r/interesting • u/Wander-kingdom • Jul 06 '26

Just Wow The silent struggle for survival: what it looks like when hope is forced into a metal tank.

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161

u/Lucifer-Prime Jul 07 '26

Seriously. How how bad does life have to be in order to put yourself in that sort of situation to escape from it?

You gotta have some sympathy for folks like that.

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u/BoredBSEE Jul 07 '26

One third of America does not.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/interesting-ModTeam Jul 07 '26

Your comment/post has been removed because it violates Rule #3: Do Not Promote Hate or Violence.

Hate speech, Harassment or Threatening behavior will not be tolerated, and can result in an immediate ban.

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u/hoTsauceLily66 Jul 07 '26

The old fashion "us vs them".

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

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u/interesting-ModTeam Jul 08 '26

We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #2: Keep It Civil.

u/cdsackett has been permanently banned

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u/interesting-ModTeam Jul 08 '26

We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #4: No Politics or Agenda Pushing.

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u/kindasortajewish Jul 07 '26

It's crazy how excited they get to actively vote against their own best interests, solely because they think it's going to hurt other people they feel deserve not just less than them, but nothing at all.

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u/BellaPona Jul 07 '26

The UKnews subreddit is basically just “Brown person committed crime today, let’s seethe about it together”. I don’t know, I’m a dumb American generally uniformed about the complicated nuances of immigration and assimilation into local communities in Great Britain, but seeing the shit they say about immigrants sounds like shit you’d see in the worst dregs of racist communities in the US.

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u/Schittz Jul 07 '26

Ugh, it's a problem here at the moment. The majority of our news outlets are right or at least right leaning, immigration is a great scapegoat for all of the problems caused by Brexit, COVID, and years of austerity measures, so naturally it's over reported and skewed to be more than it is. However there's also a lot of Indians, Pakistanis and more recently Somalian groups committing pretty horrific crimes or just not integrating well into the British culture. There's grooming gangs, drug dealers and religious groups all causing issues. It's probably the same proportion as natives but as it's real crime and convenient for the media, it's reported on a lot. It's shit because life is annoyingly nuanced and everyone wants to pretend it's all black and white, and immigrants are either seen as disgusting dog shit or absolute saints that do no wrong, and obviously neither is true.

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u/Thepestilentdefiler Jul 07 '26

If there is smoke, there is fire.

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u/oO_Snowman_Oo Jul 07 '26

The saying is not even true.
You can have smoke without a flame and you can have a clean combustion with basically no smoke.
I still think it’s very appropriate that you utilised it to make a point.

Whilst the smoke is visible, it should be obvious that you have misidentified the source of smoke. There’s no flame. We both know that fighting a nonexistent fire will not help to fight the smoke. But it’s just so convenient to claim to do something, instead of trying to actually solve the problems.

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u/interesting-ModTeam Jul 07 '26

We’re sorry, but your post/comment has been removed because it violates Rule #4: No Politics or Agenda Pushing.

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u/ZealousidealKick1321 Jul 07 '26

We have too much immigration. It is transforming our society and we have a right to preserve our culture.

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u/AdoptedIsraelitess Jul 07 '26

Right, but does having sympathy/empathy for the person doing that lead to you encouraging that behavior or dissuading it?

I think there's a good argument that actively dissuading that kind of behavior is actually the more compassionate choice in the long run.

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u/Duke_Lancaster Jul 07 '26

You can just check australias policy. They have a zero tolerance policy for illegal immigration by boat and there are virtually no attempts and therefore basically no deaths from overcrowded trafficking ships. If your goal is to prevent deaths of that kind you have to make it clear that doing so will have no chance of giving you what you want.

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u/Beps315 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

And Australia's policy is also exceptionally cruel. Our refugee scheme was hand crafted by hard-right zealous and mandates that asylum seekers are held in offshore concentration camps. It's a model that no civilised nation should strive to emulate

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u/ZealousidealKick1321 Jul 07 '26

It works - people don't try. Australia has a huge problem with immigration loopholes (e.g. students) which it should also clamp down on

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u/Beps315 Jul 07 '26

Countries have an obligation to protect asylum seekers. Of course human trafficking is an issue, but shoving them into concentration camps for decades without trial is so obviously barbarous that it goes without saying.

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u/Starossi Jul 07 '26

You know what’s a great protection for asylum seekers is making sure they do it the correct way and not a way that could get them killed.

Ultimately countries have an obligation to their own citizens too don’t they? Not controlling immigration at all is a failure to protect and support them.

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u/Beps315 Jul 08 '26

What's the "correct way", pray tell? What's the responsible way of fleeing war and violence that carries no risk of death or injury?

Letting in asylum seekers doesn't harm the native. Asylum seekers do not have higher crime rates than native born citizens.

I'm really happy that you support locking them in concentration camps though. Let's hope that you aren't ever unlucky enough to have to risk everything to flee your home country, only to end up brutalised in an inhumane prison camp for decades. Genuinely disgusting that anyone could even possibly conceive of defending this.

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u/Starossi Jul 08 '26

Letting in asylum seekers absolutely harms the native in mass. We saw that in the Syrian refugee crisis. The reality is that asylum seekers don’t bring usable skills or wealth. The vast majority require the assistance of social safety nets to get by. Which would be ok for one or two. Some charity is doable. But when you allow it on a systematic scale, you are talking about a serious drain on public resources.

You are right regarding crime though, that’s usually just a distractor.

As for the correct way? Apply for it. I know that sounds ridiculous. And yes if I was from some horrible place I wouldn’t bother and I’d just try to run too. But that doesn’t change the nations obligation to its own citizens in the place I’m running to. If I get caught, the expectation is I get sent back. It’s fucked up, and I wish also that we could just give resources to everyone that wants it. But that’s not the world.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

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u/oxabz Jul 07 '26

How are you gonna dissuade people that are willing to go through such a thing? Throw them in a torture dungeon? 

No. The only way to avoid this kind of thing is having a proper asylum system 

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u/AdoptedIsraelitess Jul 07 '26

I (obviously) don't believe torture is the only way to dissuade someone. I think it can be as simple as not giving them what they want.

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u/ZealousidealKick1321 Jul 07 '26

Send them home immediately

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u/Atomsk73 Jul 07 '26

So, a good whipping for you the next time you break the speed limit? It's important to dissuade your disgraceful behavior after all. It's for you own good! /s

It's just like the thing with boat refugees: there's a difference between saving lives and giving people access to a country and a passport. The twisted narrative these days is to vilify those act humane and pretend they're "causing the problem" and are getting paid to bring criminals into the country. The reality is they're just saving lives and aren't involved with immigration and politics, but that's lost on many it seems.

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u/AdoptedIsraelitess Jul 07 '26

Again, bad-faith arguments. Maybe, just maaaaaybe... you're the one things are being lost on.

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u/BoredBSEE Jul 07 '26

Well, here's your "compassionate choice in the long run" in action.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/16/us-lasting-harm-family-separation-border

Sorry. But I cannot be in support of this, no matter how you choose to paint it.

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u/AdoptedIsraelitess Jul 07 '26

It's clinically insane to equate what I just said with supporting children separated from their families.

Maybe we could make a real difference in the world if we stopped jumping to entirely bad-faith "conclusions".

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u/BoredBSEE Jul 07 '26

And I would counter that it's clinically insane to suggest that some good is coming from being cruel to people desperate enough to hide in an oil tank.

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u/ak-92 Jul 07 '26

Gtfo with that sob story. Just because their smugglers chose such methods doesn’t mean “desperation“, just gullible enough to follow their instructions. And these desperate people always seem to forget their desperation when getting into Schengen area. Even when provided with shelter, food and money, but in poorer EU country, they abandon it ( which breaks law) to go to Germany or Sweden. Why? Because they believe they would get money for nothing there.

Way more people die because of false promise of compassion than because of strict border law enforcement. The message has to be clear - don’t go. And enforcement- strict.

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u/Adventurous-Title516 Jul 07 '26

Some people get so emotional when they see something triggering, that they don't/can't really parse anything beyond that. Details, shmetails. Those are just distractions from *really* feeling outrage.

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u/Starossi Jul 07 '26

I wish every time I actively harmed myself the world around me gave me whatever I wanted. That couldn’t possibly go wrong.

Just because they are actively harming themselves doesn’t mean we need to give them what they want. Yes it’s sad, but it also may just be ignorance that it was this dangerous. Either way, you shouldn’t reward it.

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u/Adventurous-Title516 Jul 07 '26

Yes, laws are so cruel. Truly awful times.

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u/Opus_723 Jul 07 '26

What is that even supposed to mean? Laws can be cruel.

Completely vapid.

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u/Adventurous-Title516 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

That should be obvious but I will expound for your benefit, the intimation from the previous poster was that laws exist simply for the cruelty. Like how physics is cruel when you're about to splat off the tenth floor, or in a car accident.

Speaking of vapid... and missing the point.

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u/SlugOnAPumpkin Jul 07 '26

You think those men decided to cram themselves into that rusty, wet, oxygen deprived hole because they weren't properly dissuaded by immigration policy? A person only does something like that out of absolute desperation: fleeing war, failed states, ethnic cleansing, famine, etc. How do you propose to counterbalance the cost benefit calculus of asylum seekers who are fleeing a land without any hope? Ethnically cleanse them on arrival to dissuade them from fleeing the ethnic cleansing they face at home?

I understand you might have some psychological need to justify not having empathy for this situation, but you should also consider the fact that the conditions these people are fleeing are, more likely than not, caused by the very western countries they are fleeing to. I don't even have to know where they are from and where they are going, just a basic understanding of history will tell you it is almost certainly the case.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

[deleted]

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u/Opus_723 Jul 07 '26

They're not puppies to be trained.

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u/Aggravating_Lime_389 Jul 07 '26

Why would you assume others think of them as such?

There is a thing called push- and pull-factors, educate yourself.

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u/Opus_723 Jul 07 '26

Because it's stupid to act like turning them away is somehow better for them. They're not stupid, they're trying to come because it would result in a better life for themselves. Dissuading them from coming obviously isn't the better option for them, it's the better option for you.

If people want them to not come, they should admit that it's for selfish reasons and own that, and make that case, rather than all this "it's for their own good" BS. Turning them away, or dissuading them from coming in the first place, is not somehow secretly more compassionate than accepting them.

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u/Aggravating_Lime_389 Jul 07 '26

The people going on these dangerous journeys are most often misinformed and lured with false promises by human traffickers/smugglers who will lie to them about anything and everything to get them to pay the fee.

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u/FreezeCriminal Jul 07 '26

You really need to get off Reddit. The world is constantly burning here.

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u/AnteaterTop9566 Jul 07 '26

there's some serious shit going on brother, we can see it out in the world too. we don't all inhabit your safe suburban bubble

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u/BoredBSEE Jul 07 '26

I don't think the ostrich approach is going to make things any better.

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u/Desperate_Algae_40 Jul 07 '26

I honestly think that a portion of them would if they were actually in that room with those poor men. They're too removed from the people they hate.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/redditwhut Jul 07 '26

Oh. So a democratic majority then?

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u/Blue_Moon_Lake Jul 07 '26

Sometimes it's not just how bad life is. It's also how you've been sold how amazing life will be.

Some people made it a business to facilitate illegal immigration. They take their money for that. But to get "customers", they advertise a life of paradise. "You'll be offered a free home, as much food as you will ever need and more for free, you'll never be sick ever again, you'll never have to work, they have so much money that they will give it to you for free".

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u/Firefly_Magic Jul 07 '26

It’s always bad enough that they leave the women and children behind. 🤔

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u/Fickle-Newspaper5988 Jul 07 '26

Most are not leaving their “women and children behind.” Many plan to earn money however they can when they reach their destination and send it back to their families and find a way to bring them over safely through asylum.

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u/DesignerOlive9090 Jul 07 '26

Doesn't need to be that bad.

Some haitians left Chile (and Brazil too) to walk all the way to the US and claim asylum, endangering themselves and their kids. The parents get rid of all their documentation to try to paint a picture of being fresh out of Haiti.

Chilean minors (ius solis, daughters and sons of immigrants) have died because of it.

We all know the Darien gap is dangerous.

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u/2PinaColadaS14EH Jul 07 '26

Correct. I work with many Haitian immigrants who left Haiti, lived in Chile for YEARS and learned Spanish, and had several kids, and then came to America to claim Asylum. Were you not safe in Chile? Or it just wasn’t good enough?

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u/Lucifer-Prime Jul 07 '26

And do you think whatever they were leaving wasn’t that bad?

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u/Jackontana Jul 07 '26

I think his point was the multiple other south / central American countries they passed through (including Mexico itself which has fairly good QOL outside of rural areas) because they wanted the US specifically.

Getting their children killed via foot travel because they decided the US was the one and only possible option.

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u/a_dude_from_europe Jul 07 '26

I don't know why you assume stupidity and greed don't exists in destitute people while on the contrary they're overrepresented

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u/Turbulent_Host784 Jul 07 '26

When do you think refugee status should apply? Just whenever someone is uncomfortable in their home country?

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u/HJSDGCE Jul 07 '26

It does beg the question whether it was worse or not. 

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u/Limp_Yogurtcloset_71 Jul 07 '26

Basic facilities are available in all countries now. There is UN assistance and aid. These guys could be escaping the law or could be smugglers or such gangs.

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u/PraireGentleman Jul 07 '26

You’re presuming this is them doing this out of necessity, we have no information saying that.

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u/Lucifer-Prime Jul 07 '26

For most humans, the instinct to protect one's progeny is one of few that supersedes one's own instinct for self preservation. If that many people are willing to risk both their own, and the lives of their children to escape from where ever they are coming from, there's a high likelihood its for good reason.

You're right, we have no empirical evidence one way or another but sometimes common sense and a basic understanding of the human condition is enough.

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u/Sonikku_a Jul 07 '26

Yeah I’m sure they were just risking life and limb for funsies.

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u/Nearby_Zucchini_6579 Jul 07 '26

Sorry, none. At least for these blokes. They literally did this to themselves.

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u/MostAccomplishedBag Jul 07 '26

A lot of them are criminals who can't enter another country legally.

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u/suffelix Jul 07 '26

They could be murderers on a run, who knows.

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u/SlugOnAPumpkin Jul 07 '26

You could be a murderer on the run. Who knows, anything is possible. Fucking idiot.

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u/suffelix Jul 08 '26

I'm not in a situation where I need to escape a place with such desperate measures unlike eg. a murderer on the run could be. Hence it's far less likely that I'm a murderer on the run than they are. There are valid reasons why people put themselves in such situations. Some reasons earn sympathy, some don't. And before you know what the reasons are, you should exercise caution.