Chapter 685: New Settlers (1)
With Syria’s civil war continuing for more than five years, the issue of Syrian refugees fleeing to survive was emerging as a global problem.
Currently, about ten million of Syria’s population had left their homes and wandered around here and there in Syria’s domestic and neighboring countries, of which four million had fled the country.
But Turkey and other neighboring countries, unable to handle the pouring Syrian refugees, had come to seal the border, while the helpless Syrians were heading to Europe by boat, causing the European refugee crisis.
Many Syrian refugees using ships died in subversion accidents in the Mediterranean.
Even if they were lucky enough to set foot in Europe, they had to wait for a country that would accept them in poor refugee camps for an indefinite period.
Countless islands scattered in the Aegean Sea were also plagued by refugees, with Arirang and Melthemi islands owned by the Kazakh royal family being no exception.
Chief Lajos had a troubled look on his face today, guiding some 50 refugees who had arrived on the beach to the refugee camps in mainland Greece.
If there were Kurds among the refugees, they could be sent separately to the royal territory, but most of them were Syrians and were forced to be sent to refugee camps.
However, they were not accepted easily in mainland Greece or Italy as they were reluctant to receive more refugees because they were already saturated.
Since the islands were a naval base of the Kazakh royal family, it was inevitable to send them somewhere else for security purposes. Instead, the royal family provided them with plenty of relief supplies.
Park Sung-won, a base commander on Arirang Island who had been plagued by refugee issues with Chief Lajos, was reporting the situation to Cho Chul-hwan, the commander of the Royal Bodyguards.
“Sir, the number of refugees has already exceeded 400. The refugee camps on the mainland of Greece are also saturated and they say it is difficult to accept refugees on our island. And the Greek government is also saying since Arirang Island is a Kazakh royal decree, it can’t intervene with our affairs.”
-There’s no such a law. The islands are definitely in the Greek waters.
“The Greek government’s argument makes sense because the island is an extraterritorial region. I don’t think it would be a problem to treat refugees who enter the islands with our own domestic law.”
-The idea of applying our domestic law is to review domestic migration, but it’s not an easy approach. It’s not that 400 refugees are too much, but if we set a precedent, the Greek Coast Guard could continue to push them into our direction.
“I guess that’s the case, given the recent influx of refugees to our island.”
Greece was in a hard situation that it could not even solve its domestic economic problems on its own and it could not be bothered with the additional refugee issue.
That was why the Greek coast guards were pushing refugees coming to their shores to nearby countries.
-Syrian refugees aren’t hard to accept because they are related to the Syrian Kurds, but I’m afraid they’ll keep coming. They’re the ones who came to our islands, so we’ll have no choice but to accept them. I’ll send a ferry after consulting with the Duke.
“I’m sorry. We seem to have failed to preemptively respond, and now it’s become a bigger problem.”
-Why are you sorry? The Syrian government is to blame. There are cases where Syrians snuck into the royal territory during the Kurdish migration, so it doesn’t matter. So if there are any refugee ships drifting nearby, rescue them and let them stay on our islands for now.
“I’ll follow your instructions.”
Upon hearing what the commander of the Royal Bodyguards, Park Sung-won had a look of relief on his face. Whenever he saw a refugee ship floating dangerously in front of Arirang Island, he wanted to run and rescue it right away.
Many times, the refugees were sitting on the roof of the steering room after exceeding the ships’ capacity, and he had to listen to their sound of fear when the ship was inclined toward one side as if it was about to tip over in a small wave. He used to watch them until they were about to sink and run to save them.
Now that the commander said he could save as many refugees as he could, he felt a lot better.
***
Youngho was talking to Chul-hwan after he reported on the refugee issue on the royal islands.
“Most of the refugees’ desired destination must be Europe. Will they want to come to Kazakhstan?”
“They will be just grateful to have somewhere that will accept them since they just fled Syria in fear of getting killed.”
“Then I’ll have to bring the refugees from Arirang and Meltemi Islands to the royal territory. It looks like the Kurds are also welcoming the Syrians to move.”
The Syrian Kurds and Syrians once lived in Syria as their homeland, so they had no resistance to each other. They shared the same culture and official language, French, so there was no sense of difference.
The Syrian refugees seemed to be secretly welcoming the Syrians to their new home.
They wanted to show off their well-fed and well-off life in Kazakhstan.
When they lived in Syria, they were treated as a minority, but since they moved to Kazakhstan, they had been recognized as precious. It was because of the influence of Princess Jelyan, who was also a Kurd.
“If there’s a rumor, everyone will want to come to Kazakhstan…”
“The European countries have no intention of accepting refugees anyway. We will accept them and let those countries pay for the migration.”
As accepting refugees would solve chronic population shortages and increase the number of economically active people, so this was also a benefit for Kazakhstan.
“We need to build another factory then.”
“I don’t care how many light industry plants there are if we can drive out Chinese goods. Because it is labor-intensive, it will create a lot of jobs. It’s another opportunity for Central Asia to stand on its own feet.”
“How much are you willing to accept?”
“If any of the refugees scattered all over Europe are coming here, let’s accept them all. Instead, countries that send refugees from their own countries will have to pay a certain amount of money.”
Western European countries, plagued by refugee problems, would certainly welcome the Kazakh proposal with open arms to get rid of the social anxiety factor even if they had to pay to move the refugees in their countries.
“I hope they don’t accuse us of doing business with the refugees.”
“Just spread the rumor. Ambassadors from each country will flock to the royal territory right away.”
“Well, it’s, in fact, the best time for migration. We have plenty of time until winter.”
“We are the ones who have settled more than a million Kurds. We already have group residential areas, so all we need to do is to build a factory.”
“First of all, I think we should go to Greece. Most of the refugees flocked toward Greece, so the Greek government is greatly suffering.”
“Since the economic situation is difficult, Greece won’t be able to give us cash. I should ask them to pay it with an island.”
“Is there a good island near Arirang Island?”
Since the royal family had established a good relationship with the Greek government, the deal would be accepted without any resistance.
The countries that would pay the most would by far be Germany, France, and Britain because these countries were on the verge of splitting public opinion over the refugee issues.
First of all, they had security issues caused by refugees.
The refugees from underdeveloped countries were not accustomed to the advanced order, and their disorder often adversely affected the whole society.
Especially since the refugees were from Syria where there was a continuous civil war and terrorism, many were used to general crimes.
The next problem was the work.
With the exception of Germany, economies in Europe were in dire straits, and people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the idea that low-paid refugees were taking away their existing jobs.
If they had not accepted refugees, this would not have happened. So voters who believed the politicians were raising social unrest due to a political error were even campaigning for their removal from power.
Governments threatened by public opinions had come to declare that they would no longer accept refugees.
Lastly, social expenses such as education, health, and housing issues were soaring.
When Kazakhstan said it intended to accept refugees to Europe, which had been having such problems, diplomats from various countries flooded the country with inquiries as predicted.
Meanwhile, European countries advertised Kazakhstan as if it was legendary El Dorado to the Syrian refugees. It was not too much to say that, given the fact that the Kurds who settled in the royal territory lived happily.
Europe was also well aware of how much effort Kazakhstan made to stabilize the Kurds.
This was because Europe also provided some of the funds for the Kurdish settlement.
For that reason, European countries encouraged refugee’s migration to Kazakhstan, advertising that it had plenty of untapped lands, new towns, and jobs.