Human Rights

How Trump's Policies Have Backfired in Countries Adopting Them

Making other countries unbearable.

Photo Credit: Jacob Lund / Shutterstock

Given Donald Trump's lack of detail regarding his policies, it's easy to dismiss them as unfeasible. But many of Trump's plans are terrifyingly possible; just look at similar ones being implemented worldwide, and how awful they are for their citizens and the world.

Philippines

Donald Trump often suggests controversial measures for combating the drug war, one of the key reasons behind his infamous U.S./Mexico wall proposal.

"They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime," Trump stated about undocumented Mexican immigrants in his campaign announcement in June 2015.

And since branding himself the "law and order candidate," Trump has blamed drugs for the unrest in Charlotte, North Carolina, and stated police need to get "much tougher."

Similarly, the newly elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has been dubbed the "Trump of the East" as a result of the politician's misogyny, tough talk and nationalist worldview. Since he took office in June, Duterte's campaign against crime has resulted in over 3,000 deaths, about 1,000 of them committed by the police. Since receiving international condemnation for the killing spree, Duterte has proposed increasing the death toll of drug suspects to 3 million and likened himself to Hitler. 

"The president has a strong focus on improving 'law and order,' which has allegedly resulted in numerous extrajudicial killings since he came to power," said international credit rating agency S&P, which warned that Duterte's leadership is a major threat to the country's democratic institutions and economy.

U.K.

Less than three months after the Brexit vote, the U.K. began work on its own wall, a 13-foot concrete barrier at the French port of Calais to prevent refugees from entering the country. Much like Trump does in the U.S., the U.K. government cites migrant crime as its main concern.

According to Robert Goodwill, Immigration MP, the British government is building the wall in order to safeguard the drivers going down the motorway past the refugee camp and toward the ferry terminal, citing increased attacks against drivers in recent weeks. But the government has faced major opposition from the Road Haulage Association, a trade association that represents U.K. truck drivers.

"It's effectively a waste of taxpayers' money," RHA spokesman Rod McKenzie told Russia Today. "So what will happen, as we've already seen, is that these highly organized migrant gangs will simply cause the roadblocks, the obstructions... as a way of creating a traffic jam to get stairways onboard British bound lorries [trucks]."

If upsetting these truck drivers doesn't seem like a big deal, it's worth noting that lorries carry over 85 percent of all goods brought into the U.K., and more than 2.2 million people are employed by this industry.

Hungary

There's a labor shortage in Eastern Europe that you probably haven't heard of. The cause? Immigration restrictions in a country with a minimum wage of just $3.63. an hour. Because of this, employers like Hungarian winemaker Sandor Font are "really sweating blood to find enough people [to work in the vineyards]... an enormous challenge."

"Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has reinforced Hungary's borders to keep out more than a million mostly Muslim migrants who have flowed into Europe since the start of 2015, has called a referendum on Sunday [October 2] to seek support for [his plan to poach] 'culturally similar' workers from countries such as Ukraine or Serbia," Reuters reported. 

Is it any wonder Orban has endorsed Trump?

Alexandra Rosenmann is an AlterNet associate editor. Follow her @alexpreditor.

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