die as there is nowhere to house them.
So the solution is to decide in their name to keep them in country of war, where you claim they will be safer, without even hearing their opinion.
Ultimately their opinion doesn’t matter. The government of Estonia will look out for it’s citizens first and foremost, currently we can’t accept more refugees and we can’t deal with a ton of people just coming here so they will close the border.
Everybody’s opinion matters, especially of EU citizens and even more of Estonian regarding this issue. Estonia can obviously deal with more migrants, it is just not convenient. Estonain goverment doesnt care about its citizens, but about getting reelected. They will do what is most in their interest.
Placing convienice of people from your country over others lives is obviously morally wrong. And unless you are a nationalist (right-wing) you can not believe that people from certain country have lives worth less than from another, even yours. So there is no difference between russian and estonian, and their interest should be placed at the same value. To disagree is by definition nationalism and if we are talking about ethnicity, racism.
OK if you are going down the road of ignorance toward both Estonian politics and the economic situation then we can drop that.
Are you really saying it’s the norm for countries to help every person in the world equally and not prioritise it’s citizens? Also by prioritising it’s own citizens they also prioritise the 20 or so % Russian population living here. People’s lives have equal worth but the responsibility to help someone falls on their nation first and foremost.
I am not saying it is the norm. I am saying it is right-wing, natonallistic and racist. Which is unfortuenately the norm. I am saying it is unethical and morally inexsusable, not that it is not normal.
Why can’t Estonia send them elsewhere in the EU?
EU rules
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Regulation
Any law that prohibits people that are fleeing a war from entering a country is a pro-war inhumane law that shouldn’t exist. It is only moral to break any law that stops you from saving someone’s life. A lot of people like to imagine that during ethnic cleansing in their countries they would be heroes that shelter people in secret, but it is obvious that even people who consider themselves left-wing, value law (the will of the state) more than human life.
Then HELP them get to another country in stead of forcing them to stay in Russia where they might be forcibly enlisted or killed for opposing the war or just generally living in misery caused by the war as well as reactions to it.
If they are trying to cross the border here they would need to cross about 4 countries before getting anywhere where they can be accepted, Estonia does not have the resources to facilitate that.
There are also security concerns. In the early 2000nds Russia attempted to create a breakaway region in Estonia with an influx of Russian citizens. Viru county already has a high Russian population and we don’t need a repeat of that.
Ask the EU for help funding and coordinating it? I’m sure they have/are working on such projects already. If they aren’t, they should be.
They can have no part in war by overthrowing government that not considering their peoples’ will. Can’t believe how gutless Russians when it comes to regime
Are you fucking drunk? You really think nobody’s trying to overthrow the Putin regime or otherwise fight back?
You’re acting like toppling a deeply entrenched tyrannical regime is something a couple of dudes could easily do in an afternoon, not something virtually impossible that thousands of Russians have died trying to accomplish 🤦
Yes they are, but Russia also uses migration as a pervert way of its hybrid warfare to pressure european countries and to create confusion and disarray .
True, but that’s not a reason to categorically turn away all refugees any more than some cars being stolen is a reason to stop all cars.
I would argue on that. Maybe establish another way to get putin refugees into europe instead of getting your borders flooded. You also have to manage the income to make sure they get proper care in your country.
Actually, it’s been shown that, contrary to xenophobic stereotypes (not calling you xenophobic, just pointing out that the stereotypes are), immigrants are overwhelmingly a net economic (and arguably cultural, but that’s admittedly quite subjective) positive to their destination country, refugees even moreso than others.
of course they are. The problem I see is that every country has to take care that regugees are properly welcomed and taken care of. They have to get immediatly proper introduction into the country, the language, the common systems of the country, are able to work and contribute (with regards of their strengths and education) and so on, so that they get really fast properly inlcuded and not live for years in some shady, seperated “container homes”.
And to assure this you have to regulate the income, because every country has limited ressources. We just need a proper european solution that every country is forced (looking at you hungary…) to take refugees and care for them properly based on some variables like the wealth of the country and so on.
Yeah, you’re right that there’s a potentially steep initial cost. That’s outweighed by future benefits, though, and I’m pretty sure that both the EU and several NGOs have funds and projects specifically dedicated to partly pay for and ease that transition.
It’s worth a try, at least, when the alternative is turning away refugees.
It is a nonsense problem created to excuse clearly right-wing anti-migrant politics as left-wing, by saying that you care about people so much, that you can’t have them sleep on the street, so better to let them die in a war. Because at that point, that problem is somewhere else, in another country. Better then to see suffering on your own streets.
You are clearly unfamiliar with Estonian winters. The days are below freezing, often in double digits. Anyone not sheltered will freeze to death. And where, pray tell, would we shelter them? Refugee shelters? Full of Ukrainians. Hotels are full of Ukrainians. There’s a Ukrainian family living across the street from me, because a call went out for private residences to house Ukrainian refugees and my neighbor took his family and moved in with his parents. There’s nowhere left.
But please, continue to tell me how we’re not doing enough by giving all the help we had to give to the first victims of this war.
are they being badly treated? forcefully enlisted? killed? their life is the same as before the full-scale invasion, their life is the same as before 2014. so why the heck do they need protection?
In thousands of cases, yes.
Bullshit. The overbroad sanctions and boycotts as well as acts of the tyrannical Putin government have changed the lives of almost all Russians and foreign residents dramatically for the worse.
Again, talking out of your ass.
For the same reason as all other refugees: because they’re fleeing violence, oppression and societal collapse.
We had this with Yanukovich. Got rid of him. Maybe instead of fleeing, they should take over their country? The question is rhetorical.
Comparing Yanukovic to Putin is like comparing apples and orchards. Putin is so much more powerful and entrenched that the very notion is ridiculous.
Here’s a rhetorical question for you: are you arguing in bad faith or are you just an absolute moron?
I’m just a Ukrainian living in Kyiv. If I were living in Eastern Ukraine, I would have wished them all dead.
I’m sorry for what you and your country are going through, but it doesn’t mean you know anything about how powerful and entrenched the Russian government is. Clearly.
The ones LEAVING Russia to AVOID the war? They’ve never done anything against you.
I thank God every day that this Ukrainian has you to educate him on the nuances of Ukrainian/Russian politics.
Being Ukrainian doesn’t make it any less wrong to assume that it’s easy to overthrow Putin and demand that refugees should stay in countries that are likely to kill them and/or force them to kill others.