Borderless (2019) - documentary about human trafficking business EU

For anyone interested in human trafficking and/or European politics, there is a documentary released on YT called Borderless.

The premiere was supposed to be yesterday I believe, and they got blocked somehow. This is one of those documentaries that supposedly shows you the real deal and is therefore not very politically correct. Much like Red Pill, don't expect it to win any awards... Also, it may not be online forever so if you want to watch it, here's your chance.

TLDW: Actually a very non-political look at the immigration crisis in the EU. It sucks for pretty much everyone, even most refugees who arrive. It's an enormous problem in proportions: Financially for the countries they go to, for the refugees themselves, for their families as they get split up, and for the safety and well-being of everyone involved. Human trafficking is big business. Corruption. The camps are messed up. Not safe. Not finding work and a home. It's interesting to see how much this documentary is about what they want, where they are, the safety, the money, and not so much racism or bigotry. What you see is to be expected in a way: people who are troubled, who want better. But is there even a way to help the situation?

Care to give a TL;DW once you're done?

I will give it a go later, it will be interesting to see how it matches what I've already learned.

@horgen: Sure I'll update the post when I'm done. I'm not too good at describing things in English but I'll give it a try.

OK I watched it.

This was a pretty decent documentary. I give it a 7.5 out of 10. Maybe 8 out of 10. There's not anything wrong with it per se. Some parts have bad audio or no fitting video footage but considering they often had only one opportunity to capture the footage and some of the countries they were in, that is to be expected. There is a part where they speak to an opinionated person. They could have talked to more people with different opinions. That would have been interesting. But like they say in the beginning they are more interested in the facts of mass immigration and not so much the politics.

It's pretty clear you need a much longer documentary to capture the whole issue. The main message is this: The refugee/immigration crisis that the EU faces is extremely grey. It's a loss for pretty much everyone who is involved. The people who flee tend to not end up in a great place. Even if they make it alive it's usually not a good situation. The countries they go to are not built to handle the refugees. And the business of trafficking these people is risky and expensive for the refugees. Maybe this will surprise some people, but there's a lot of money made on human trafficking. The camps they stay in are overcrowded and unsafe. They talk about stabbings for religious differences, ISIS refugees in camps, people getting robbed in their sleep, rape. No security, police won't do anything. How some of the refugees would have rather stayed home in hindsight. They talk about the dangers of having a lot of human trafficking going on near where you live.

They talk about the difference between the hopes they have for the countries they go to, and the reality of it. Most are single men who hope to bring their families over once they have a job and a house which probably won't happen. I was surprised by the extremely low rate of asylum application rejections. I'm not sure on their statistic, they say it was only like 3% between 2015-2016. The existing corruption among the NGO with human trafficking for money, and the aid workers getting people through interviews with lies. I think that's pretty likely to be true. The financial cost for the EU and the countries being like 150 to 200 billion euro's a year according to Steven Woolfe, MEP, Independent. I wonder if that's American billions or European billions, makes quite a difference. (1 billion = 1000 million vs 1 million million.) Basically I think they did a pretty good job not leaning too much in any direction. Because I believe it is mostly an unsolvable problem of a giant magnitude. Interestingly it is in many important ways not political. The most political thing about it was probably about people not being able to talk about these things freely. Something we're all used to by now, living on the net.

But at the same time it is the EU's primary concern. And therefore important for this board. You need to know something about the mass immigration crisis if you want to talk about the EU and what they are facing. One of my best friends has tried to get computers and internet to be accessible in refugee camps. So I know a tiny bit about refugee camps. I don't think that the documentary lied or falsely portrayed anything in that regard. I would like to know if the EU immigration crisis is any different than the USA immigration crisis? Being in the EU I know much more about it here, than what is happening in the USA. So I wasn't really shocked much by this documentary but I wonder what Americans think of it. I think one of the bigger differences is that we allow like half the people in, and I think it's much lower in the USA, and therefore the scale of the problem is much higher? But let me know.

The camps being messed up is no secret. ISIS/ISIS sympathizer groups and other groups forming has been reported over the years.

Some of the boats used to cross the sea and get into Europe has worse quality than children toys.

I think US have it easier to get a joint effort among different states than EU. The cost have been a huge issue. Greece isn't exactly in a good place economically, neither is Italy or Spain, yet those countries have been the front lines in Europe in handling the problems. Long term it will cost most for countries who get the most refugees I guess.

25 minutes in and no surprises.

So, having watched it, do you understand why it's being treated as a dangerous or heavily politicised documentary? I thought it was extremely mild considering the topic at hand. It's been removed and then re-uploaded again in some places of political discourse. I don't really see much to be angry about, or to create a fuss about. The most offensive thing to me is the overly dramatic music they add but that's more a personal pet peeve. Have you seen the Red Pill one? I think that's the best and most important documentary I've ever seen. The integrity of it is especially phenomenal. They have posted all the unedited interview content online. It's an amazing documentary that is completely not about hating women. The things it shows are pretty much the opposite of that message. It actually deals with that direct response in the documentary. And yet that's the reason it's removed from a lot of places. I find the reactions to it bizarre.

They dont fit the narrative so they get weighted down, restricted in some places.

It's food for anyone against immigration. Although I would say it shows that these refugee camps requires a lot more funding to properly function.

On the bright side, it seems like most people there are moderate in their views.

It's brought up that a lot of these people would rather have stayed home if they got the choice again.

Some 40 min into it now.

@horgen:

I suppose. But also it shows that these are not all terrorists or animals, or people who only travel to another country for benefits. Some people think that. They are very much people like you and I who happened to live in terrible places. And they also bring up the point that travelling into Europe cost them a lot of money. These are not the poorest people. They take many risks to do it. And they are themselves worried about things like theft and rape, and the trouble their presence can cause in the countries they arrive in. I thought that all spoke in favor of the immigrant wave, that they aren't just criminals and the 'hopeless' people from another country who don't care or don't see.

It shows how normal, how human they are and I think that's what people need to see to generate some empathy.

Although it is clear that empathy has little to do with solving this crisis. It cannot continue, that much is clear. Empathy or ethics won't even be part of the decision making, simply because it costs too much. Around 150 trillion or billion euro's a year, probably climbing, is not sustainable. The EU borders or the borders close to the EU are going to be closed further, very soon. (With closed I mean things like more drone/automated surveillance and on the ground troops ready to hunt down spotted trespassers.) No matter what anyone's opinions or feelings on the matter are.

I wonder how that changes things. Getting to Europe will be more risky for refugees. More refugees will die. The EU will try to intercept refugees closer to their home country to have them stay there. The deal with Turkey about holding immigrants back will end when the EU starts doing this themselves. This also means Turkey will have to close its borders or they will fill up with refugees. So Erdogan is going to yell some more, maybe demand some kind of financial help to do it. I could see European spooks more actively using combined resources to take human traffickers out of commission away from EU territory as they are seen as part of the problem. Turkey is not entering the EU, although that would be tempting to combat this crisis, because pretty much all political parties that I have heard about want the negotiations with Turkey to end. Closed borders will have a big impact in some area's because of Brexit. I think it's going to get weird. I don't see how to get it solved, though. Stemming the flow is not a complete solution. You'll have the costs accrued; the problems with poverty, housing, jobs would still be there.