"Refugees" Ask for Wi-Fi Passwords Before Food... We're Being Played for Fools
Though the mainstream media has largely stopped talking about it, there remains an ongoing crisis in Europe with regard to the asylum seekers and refugees who fled war-torn and corrupt nations in the Middle East and North Africa.
However, according to Jihad Watch, new arrivals are reportedly seeking immediate access to what many would consider a luxury instead of a need, prior even to asking questions about basic necessities like food, water and shelter.
That comparative luxury would be the password for the Wi-Fi internet provided at European migrant camps, and that is the first thing newly arrived “refugees” are asking about, according to the U.K. Times.
“The first thing a refugee asks for upon arrival at a camp is not water or food but the Wi-Fi password,” Kann Terzioglou, CEO of mobile phone provider Turkcell, said at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, according to the Times. “We need to use what the digital technologies have offered in an effort to find effective solutions to the refugee crisis.”
It was explained that most asylum seekers utilize mobile phones to navigate their way throughout Europe, and require a strong Wi-Fi signal to communicate with their friends and family who have remained in their home countries.
Terzioglou also stated his belief that because smartphones were so heavily relied upon by refugees to find their way while maintaining a connection to their homes, the devices could almost be considered a basic humanitarian necessity these days.
The Times noted that a 2016 study by the United Nations revealed that some refugees were more than willing to give up more than a week’s worth of food for a month’s worth of data for their smartphones.
That report stated, “Refugees view access to a mobile phone and internet as being critical to their safety and security and essential for keeping in touch with loved ones. Many refugees regard a connected device as being as vital to them as food, water and shelter.”
It was noted by The Times that a serious protest by refugees over horrible living conditions in a Greek migrant camp was temporarily suspended so technicians could make repairs to the Wi-Fi network in peace.
A similar report about the importance of Wi-Fi to refugees was issued by Newsweek in January of 2016, and it was noted that access to the internet was one of the first five questions asked by most newly arrived refugees, according to an Arabic interpreter working for Amnesty International at a migrant camp on the island of Lesbos.
In addition to asking about Wi-Fi access, many refugees also ask where they can obtain new SIM cards for their devices, as SIM cards from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries are essentially worthless in Europe.
Rounding out the top five questions from refugees were how to get registered with the camp as a documented asylum seeker, where to obtain milk or formula for babies and how long an individual would be required to stay at the new arrival camp before being permitted to move along to their next destination, wherever that may be.
To be sure, there is no question that smartphones and the internet have revolutionized communication and connectivity around the world, and there is no doubt that many people have come to rely heavily upon them not just for making phone calls or sending texts, but also pulling up maps and information that may be pertinent to their journey.
That said, as important as some may consider Wi-Fi access to be, it is not a basic humanitarian necessity as some may claim, nor does it rank in importance above or even alongside food, water and shelter.
Something tells us that the situation for some of these “refugees” isn’t nearly as dire as we are led to believe if they are asking about Wi-Fi passwords before seeking the actual basic necessities of life.
There have been refugees as long as there’ve been humans. They’ve never needed internet access before, and if they claim to need it now they’re not the refugees previous generations would even recognized.
Politics aside, it’s a truth that’s fundamental: Anyone who would trade food for smartphone data isn’t really hungry.
Please share this on Facebook and Twitter so everyone can see what the most important thing is for some newly arrived “refugees” to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa.
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