Europe has no desire to handle refugee crisis: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Soraya Sepahpour Ulrich, an independent researcher and writer in Irvine, California, about Europe's refugee crisis.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: We are talking about a million refugees that entered Europe last year and the whole continent is in chaos. Why is that the case? Why couldn’t they handle one million people, when we look at a country let’s say like Lebanon that has more than a million refugees and its population is just over four million?

Ulrich: The fact that Europe is not handling it, it is not because they are incapable of handling it, it is because they have no desire to. And it is very ironic to hear Mr. Ban Ki-moon speak in Greece when in fact they are actually encouraging the violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention that the refugees should not be returned to their countries of origin, when they know their lives and freedoms are going to be jeopardized.

And in fact the deal that the EU made, the Europeans made was Turkey encourages the Greeks to detain refugees and then deport them back to Turkey, where there have been reports of refugees being shot, the refugees not being admitted and in fact the one word that Ban Ki-moon said that is of interest and should be followed up is the fact that he spoke about the causes, and the causes of these refugees being created in the first place are the encouragement of the United States, not just the United States but other countries as well, creating these refugees by supporting terrorists, by arming terrorists in Syria, and elsewhere.

And we know that Ban Ki-moon has in fact coughed up to the fact that the UN is getting paid money to not speak about these atrocities when Saudi Arabia kind of blackmailed the United Nations, and other countries such as the Europeans and the Americans blackmail United Nations far more.

And to a point you said when Lebanon handled refugees, kudos to Lebanon. For about 30 or 40 years Iran has been accepting refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and other places and this same United Nations has punished Iran by imposing sanctions on Iran. It is just such blatant hypocrisy. You sanction countries that are taking in refugees from the wars created by these powers and punishing not only refugees but the countries that are giving them aid and housing them.  

So really Ban Ki-moon, I do not know how he can possibly show his face to the world when he encourages hypocrisy, double standards and he even takes bribes. I mean when the Saudis say that we are not going to give you money unless you retract this report, that is taking bribe. So how can he stand there and address the world that is mind-boggling.                                         

Press TV: What is the key? What do people do? We are talking about the refugee crisis, we are talking about so many refugees now being returned to Turkey and we are seeing this backlash even in Europe against these people who are going to escape situations being created, many would say mostly by certain Western parties and some of their proxies in the region. What has to be done in order to try to resolve this situation?

Ulrich: I think immediately to resolve this situation is for the backing of these terrorists to be stopped in countries like Syria, Libya and how do you stop say the United States and its powerful, rich Arab allies and other European allies. That is the question that cannot be addressed immediately unfortunately unless there is a reform at the United Nations.

In 2005 Newt Gingrich who was then a House Speaker addressed the American Enterprise Institute, a very pro-Israeli think tank here in the United States, and he wanted to reform the United Nations in such a way that they would basically execute the orders of the United States and Israel on who should be considered a terrorist, who is violating the various international treaties; and we need one such reform not by somebody like Newt Gingrich or the United States but by all the countries that are involved in the United Nations.

Either we maintain the United Nations as a global body and reform it so that one does not have a bigger voice so that its chief is not bought off by the powerful, or we just totally disregard the United Nations, but then again this is a debate that needs to take place. It is not going to solve the immediate problem of the refugees. Mr. Ban Ki-moon should uphold the 1951 Refugee Convention instead of preaching.

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