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AP/Press Association Images

360 migrants leave 'ghost ship' stranded off Italian coast

The vessel has been abandoned by its crew and the 450 Syrian migrants were left for days without food or water.

Updated 9.15pm

ITALIAN AUTHORITIES DISEMBARKED some 360 cold and hungry migrants Saturday from a ship abandoned by its crew off the country’s jagged southern coast.

Women and children were among hundreds of migrants left stranded aboard the Ezadeen, which docked in the port of Corigliano Calabro around 11:00 pm (2200 GMT) Friday after a delicate operation by the Italian navy to take control of the ageing vessel.

It had been left to drift in stormy seas off southern Italy without fuel or electricity.

In the dark rescuers had first thought that it could be holding up to 450 people but after docking, the authorities revised the count to 360.

Most of the 232 men, 54 women and 74 children aboard are thought to be Syrians fleeing the war in their homeland. They were all said to be in good health.

Six coastguard officers were lowered from a helicopter onto the deck of the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel on Friday to set up a tow for the 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the Italian coast.

Italy Migrants Stranded at Sea AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The rescue is the latest in a series of maritime operations Italy has mounted in recent days as it struggles with a record wave of migrants making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

On Wednesday, the navy had already faced drama after it stopped another crewless “ghost” ship left drifting with nearly 800 migrants on board.

Italian authorities told reporters passengers on the Ezadeen had each paid $4,000-8,000 (€3,300-6,600) for the journey to Europe.

The migrants’ journey

The authorities also provided new details of the migrants’ itinerary.

The passengers said they were flown from Lebanon to Turkey, where they set sail on December 31 aboard the ship that normally carries cattle.

According to the migrants, the crew members masked their faces throughout the journey, fuelling suspicions they may not actually have abandoned ship but mixed in among the migrants while awaiting rescue.

‘We are alone’

Italy Migrants Stranded at Sea Young men wait on board as the cargo ship Ezadeen, carrying hundreds of migrants, arrives at the southern Italian port of Corigliano AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The nearly 50-year-old Ezadeen was spotted by a coastguard plane 80 miles offshore shortly after nightfall Thursday.

A female refugee raised the alarm over the ship’s radio, telling the coastguard that the crew had abandoned the vessel, coastguard spokesman Captain Filippo Marini said.

“We are alone, there is no one, help us!” Marini quoted her as saying.

An Icelandic patrol boat Tyr, which was in the area on a mission with the European Union’s border agency Frontex, came to the rescue but rough weather conditions made boarding the ship impossible.

After the vessel ran out of fuel, five Tyr crew members were winched onto the ship by helicopter to care for passengers until the Italian coastguard arrived to take control.

“The migrants aboard were visibly distressed but overall in good medical condition. They have been provided with food, water and basic medical assistance,” a Frontex statement said Friday.

Italy Migrants Stranded at Sea The cargo ship Ezadeen AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The incident marked the third sea rescue operation Italy’s navy has been forced to mount in a week.

The first arose with after a deadly fire broke out on the Norman Atlantic ferry Sunday between Greece and Italy.

Italian prosecutors fear the Norman Atlantic, which has been towed to the port of Brindisi, could contain the bodies of illegal immigrants and unregistered passengers yet to be discovered.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe said almost 500 people may have been aboard — far above the 474 officially on the manifest — prompting fears the current death toll of 13 may rise once the ferry is fully searched.

New smuggling tactics

Italy Migrants Stranded at Sea AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Three days after the ferry fire, a ship carrying nearly 770 migrants was found drifting Wednesday towards the rocks off Italy’s southeastern shore.

The Blue Sky M freighter was on autopilot, after having been abandoned by the people smugglers who had sailed it from Turkey.

The appearance of two drifting migrant boats in under a week has raised concerns that smugglers have started abandoning large boatloads of people in European waters as a new tactic to maximise profits from their ruthless trade.

The Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M got within five miles of running aground before six navy officers were lowered on to the ship by helicopter and succeeded in bringing it under control.

The passengers, who were said to be mainly Syrians and Kurds, included some 60 children and two pregnant women, one of whom gave birth on board, according to the Italian Red Cross.

Some of the migrants were treated for hypothermia and injuries, including broken limbs.

More than 170,000 people have been rescued at sea by Italy in the last 14 months, and hundreds, possibly thousands, have perished trying to make the crossing.

- © AFP 2015.

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    Mute Dennis Collins
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:19 AM

    This is an awful situation and I am not trying to detract from the severity of what these people have had to endure. But why, in 2015, do journalists still feel that it is noteworthy to mention that “women and children were among hundreds of migrants….” in any article of this type. Yes, point out that there are children. The suffering that a child endures, and the sheer terror and fear that they experience cannot be compared to that of an adult.

    But as far as I knew, a man’s life is of equal worth to that of a woman’s and his suffering deserves equal sympathy. Are men’s lives not worth the same as women’s? And, help me out here ladies, are you all so dainty like the ladies on the Titanic, that you need special consideration by journalists? I know plenty women who could survive a lot more than I ever could. We’ve had women climb Mount Everest, sail solo around the world and trek across Antarctica, yet the media still sees them as dainty, fragile, little things. It’s a sexist, demeaning and out-dated phrase.

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    Mute Damo Tubbs
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:45 AM

    True actually and you hear it in quiet a few news stories.

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    Mute Juninho
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:45 AM

    Agreed, it’s a ridiculous, antiquated phrase that doesn’t belong in this century.

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    Mute Morelove Lesshate
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 12:17 PM

    Dennis, I believe the reason that this term is used is not that mens lives are less valuable than womens or that women are less capable than men, it’s just that women will often be travelling with children and babies.

    Therefore, if there is some kind of disaster it’s not so easy to save yourself when you are also trying to save a couple of toddlers and a baby (for example), even if there are two parents.

    Also it’s used to highlight the human tragedy of these kinds of disasters, the fact that children are among the victims.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Jan 4th 2015, 10:45 AM

    True you would think it was the Titanic they were reporting about. The majority of these people were men, does that make it any less of a disaster? FFS

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    Mute Mary Dundee
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 7:54 AM

    where are the smugglers getting the ships?

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    Mute J. Dunn
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 8:51 AM

    DoneDeal

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    Mute Pat Lonergan
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 8:52 AM

    No wonder then that they are shite

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    Mute Cuppantae
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 8:55 AM

    Apparently they are even picking them up on eBay, don’t know you would even try and go about trying to pick it up….It was on the BBC yesterday….

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    Mute Stephen Earle
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 9:36 AM

    One report says you can even buy freighters on Ebay!!

    48
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    Mute E
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 2:20 PM

    Don’t let IPhone Joan at these asylum seekers.
    She’ll be having a go at them for wearing expensive leather jackets and trainers.

    60
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    Mute Scipio
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    Jan 4th 2015, 8:47 AM

    The cultural suicide of Europe continues courtesy of our cowardly political class. Where’s Berlusconi when you need him? At least he had the balls to order these boats to be towed back. I’m glad I can remember Europe when it still looked like Europe, because within a few short decades that will no longer be the case.

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    Mute Tony Canning
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:34 PM

    The language around all this interests me greatly.

    These people are Syrian. Do people not know that over 76,000 people have been killed in Syria last year? They are not “migrants” they are refugees.
    The most creative solution to this is “send them back”? Really?

    As for “cultural suicide” – I can’t see such comments without thinking that it’s the kind of terminology pedalled by racists.

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    Mute Gerard Carey
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 9:18 AM

    Italy has got to start sending them back,otherwise more and more will keep coming. M

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    Mute Morelove Lesshate
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 12:00 PM

    Gerard, is that what the U.S. and Canada should have done when when our coffin ships left these shores during the famine with millions of poor souls hoping to escape the misery here?

    Short memories folks, have some humanity!

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    Mute Katie Collins
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 12:44 PM

    Im sure the population of between 1 and 2 billion around the time of the famine made it a little easier for emigration worldwide, as opposed to the 7 billion that now populate earth. There’s only so much room in every country.

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    Mute Morelove Lesshate
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 1:56 PM

    Katie, the population of Ireland before the famine was over 8 million. Guess we have room for a few million more here now so!

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    Mute Niamh Kenneally
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 5:32 PM

    More and more are going to keep coming because more and more are going to be displaced due to the raging civil war – you’d send them back to Syria?

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    Mute Jay McGregor
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 8:38 PM

    How many will you two be personally personally sponsoring, housing and financially taking care of?

    My guess is duck egg.

    Let their oil rich arab brethren look after them.

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    Mute KeiKe
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:13 PM

    Grand sure let’s take in 2 million refugees in to make the difference..how about you you start by putting a few up in your gaf..you never know they could be former militants for all you know…plenty of countries in around Syria that could afford to take these “refugees” in.

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    Mute john doe
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    Jan 4th 2015, 1:13 AM

    It’d be great if more and more could get out of the war zones

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    Mute Lilly D
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    Jan 4th 2015, 2:11 AM

    Yes Niamh ! They have to go back to Africa along with all long therm unemployed immigrants. There is plenty of countries in Africa that can easily help them but you would happily accept their Ebola virus and offer it to your children which if survived in few years time will have no choice but wear burka on the streets of Dublin and fight for their freedom???? Are youse people blind ????

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    Mute Scipio
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    Jan 4th 2015, 8:58 AM

    These economic migrants. They embarked on this ship in Turkey at the cost of at least 1000eur per head. And they won’t stay in Italy that unlike northern Europe does not have a generous welfare state. They’ll be on their way to Calais in no time.

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    Mute Anne Marie Devlin
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 9:31 AM

    Abandoning ships or throwing people overboard is a tactic used by traffickers as they know the Italians will have to rescue those poor people. Italy feeling the brunt of EU/ US policies in middle east.

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    Mute Larry L'Oiseau
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:01 AM

    Italy feeling the brunt of liberal EU immigration policy.
    The same policy that is causing demonstrations and other reactions in a number of countries against immigration.

    I sense the indigenous populations have had enough – especially where they feel that islam (for example) is a growing threat to their democracy.

    The myth of multi-culturalism …

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    Mute Niamh Kenneally
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 5:31 PM

    This isn’t about EU immigration policy at all. These are mostly Syrians fleeing the civil war.

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    Mute Patrick O' Brien
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:37 AM

    Niamh yes you are right…..What I don’t understand is the amount of young men on board, compaired to the amount of Women and children…..I would question why they have left their country, and why they didn’t stay on and fight for their country.
    Once in European waters, they are going to be looked after, as it should be especially for Women and children…….Look around any city in Ireland, you will see copious amounts of young men, walking the streets, from many nationalities, which I think should be made to work here doing something, or returned home, to either work or fight for their home country…

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    Mute Free Gaza
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    Jan 4th 2015, 10:53 AM

    Why aren’t the women fighting, Patrick?

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    Mute tractor1000
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:16 PM

    Personally i enjoy the culture we have in Ireland and would like to maintain what we still have! This multicultural society lark is a farce! Look at London and England they’ve lost their identity and are watching their back because of differences in faith and culture! When in Rome do as the Romans do! The Polish, Chinese etc have worked, lived, socialised and lived / respected the culture we have for years, there are cultures in the middle east that may not be as close to our own!

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    Mute big willy
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:37 PM

    I presume you are in your 60′s

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    Mute Ronan McDermott
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:07 PM

    Can you describe this culture and how do the Chinese , polish etc demonstrate respect for it ? I’m not being a wiseass here . I’d just like to hear someone explain it .

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    Mute big willy
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:17 PM

    A culture where everyone is white, catholic and goes to mass every sunday

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    Mute Ugly Truth
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:22 PM

    Careful there now willy or you’ll end up been hauled before the courts and prosecuted for age-ism or trying to incite it , that is where your free for all, liberal nonsense will lead if it weren’t for the wisdom of the ‘kaumatua’ , multiculturalism has done more damage to Ireland in two decades than the British done in all their time there

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    Mute Jay McGregor
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:51 PM

    We should welcome Europeans East Asians. Their culture and traditions mix in with ours seamlessly. Great people and a great work ethic.

    Can you name one African or middle eastern country that isn’t an utter dump and that’s cultural traditions aren’t completely alien to ours? No? Then why allow so many people from these backward countries into ours? It’s not for their culture, work ethic, so why allow so many in and who will pay for their upkeep? For example, only 38% of Africans in Ireland work.

    Time to set immigration policy so that it benefits Ireland and her people, not solely the immigrants. Are we running a global soup kitchen here or what?

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    Mute Damien Moran
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 9:38 PM

    I would have thought that there would be an equal number of men to women, if not more women and children than men. Seems a bit odd that the majority are all male adults fleeing the war and not the young and female.

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    Mute tractor1000
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:00 PM

    We goto send these 170,000 people back sooner than later! Thats a serious number of people especially with such different cultures and religions! Ships need to be spotted and returned

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    Mute amos brearly
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 9:29 PM

    Italy needs to start using torpedos.

    48
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    Mute bings
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:39 AM

    They will be here next week with their hands out no english but know how to claim for everything from houses to food, clothing education, medical when our own starve & freeze on the streets. Welcome to the welfare state of the world

    46
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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:57 PM

    I’m delighted for these people. There is some serious stuff happening in Syria. I’ve seen videos of people being rounded up and slaughtered by IS.
    We really should help Syrian refugees. Horrible things are happening. Serious war crimes.

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    Mute Jay McGregor
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:56 PM

    How many will you be sponsoring and personally housing, Jack?

    Remember though, these lads can be very picky. I hope that you have a gaff sorted for them in Dublin or another urban area.

    “After two days of protesting, some 30 asylum seekers have now left the bus they were occupying outside a refugee center near Östersund in northern Sweden. Claiming they had been misled by the Swedish Migration Board about where they would be taken, the refugees refused to leave the bus on New Year’s Eve. They objected to the cold weather in the north, and the location of the center in the countryside far away from any urban area.”

    http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6058922&playaudio=5191587

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    Mute KeiKe
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:36 AM

    Sweden is a perfect example with basket case open door immigration policy..mosques are now being attacked and burned to the ground..the natives have had enough of the riots, anti social behavior and rapes proven to be perpetuated by immigrants..the Swedish coalition government nearly collapsed over the immigrant issue.

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    Mute KeiKe
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:46 AM
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    Mute Mike
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:14 PM

    They should have returned the ship and people back to Turkish controlled Famagusta.

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    Mute Ronan McDermott
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:05 PM

    Ah the classy immigration expert is back . Once called me an illegal trespassing f**k relating to a country I’ve never been to lol. Great policies you have . There’s a war going on over there . Maybe no country should have helped with the Ebola outbreak either under your train of thought . Idiot

    32
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    Mute tractor1000
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 10:53 PM

    Does it make any difference what age i am?

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    Mute big willy
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    Jan 3rd 2015, 11:16 PM

    You want the old Catholic Ireland back again, so I presume you are in your 60′s

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    Mute Stephen Benson
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    Jan 4th 2015, 12:31 AM

    I just finished reading about the case of an asylum seeking African man deported from Ireland to Tanzania over at Irish-times dot ie. He had spent 5 years in irelands immigration ‘system’, direct provision etc and eventually been deported. He was basically beaten to death when the guards pushed him off the plane with no money & no paperwork in Tanzania.
    What is the EU going to do with this lot? Will some of them be sent to Ireland to be ‘processed’? Good luck to them in the welcoming Emerald Isle.
    Here in Australia the boats are intercepted and ‘asylum claims’ are processed in Papua New Guinea, basically a sh****le. They are either topping themselves or opting to go back to where they came from. Syria & Iraq aren’t that bad after spending time in PNG. Maybe the EU can cut a deal with Russia to process the asylum claims of these people in Siberia?
    Europe is over-run with Immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. The only real way to sort this mess out is to sort out the problems in the countries from which these people came. Maybe a think tank composed of Bertie Ahern, George Bush Snr & Junior & Silvio Berlusconi could be convened to come up with solutions?

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