meidei wrote:by charging them "3 euro for a 25cl carton of juice, 5 euro per hour of mobile charging, 30 euro for a blanket" etc (Those are documented in Greek newspapers by investigations in Lesvos and Kos islands that recently hosted a lot of refugees).
That's a +400% markup on prices.
Hehhehheh, until they reach Finland, where these are the legit local prices.
/OT
EDIT: Still, I don't know, I think I'd actually be fine with being situated in a place like the remote Swedish centre, but I can't completely divorce myself from having that perspective because I grew up in a quiet Nordic suburb myself. Because they
did choose to come to the Nordics, instead of more southward. This place
is foresty and dark and cold an not very populated. If they were then accepted as official refugees in Finland, for example, they would be evenly distributed between the municipalities so that no municipality's budget takes the whole hit. They might be assigned to Tornio at that point, which would probably seem like a nightmare to them. But
that's what we have.
What's news to me is that Sweden doesn't provide food in these centres.
Here in Finland some asylum seekers staged a demonstration because they couldn't accept the food served to them -- claiming they wouldn't give that food to dogs even. Thing is, it's normal mass-kitchen food that Finns eat in hospitals, elderly homes and schools.
I mean literally provided by the same companies.
I think a lot of this comes from 1) these guys just being so tired, and inexperienced with other cultures, and having very rosy misconceptions about Europe.
Possibly 2) having a certain level of middle class privilege, if they were middle class in their home country, and lived that lifestyle there.
3) Having a suspicion that their honor is deliberately being defiled by others. I can't blame them for being suspicious -- they face a lot of racism and xenophobia along the way to here (and here as well of course).
What would be important for locals to remember is that these things don't invalidate their status as human beings. They are very much like us -- just because they don't behave in a stereotypical meek beggar kind of way doesn't mean we should reject them. Rather we should realise that we'd probably behave the same way if our privileged asses got demoted to refugee level by a conflict, and we'd have to seek a better life elsewhere, going through all the indignities that that entails.