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.
If my country was at war, I would rather cross 4 countries then die in a war. It makes no sense to not give them a choice, claiming that you care too much about them to let them be inconvineced by the act of saving their lives.
And of course there are always security concerns when we are trying to help people save their lives. What about security concerns of Russians that are trying to flee? Are Estonian lives more valuable then Russian lives? Is it safer for everyone to forcefully keep as many people in region of war as possible? To let them forcfuly become soliders that will shoot at other people and arm people they are attacking so that someone has to die. Is it better to let all Russian citizens become soliders and either kill Ukranian soliders or die themselves in a war, then risk to let unarmed people in another country, because some of them, somehow, could be the bad guys, simply because they are from Russia. As if they are more likely to be dangeous than people from any other country.
A country will always prioritise its own citizens and help others only if there are resources available. I also absolutely expect citizens to flee from a country at war and I definitely expect countries to close their borders if they can’t handle the influx of refugees.
There is definitely xenophobia towards Russians as well (700 years of slavery does that) and Estonia definitely will prioritise helping Ukrainian refugees but that doesn’t change how limited the resources are currently now.
That makes no sense. If you let people in and give them your citiznship then they are your citizens as well. It is nationalism, ethinic background, not some organisational problem of a country. Estonia can easly handle the influx, that is the point, it is ridiculous to claim otherwise and it is highly immoral and racist to prioritize people of one nationality over other. Resources are fine, it is one of the richest countries in the World. It is dishonest and maniplative when all right-wing policies (such as this) talk about lack of resources when we are talking about helping the working class, but when you need to give tax cuts to the rich or spend money on military, then all of a sudden money flows.
Estonia is a tiny country of a little over a million people, the poorest state in the US is richer… I have no idea where you are getting that Estonia is wealthy.
Then let them pass through to the rest of the EU. In Europe there is a billion people. As for the wealth, I have no idea why you are comparing it to US. We are talking about whether they should be forced to stay in Russia and it is clear that per capita Estonia is richer then Russia.
There is no quarantee the next country over wants to let them through and if Estonia starts funneling people into other EU countries without permission Estonia would lose open borders to the rest of EU and any financial aid pretty much instantly which would hurt the people already here massively.
Yes, Estonia is richer by gdp than one of the most sanctioned countries running on a war economy. Not rich enough to take in everyone in Russia escaping Putin’s war.
You can’t expect a tiny poor country to help Russia’s population while countries with more ability to help don’t. As I said both China and US have the land and resources to take everyone, complain to them.
And Estonia could accept people that have their own finances or people that are allowed passage in other countires and etc. There are many ways to work on this if you actually care about these people to help and solve a problem. If all countries acted this way, I won’t help because aren’t helping enough, we are going to be in a big trouble. I would complain to US and China if this was a post about that and someone was defending their positions, we can turn this discussion as well into, ask others to help as well, instead of just defending this wrong decision by Estonia. Estonian government, if they really care, could put pressure on EU, China or US. You seem to be more focused on China and US, but reallisticly it is the EU that has funds as well and is closer. We should focus on pressure to EU to help house these people, or allow them passage or something.
Besides, I think it is morally unjustifiable to be dependent on EU support so much to help you with these things in order to keep stuff comfortable for already rich people in Estonia, instead of sharing with those less fortunate and help as much as you can. It is better to fight for wellbeing of all people and help what you can, instead of being afraid that you will be kicked out from a selfish EU (if they refuse to help and share this isssue, they are selfish).
The EU is not a federal government, it’s a trade alliance, it has no power to make member countries accept refugees.
I agree with the idea that all countries should help all people but complaining that one tiny country that doesn’t have the means to do so should be the first is the equivalent of blaming some individual who has like no climate impact for climate change because they can’t afford an EV.