U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts was in Greece on a fact finding mission, accompanied by New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.<\/p>\n
The trip focused largely on economic issues and the Syrian refugee crisis. Warren spoke of the despair she witnessed first hand on the shores of Greece.<\/p>\n
The bottom of the rafts that refugees use to travel from Turkey to Greece are \u201cpaper thin.\u201d The life preservers are children\u2019s pool floaties. There are areas where children are being held alone, without their parents, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts told The Boston Globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about what it means to live in a world where parents would send young children off on their own because they were [living in an area]regarded as so dangerous,\u201d Warren said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe desperation of people fleeing Syria is something you can touch,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything you read about the number of people trying to get out of Syria, who are trying to make it to a place of safety, changes when you see them in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the trip to Ukraine, Greece, and Germany, the senators visited the Greek island of Lesvos, where they held meetings with Greek and United Nations officials on the shoreline where refugees first arrive from neighboring Turkey.<\/p>\n
Warren said refugees were told by traffickers that if they encounter the Greek Coast Guard, they should cut the bottom of the raft with a knife so they begin to sink and the Coast Guard is forced to rescue them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraffickers are getting paid outlandish sums of money to put people in those boats,\u201d Shaheen said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a human tragedy, we need to look at what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met civil engineers, we met PhDs. We met people who in any ordinary time could build a strong future for themselves and for their country. But they have no opportunities in Syria,\u201d Warren said. \u201cWe are all deeply concerned about security issues and the importance of vetting people. It\u2019s clear that good procedures are not yet in place. But it\u2019s also clear that there are many people here who could benefit Europe, the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the Syrian refugee crisis, the trip is aimed at discussions on the Greek debt crisis and eurozone economic policy. Warren, who has built her political career largely on her policies on the domestic economy, diagnosed some of the issues she sees with the European financial crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Greece and Ukraine there are problems with corruption, weakness in the rule of law, the lack of a strong civil society, that completely undermine the economic system,\u201d she said. \u201cI taught commercial law for many years and I understand, it\u2019s not possible to build a strong functional economy without rules . . . most business will follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut instead much of the economy in Greece is run by oligarchs. In Ukraine, 50 percent of the economy is black market now,\u201d she added. \u201cReforms are urgently needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problems are compounded, in her view, by the austerity measures being pushed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Those measures, she said, \u201cprovoke political backlash, making it much harder for the leaders in either country to develop the kind of countermeasures to corruption that they need to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message to the officials in Greece, to the government of Ukraine, is to focus on transparency, of ridding the country of official corruption,\u201d she said. \u201cBut my message in Germany was not to undermine those goals by insisting on unrealistic austerity measures that will ultimately make it much more difficult for either country to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts was in Greece on a fact finding mission, accompanied by New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen. The trip focused largely on economic issues and the Syrian refugee crisis. Warren spoke of the despair she witnessed … Continue reading ![\"Immigration\"](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Cartoon-of-the-Month-September-2015.jpg\")
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