INTL EU Refugee/Migration Crises - News Only Thread for September 2015
- Thread starter Melodi
- Start date
somdwatcher
Veteran Member
I personally believe that the West has caused the "Syrian" refugee issue by trying to overturn the Assad government. Beyond that, I am stunned at the stark difference in attitude toward the "refugees" in Europe. Those who live east of the "old" Iron Curtain-----those who have not been subjected to media blitz of PC for the past 20-30 years, those countries want to take real action against this immigration influx, meanwhile the western European nations continue to be PC to the death of their own cultures.
mzkitty
I give up.
10m
Serbia says it is ready to discuss taking quota of refugees 'as a country that wants to be a member of the EU' - @Reuters
End of alert
14m
Hungarian government passes law for refugee transit zones near border and increase punishment for illegal border crossing - @Reuters
End of alert
16m
Austrian police say 71 refugees found in truck suffocated quickly and on Hungarian territory; cooling system was not working - @Reuters
End of alert
33m
Photo: Many of those stuck at Keleti station leave, planning march on foot to Austria - @HKesvani, @Reuters
36m
Migrants detained in Hungary have left eastern railway station saying they will walk to Austria - @Reuters
End of alert
38m
Hundreds break out of Röszke camp, Hungarian police say - @bkalnoky, @Reuters
58m
UN refugee agency says Britain to take 4,000 more Syrian refugees from Middle East camps - @AP
End of alert
1h
200 people try to board ship from Greek island of Lesbos, scuffles, police use tear gas - @Reuters
End of alert
Serbia says it is ready to discuss taking quota of refugees 'as a country that wants to be a member of the EU' - @Reuters
End of alert
14m
Hungarian government passes law for refugee transit zones near border and increase punishment for illegal border crossing - @Reuters
End of alert
16m
Austrian police say 71 refugees found in truck suffocated quickly and on Hungarian territory; cooling system was not working - @Reuters
End of alert
33m
Photo: Many of those stuck at Keleti station leave, planning march on foot to Austria - @HKesvani, @Reuters
36m
Migrants detained in Hungary have left eastern railway station saying they will walk to Austria - @Reuters
End of alert
38m
Hundreds break out of Röszke camp, Hungarian police say - @bkalnoky, @Reuters
58m
UN refugee agency says Britain to take 4,000 more Syrian refugees from Middle East camps - @AP
End of alert
1h
200 people try to board ship from Greek island of Lesbos, scuffles, police use tear gas - @Reuters
End of alert
Attachments
mzkitty
I give up.
8m
Video: Riot police heading towards train in Bicske, Hungary; reports 200 refugees ran from train without being registered - @GavinLeeBBC
https://twitter.com/GavinLeeBBC/status/639812242666573824
53m
Britain is to provide extra £100m aid for Syrian refugees, bringing total to over £1bn, David Cameron announces - @PA
End of alert
57m
Refugees reportedly throw rocks on policemen at camp Röszke, Hungary - @panyiszabolcs
1h
Several hundred migrants stage further breakout at Bicske railway station - @Reuters
End of alert
Video: Riot police heading towards train in Bicske, Hungary; reports 200 refugees ran from train without being registered - @GavinLeeBBC
https://twitter.com/GavinLeeBBC/status/639812242666573824
53m
Britain is to provide extra £100m aid for Syrian refugees, bringing total to over £1bn, David Cameron announces - @PA
End of alert
57m
Refugees reportedly throw rocks on policemen at camp Röszke, Hungary - @panyiszabolcs
1h
Several hundred migrants stage further breakout at Bicske railway station - @Reuters
End of alert
mzkitty
I give up.
Long way...........Click on the link to see the complete map. WTF. It's 80 miles from Budapest, the red dot on the right, to the border, the black dot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/world/europe/austria-migrant-crisis-truck.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/world/europe/austria-migrant-crisis-truck.html
Attachments
delete
Tex88
Veteran Member
Immigrants throw away the food and the water they get
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=344_1441354394#shiq4Pyu4vt8ifLs.99
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=344_1441354394#shiq4Pyu4vt8ifLs.99
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Trucks, vans and cars: Irish aid convoy to help migrants prepares to set sail
“I suppose I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything.”
THE ORGANISERS OF an Irish aid convoy to Calais preparing to depart later this month say interest in the project has “mushroomed” in recent weeks.
The Ireland Calais Refugee Society has set up a GoFundMe page, and local Facebook pages have been set up for people signing up to the initiative around the country.
Tracey Ryan, a mother-of-one from Cork, is spearheading the project.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, she said Nolan Transport had donated an articulated truck for use by the group with another on standby.
cal2 Source: GoFundMe
The convoy – which also includes around 20 vans and ten to fifteen cars – will set sail from Rosslare on 29 September, arriving into Cherbourg the following day.
“We are going to stay on the camp now for a week and volunteer,” Tracey explained.
“We’re building some structures in the camp… There are people coming who are going to build some structures.”
Once the vehicles have been emptied the volunteers plan to do “a couple of food distributions during the week” – heading to local wholesalers and supermarkets, and putting together individual food parcels for people at the camp.
“100% of everything you donate on GoFundMe will go towards buying supplies – no middle men and logistical costs,” another organiser explained online.
Winter clothes
The volunteers are also collecting items at locations around the country. A particular appeal is being made for the following:
Tarpaulin
Heavy duty Rubbish bags
Tents: 4 person +
Blankets and sleeping bags
Men’s clothes: specifically, small to medium to sized warm clothes. Shoes, runners
Candles, torches
Men’s toiletries
Tools for fixing bikes, pumps, puncture repair kits.
Fundraisers are being held over the next few weeks, including one in Cork tonight, and Tracey is urging anyone who wants to get involved to contact their local group. Details are available via this central Facebook group.
trac Source: Tracey Ryan/Facebook
“I’ve been looking online over the last few weeks looking at the images and I suppose I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything,” Tracey said.
“We were discussing it online and I suppose things go viral very quickly these days.
“I think those images of the children that have been shared in the last day has just really spiraled this out, all over the country.”
Around 25 local groups have sprung up – and the volunteers have decided to focus their energy on Calais after assessing that it was where their efforts would have most impact in the short term.
They’re also looking at trying to ship aid to Hungary, Tracey said.
http://www.thejournal.ie/convoy-irish-migrants-2308714-Sep2015/
“I suppose I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything.”
THE ORGANISERS OF an Irish aid convoy to Calais preparing to depart later this month say interest in the project has “mushroomed” in recent weeks.
The Ireland Calais Refugee Society has set up a GoFundMe page, and local Facebook pages have been set up for people signing up to the initiative around the country.
Tracey Ryan, a mother-of-one from Cork, is spearheading the project.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, she said Nolan Transport had donated an articulated truck for use by the group with another on standby.
cal2 Source: GoFundMe
The convoy – which also includes around 20 vans and ten to fifteen cars – will set sail from Rosslare on 29 September, arriving into Cherbourg the following day.
“We are going to stay on the camp now for a week and volunteer,” Tracey explained.
“We’re building some structures in the camp… There are people coming who are going to build some structures.”
Once the vehicles have been emptied the volunteers plan to do “a couple of food distributions during the week” – heading to local wholesalers and supermarkets, and putting together individual food parcels for people at the camp.
“100% of everything you donate on GoFundMe will go towards buying supplies – no middle men and logistical costs,” another organiser explained online.
Winter clothes
The volunteers are also collecting items at locations around the country. A particular appeal is being made for the following:
Tarpaulin
Heavy duty Rubbish bags
Tents: 4 person +
Blankets and sleeping bags
Men’s clothes: specifically, small to medium to sized warm clothes. Shoes, runners
Candles, torches
Men’s toiletries
Tools for fixing bikes, pumps, puncture repair kits.
Fundraisers are being held over the next few weeks, including one in Cork tonight, and Tracey is urging anyone who wants to get involved to contact their local group. Details are available via this central Facebook group.
trac Source: Tracey Ryan/Facebook
“I’ve been looking online over the last few weeks looking at the images and I suppose I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything,” Tracey said.
“We were discussing it online and I suppose things go viral very quickly these days.
“I think those images of the children that have been shared in the last day has just really spiraled this out, all over the country.”
Around 25 local groups have sprung up – and the volunteers have decided to focus their energy on Calais after assessing that it was where their efforts would have most impact in the short term.
They’re also looking at trying to ship aid to Hungary, Tracey said.
http://www.thejournal.ie/convoy-irish-migrants-2308714-Sep2015/
Melodi
Disaster Cat
'Syrian passports on black market'
Posted at 17:43
German customs officers have seized packages containing Syrian passports, according to Germany's MDR broadcaster. It reports that both genuine and false passports were found, and police are investigating a suspected black market trade. The passports are much prized by refugees hoping to get asylum in Germany, the report says.
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-34149231
Posted at 17:43
German customs officers have seized packages containing Syrian passports, according to Germany's MDR broadcaster. It reports that both genuine and false passports were found, and police are investigating a suspected black market trade. The passports are much prized by refugees hoping to get asylum in Germany, the report says.
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-34149231
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Inside Zuwara, the heart of Libya's human-smuggling trade
By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Zuwara
Image caption The beaches of Zuwara are littered with the belongings of those who attempted the dangerous journey to Europe
Migrant surge
The walk along the beach in Zuwara was short, but in just 50 yards I found three dead bodies in the sand. They were all adult men, their corpses baking in the brilliant heat of the afternoon.
They had been there for some time. One appeared to be African, but the other two were so swollen and decomposed it was impossible to tell where they came from.
But they may have been Syrian. Or Palestinian. Or Iraqi. These are the people who flock here in their thousands, paying $1,000-$2,000 (£660-£1320) to get on tiny fishing boats they hope will make it across the Mediterranean to Italian waters.
Zuwara is the dark heart of Libya's smuggling trade. At the jetty of a former chemical plant about 20km (12 miles) from the town, people smugglers operate freely.
A week ago, two of the boats that set off from here ran into trouble. Two hours into their journey, they sank. Nearly 200 people drowned. Bad weather or a dispute between rival smuggling gangs may have caused these deaths.
Mohammed Alawi from Egypt was on one of the boats.
"We were sailing and all of a sudden the boat sank, everyone on board died except three or four people who were on top of the boat," he said. "The ones on top had life vests, but the waves took them in different directions, some people lived… some people died."
He was being held in a detention centre in Zuwara. As soon as he was freed, he said, he would head home.
"When I came, they told me there was no risk, they said it was a big ship, it had a captain and two assistants. They said the ships don't sink, if there's any trouble we will be rescued and helped. But none of this was true," he said.
"I will not try again, this route only leads to death. Your sell your soul and those of your children taking this journey," he added.
Image caption The bodies of migrants recently lost at sea are gathered on a beach
A people smuggler, who wished to remain anonymous, told me that it does not take much to get started in the business: $10,000 to buy a boat - demand has driven up prices - and the contacts to have refugees and migrants directed your way.
"There's no one person in control, it's an open market. If you have boats setting off earlier you may pass people between smugglers," he said.
Those making the journey are held overnight at safe houses, then transferred after dark in trucks to the beaches.
"We sometimes teach one of the migrants how to operate the boat," the smuggler explained. "If he does it, he pays less to travel."
Three people were detained after last week's disaster, but no formal charges have been brought yet. In Libya's chaos, the smuggling business is largely unchecked.
Despite the deaths of the week before, boats were still heading out from Zuwara under the cover of darkness.
"This business won't be stopped," the smuggler added.
The clothes of the dead, and those who escaped, litter the beaches here for hundreds of miles. There are shoes of all sizes, children's too, and makeshift life vests.
This Mediterranean summer nightmare may soon ease though. By October, the colder weather arrives and the seas become rougher, meaning fewer will attempt to cross these waters.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34157123
By Quentin Sommerville BBC News, Zuwara
Image caption The beaches of Zuwara are littered with the belongings of those who attempted the dangerous journey to Europe
Migrant surge
The walk along the beach in Zuwara was short, but in just 50 yards I found three dead bodies in the sand. They were all adult men, their corpses baking in the brilliant heat of the afternoon.
They had been there for some time. One appeared to be African, but the other two were so swollen and decomposed it was impossible to tell where they came from.
But they may have been Syrian. Or Palestinian. Or Iraqi. These are the people who flock here in their thousands, paying $1,000-$2,000 (£660-£1320) to get on tiny fishing boats they hope will make it across the Mediterranean to Italian waters.
Zuwara is the dark heart of Libya's smuggling trade. At the jetty of a former chemical plant about 20km (12 miles) from the town, people smugglers operate freely.
A week ago, two of the boats that set off from here ran into trouble. Two hours into their journey, they sank. Nearly 200 people drowned. Bad weather or a dispute between rival smuggling gangs may have caused these deaths.
Mohammed Alawi from Egypt was on one of the boats.
"We were sailing and all of a sudden the boat sank, everyone on board died except three or four people who were on top of the boat," he said. "The ones on top had life vests, but the waves took them in different directions, some people lived… some people died."
He was being held in a detention centre in Zuwara. As soon as he was freed, he said, he would head home.
"When I came, they told me there was no risk, they said it was a big ship, it had a captain and two assistants. They said the ships don't sink, if there's any trouble we will be rescued and helped. But none of this was true," he said.
"I will not try again, this route only leads to death. Your sell your soul and those of your children taking this journey," he added.
Image caption The bodies of migrants recently lost at sea are gathered on a beach
A people smuggler, who wished to remain anonymous, told me that it does not take much to get started in the business: $10,000 to buy a boat - demand has driven up prices - and the contacts to have refugees and migrants directed your way.
"There's no one person in control, it's an open market. If you have boats setting off earlier you may pass people between smugglers," he said.
Those making the journey are held overnight at safe houses, then transferred after dark in trucks to the beaches.
"We sometimes teach one of the migrants how to operate the boat," the smuggler explained. "If he does it, he pays less to travel."
Three people were detained after last week's disaster, but no formal charges have been brought yet. In Libya's chaos, the smuggling business is largely unchecked.
Despite the deaths of the week before, boats were still heading out from Zuwara under the cover of darkness.
"This business won't be stopped," the smuggler added.
The clothes of the dead, and those who escaped, litter the beaches here for hundreds of miles. There are shoes of all sizes, children's too, and makeshift life vests.
This Mediterranean summer nightmare may soon ease though. By October, the colder weather arrives and the seas become rougher, meaning fewer will attempt to cross these waters.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34157123
mzkitty
I give up.
5m
Video: Refugees, flanked by riot police, escorted from train to awaiting buses in Bicske, Hungary - @griffwitte
https://twitter.com/griffwitte/status/639847624334548992
Video: Refugees, flanked by riot police, escorted from train to awaiting buses in Bicske, Hungary - @griffwitte
https://twitter.com/griffwitte/status/639847624334548992
Melodi
Disaster Cat
This refugee crisis is too big for Europe to handle - its institutions are broken
Paul Mason
The EU needs a new asylum system based on reality. But without an influx of migrants, it faces a future of economic stagnation
Contact author
@paulmasonnews
Friday 4 September 2015 17.41 BST
Last modified on Friday 4 September 2015 18.19 BST
When you cut through the horror and the hypocrisy, the exodus across the Balkans is not just a refugee crisis. This is the first, mass trans-regional flight of modern times.
The Middle East has exploded across our TV screens for decades, but now it suddenly feels like an adjacent conflict zone. Just as we realised, in the 1990s, that the Bosnian killing fields were just a commuter flight away, today we are confronted by a clear land and ferry route from the war zone on the Euphrates to refugee centres on the Danube and the Rhine. The resulting crisis may prove too big for Europe to handle. Yes, there have been feelgood moments for anti-racists: as when thousands of German football fans raised banners welcoming the refugees. And Angela Merkel’s decision to process all Syrian asylum applications swept aside complacency. But as it unfolds, this crisis will place a severe strain on the EU’s institutions, and even concepts, for handling migration.
Refugee crisis: what can you do to help?
Read more
The Dublin III regulation, which requires all asylum seekers to be fingerprinted and sent back to their first country of arrival in the EU, is effectively suspended. The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free movement across central and western Europe, is falling apart: countries surrounding both Hungary and Italy have attempted to place ad hoc controls on migrants and refugees. Frontex, the agency that for years coordinated a policy of deterrence and prevention – through sea patrols and border fences – looks powerless.
And even as the news organisations agonise over the terminology – migrant or refugee – the distinctions on the ground are becoming pointless. Some migrants trapped in Greece for months or years, not from Syria and already denied asylum, have joined the trudge through the Balkans: they would rather take their chances in the German asylum system than in the Greek one, especially if the right returns to power in Athens this month. If you go to Victoria Square in Athens, where migrants cluster to seek out traffickers, you will meet people from other conflicts, people we’ve not been so hospitable to: Kurds, Afghans, oppressed minorities from Central Asia or Iran, people from Darfur and Eritrea. They are, by definition, asylum seekers – but the EU’s asylum system has already rejected most of them.
When I interviewed migrants in Morocco in 2013 preparing to make the sea crossing to Spain they were clustered into makeshift homes together, regardless of status: the political dissident from Gambia, the bricklayers from drought-hit Niger, the women fleeing poverty in west Africa who now faced racism and sexual violence in Morocco itself.
The disorder we have allowed to assemble at the borders of Europe does not easily divide into “economics” and “war”. The conceit that we can segment those coming here into the “deserving and undeserving” is going to shatter as their claims are processed.
0:00
/
0:00
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Video: Refugees in Hungary: how thousands spend the night at Keleti station
The immediate challenge for Europe is crisis management: the fiasco in Budapest is just the European leadership problem in microcosm. There is no coherence, no predictability and no urgency. As with Greece, and with the prolonged debt crisis of southern Europe, the institutions move sluggishly until leaders are forced into making flamboyant gestures, and no solution is ever reached. But, as they struggle to achieve coherence and to show compassion, the EU’s leaders are accumulating much bigger risks.
An EU into which half a million people can arrive to claim asylum in six months will struggle to justify the same rules and institutions as the Europe that believed its borders were under control. With Dublin III a dead letter, there will have to be a new asylum system based on reality. People will attempt to claim asylum whether they’re victims of war, drought or poverty. Either they’ll be processed in the place they want to settle, or there will have to be mass deportations back to Greece and Hungary – the two countries with the biggest fascist movements in the EU.
And if hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers are given leave to remain in a continent where there is stagnation and mass unemployment, what happens to free movement? The home secretary, Teresa May, has already called for it to be constrained in response to the new situation.
The EU’s leaders can muddle along with broken institutions, flouted laws, flailing border police. Or they can think it through. The OECD’s central projection is that, to stand a chance of avoiding stagnation, the EU’s workforce will have to add 50 million more people through migration by 2060 (a similar number is needed in the US). The Paris-based thinktank says if that doesn’t happen, it is a “significant downside risk” to growth. What this means should be spelled out, because no politician has bothered to do so: to avoid economic stagnation in the long term, Europe needs migrants.
Consent for inward economic migration is fragile and falling – as evidenced by the sudden rush by politicians and tabloids to reclassify the Syrian exodus as a special case. Even if populist resistance to migration stops short of fascism, and even if anti-migration parties are disempowered by the electoral system, their existence highlights a failing consensus. And that is, in turn, founded on economic failure. The Eurozone has produced an arc of stagnation and discontent along its southern border. There is mass unemployment in the very countries that have become the first port of call for migrants and refugees.
So the challenge for Europe is clear. To absorb the refugees we are going to need a new set of rules about where they’re processed; new arrangements for internal travel in Europe. Plus a new social consensus about who can come, who can’t and where they are going to live and work. And, ultimately, a massive economic stimulus.
If the EU cannot do all this, its constituent nations will begin to do so separately. And so, in the space of a summer, the refugee crisis crashes into the Euro crisis, and the one consistent problem is failure of leadership, anticipation and vision.
Paul Mason is economics editor of Channel 4 News. @paulmasonnews
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-europe-to-handle-its-institutions-are-broken
Paul Mason
The EU needs a new asylum system based on reality. But without an influx of migrants, it faces a future of economic stagnation
Contact author
@paulmasonnews
Friday 4 September 2015 17.41 BST
Last modified on Friday 4 September 2015 18.19 BST
When you cut through the horror and the hypocrisy, the exodus across the Balkans is not just a refugee crisis. This is the first, mass trans-regional flight of modern times.
The Middle East has exploded across our TV screens for decades, but now it suddenly feels like an adjacent conflict zone. Just as we realised, in the 1990s, that the Bosnian killing fields were just a commuter flight away, today we are confronted by a clear land and ferry route from the war zone on the Euphrates to refugee centres on the Danube and the Rhine. The resulting crisis may prove too big for Europe to handle. Yes, there have been feelgood moments for anti-racists: as when thousands of German football fans raised banners welcoming the refugees. And Angela Merkel’s decision to process all Syrian asylum applications swept aside complacency. But as it unfolds, this crisis will place a severe strain on the EU’s institutions, and even concepts, for handling migration.
Refugee crisis: what can you do to help?
Read more
The Dublin III regulation, which requires all asylum seekers to be fingerprinted and sent back to their first country of arrival in the EU, is effectively suspended. The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free movement across central and western Europe, is falling apart: countries surrounding both Hungary and Italy have attempted to place ad hoc controls on migrants and refugees. Frontex, the agency that for years coordinated a policy of deterrence and prevention – through sea patrols and border fences – looks powerless.
And even as the news organisations agonise over the terminology – migrant or refugee – the distinctions on the ground are becoming pointless. Some migrants trapped in Greece for months or years, not from Syria and already denied asylum, have joined the trudge through the Balkans: they would rather take their chances in the German asylum system than in the Greek one, especially if the right returns to power in Athens this month. If you go to Victoria Square in Athens, where migrants cluster to seek out traffickers, you will meet people from other conflicts, people we’ve not been so hospitable to: Kurds, Afghans, oppressed minorities from Central Asia or Iran, people from Darfur and Eritrea. They are, by definition, asylum seekers – but the EU’s asylum system has already rejected most of them.
When I interviewed migrants in Morocco in 2013 preparing to make the sea crossing to Spain they were clustered into makeshift homes together, regardless of status: the political dissident from Gambia, the bricklayers from drought-hit Niger, the women fleeing poverty in west Africa who now faced racism and sexual violence in Morocco itself.
The disorder we have allowed to assemble at the borders of Europe does not easily divide into “economics” and “war”. The conceit that we can segment those coming here into the “deserving and undeserving” is going to shatter as their claims are processed.
0:00
/
0:00
Video: Refugees in Hungary: how thousands spend the night at Keleti station
The immediate challenge for Europe is crisis management: the fiasco in Budapest is just the European leadership problem in microcosm. There is no coherence, no predictability and no urgency. As with Greece, and with the prolonged debt crisis of southern Europe, the institutions move sluggishly until leaders are forced into making flamboyant gestures, and no solution is ever reached. But, as they struggle to achieve coherence and to show compassion, the EU’s leaders are accumulating much bigger risks.
An EU into which half a million people can arrive to claim asylum in six months will struggle to justify the same rules and institutions as the Europe that believed its borders were under control. With Dublin III a dead letter, there will have to be a new asylum system based on reality. People will attempt to claim asylum whether they’re victims of war, drought or poverty. Either they’ll be processed in the place they want to settle, or there will have to be mass deportations back to Greece and Hungary – the two countries with the biggest fascist movements in the EU.
And if hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers are given leave to remain in a continent where there is stagnation and mass unemployment, what happens to free movement? The home secretary, Teresa May, has already called for it to be constrained in response to the new situation.
The EU’s leaders can muddle along with broken institutions, flouted laws, flailing border police. Or they can think it through. The OECD’s central projection is that, to stand a chance of avoiding stagnation, the EU’s workforce will have to add 50 million more people through migration by 2060 (a similar number is needed in the US). The Paris-based thinktank says if that doesn’t happen, it is a “significant downside risk” to growth. What this means should be spelled out, because no politician has bothered to do so: to avoid economic stagnation in the long term, Europe needs migrants.
Consent for inward economic migration is fragile and falling – as evidenced by the sudden rush by politicians and tabloids to reclassify the Syrian exodus as a special case. Even if populist resistance to migration stops short of fascism, and even if anti-migration parties are disempowered by the electoral system, their existence highlights a failing consensus. And that is, in turn, founded on economic failure. The Eurozone has produced an arc of stagnation and discontent along its southern border. There is mass unemployment in the very countries that have become the first port of call for migrants and refugees.
So the challenge for Europe is clear. To absorb the refugees we are going to need a new set of rules about where they’re processed; new arrangements for internal travel in Europe. Plus a new social consensus about who can come, who can’t and where they are going to live and work. And, ultimately, a massive economic stimulus.
If the EU cannot do all this, its constituent nations will begin to do so separately. And so, in the space of a summer, the refugee crisis crashes into the Euro crisis, and the one consistent problem is failure of leadership, anticipation and vision.
Paul Mason is economics editor of Channel 4 News. @paulmasonnews
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-europe-to-handle-its-institutions-are-broken
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Hungary closes Serbian border crossing as refugees make for Austria on foot
Röszke crossing temporarily closed after people break through camp fence
Elsewhere refugees and migrants set off towards Austria and Germany
Migrants walking out of Budapest in the direction of Vienna. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP
Jon Henley and agencies
@jonhenley
Friday 4 September 2015 13.27 BST
Last modified on Friday 4 September 2015 16.10 BST
Hungary has closed its main border crossing with Serbia after several hundred refugees and migrants broke out of a nearby camp, while hundreds of others set off on foot for Austria and Germany from Budapest and Bicske, a town 25 miles north-west of the Hungarian capital.
After at least 300 of the 2,300 people in the Röszke camp broke through a fence, police said in a statement: “In the interest of preventing accidents, the police have temporarily closed the Röszke motorway border crossing to incoming traffic and are redirecting traffic.”
In the capital, Budapest, the Hungarian parliament passed a series of laws effectively sealing the country’s southern border to migrants – about 140,000 of whom have crossed it so far this year – and creating “transit zones” where asylum seekers would be held until their requests are processed. Those denied asylum would be deported.
New laws will also make it a criminal offence to cross or damage Hungary’s razor-wire fence along the Serbian border, and make illegal border crossings punishable by up to three years in prison.
As many as 3,000 people – including many Syrian families with young children – remain stranded in a makeshift refugee camp at Budapest’s main international railway station.
Whistling and chanting, several hundred refugees, mainly young men, set off on foot from the crowded Keleti station, where they have been stuck for several days, saying they were prepared to walk the 155 miles (250km) to Vienna – or even the 400 miles to Munich – if necessary.
The Associated Press reported that hundreds more broke through a police cordon at the railway station in Bicske, before running westwards on a train track towards the
The breakaway followed a standoff at the station involving about 500 people, many holding tickets for Berlin or Vienna, who refused to get off a train halted on Thursday by security forces who tried to move the passengers to a nearby refugee camp..
A border police officer, Laszlo Balazs, told reporters that the refugees, most of whom were unwilling to pursue asylum claims in Hungary and would prefer to reach Germany, were engaging in “passive resistance” and refusing to cooperate. Only 16 people voluntarily registered at the centre on Thursday.
Police and civilian volunteers offered the refugees water, fruits and sweets, but many of them reportedly refused, pushing the food back through the train windows and shouting “No food! No food!” in protest.
Adnan Shanan, 35, from Latakia in Syria, who said he was fleeing war in his homeland, said: “The situation is so bad. We have many sick people on the train. We have pregnant women, no food, no water.
“We don’t need to stay here one more day. We need to move on to Munich, to anywhere else – we can’t stay here. We can’t wait until tomorrow. We need a decision today, now.”
Cries of “No camp, freedom!” rang out repeatedly from the stalled train, which had been sprayed with the words “No camp. No Hungary. Freedom train” in shaving foam, Reuters reported.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Ahmed Mahmoud, 60, who said he was a former Iraqi military officer who had lost both legs and was trying to join his daughter in Belgium.
“The police told us, get fingerprinted or face jail time. So we gave our fingerprints and they told us we can go. But we can’t go to the west. I just want to see my child in Belgium.”
At Keleti, tempers frayed and conditions were rapidly worsening in the station concourse thanks to the late summer heat. Some families have pitched tents and painted signs demanding to be allowed to continue their journeys, while children played football nearby.
Abdel Aziz, from Syria, said: “People are starting to be more nervous and angry. They are losing money day by day … So the situation will become more complicated and we’ll see some more problems.”
Police officers guard a refugee camp in the village of Röszke at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Photograph: Csaba Segesvari/AFP/Getty Images
Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, vowed on Friday that he would not let Europeans become “a minority in our own continent”, reiterating on Hungarian state radio his determination to stop the refugees. He said: “Today we are talking about tens of thousands, but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end.
“We have to make it clear that we can’t allow everyone in, because if we allow everyone in, Europe is finished. If you are rich and attractive to others, you also have to be strong because if not, they will take away what you have worked for and you will be poor, too.”
Hungary’s handling of the refugee crisis has created confusion and frustration. On Thursday, police reopened the station to migrants, only for passengers to be told by Hungarian Railways that it was suspending train services to western Europe “for security reasons”.
Many migrants then boarded trains they believed were heading for towns close to the Austrian border, including Sopron, Szombathely and Győr, but were later ordered off trains by police and taken to refugee camps in Vámosszabadi, about 70 miles west of Budapest, and Bicske.
Hungary has also criticised Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year, for saying it would accept requests from Syrians regardless of where they entered the European Union, contrary to EU rules.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/04/hungary-closes-main-border-crossing-with-serbia
Röszke crossing temporarily closed after people break through camp fence
Elsewhere refugees and migrants set off towards Austria and Germany
Migrants walking out of Budapest in the direction of Vienna. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP
Jon Henley and agencies
@jonhenley
Friday 4 September 2015 13.27 BST
Last modified on Friday 4 September 2015 16.10 BST
Hungary has closed its main border crossing with Serbia after several hundred refugees and migrants broke out of a nearby camp, while hundreds of others set off on foot for Austria and Germany from Budapest and Bicske, a town 25 miles north-west of the Hungarian capital.
After at least 300 of the 2,300 people in the Röszke camp broke through a fence, police said in a statement: “In the interest of preventing accidents, the police have temporarily closed the Röszke motorway border crossing to incoming traffic and are redirecting traffic.”
In the capital, Budapest, the Hungarian parliament passed a series of laws effectively sealing the country’s southern border to migrants – about 140,000 of whom have crossed it so far this year – and creating “transit zones” where asylum seekers would be held until their requests are processed. Those denied asylum would be deported.
New laws will also make it a criminal offence to cross or damage Hungary’s razor-wire fence along the Serbian border, and make illegal border crossings punishable by up to three years in prison.
As many as 3,000 people – including many Syrian families with young children – remain stranded in a makeshift refugee camp at Budapest’s main international railway station.
Whistling and chanting, several hundred refugees, mainly young men, set off on foot from the crowded Keleti station, where they have been stuck for several days, saying they were prepared to walk the 155 miles (250km) to Vienna – or even the 400 miles to Munich – if necessary.
The Associated Press reported that hundreds more broke through a police cordon at the railway station in Bicske, before running westwards on a train track towards the
The breakaway followed a standoff at the station involving about 500 people, many holding tickets for Berlin or Vienna, who refused to get off a train halted on Thursday by security forces who tried to move the passengers to a nearby refugee camp..
A border police officer, Laszlo Balazs, told reporters that the refugees, most of whom were unwilling to pursue asylum claims in Hungary and would prefer to reach Germany, were engaging in “passive resistance” and refusing to cooperate. Only 16 people voluntarily registered at the centre on Thursday.
Police and civilian volunteers offered the refugees water, fruits and sweets, but many of them reportedly refused, pushing the food back through the train windows and shouting “No food! No food!” in protest.
Adnan Shanan, 35, from Latakia in Syria, who said he was fleeing war in his homeland, said: “The situation is so bad. We have many sick people on the train. We have pregnant women, no food, no water.
“We don’t need to stay here one more day. We need to move on to Munich, to anywhere else – we can’t stay here. We can’t wait until tomorrow. We need a decision today, now.”
Cries of “No camp, freedom!” rang out repeatedly from the stalled train, which had been sprayed with the words “No camp. No Hungary. Freedom train” in shaving foam, Reuters reported.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Ahmed Mahmoud, 60, who said he was a former Iraqi military officer who had lost both legs and was trying to join his daughter in Belgium.
“The police told us, get fingerprinted or face jail time. So we gave our fingerprints and they told us we can go. But we can’t go to the west. I just want to see my child in Belgium.”
At Keleti, tempers frayed and conditions were rapidly worsening in the station concourse thanks to the late summer heat. Some families have pitched tents and painted signs demanding to be allowed to continue their journeys, while children played football nearby.
Abdel Aziz, from Syria, said: “People are starting to be more nervous and angry. They are losing money day by day … So the situation will become more complicated and we’ll see some more problems.”
Police officers guard a refugee camp in the village of Röszke at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Photograph: Csaba Segesvari/AFP/Getty Images
Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, vowed on Friday that he would not let Europeans become “a minority in our own continent”, reiterating on Hungarian state radio his determination to stop the refugees. He said: “Today we are talking about tens of thousands, but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end.
“We have to make it clear that we can’t allow everyone in, because if we allow everyone in, Europe is finished. If you are rich and attractive to others, you also have to be strong because if not, they will take away what you have worked for and you will be poor, too.”
Hungary’s handling of the refugee crisis has created confusion and frustration. On Thursday, police reopened the station to migrants, only for passengers to be told by Hungarian Railways that it was suspending train services to western Europe “for security reasons”.
Many migrants then boarded trains they believed were heading for towns close to the Austrian border, including Sopron, Szombathely and Győr, but were later ordered off trains by police and taken to refugee camps in Vámosszabadi, about 70 miles west of Budapest, and Bicske.
Hungary has also criticised Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year, for saying it would accept requests from Syrians regardless of where they entered the European Union, contrary to EU rules.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/04/hungary-closes-main-border-crossing-with-serbia
mzkitty
I give up.
10m
EU official: Plan to distribute additional 120,000 migrants includes relocating 54,000 migrants from Hungary - @AP
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ad8c...est-british-leader-pledges-more-help-migrants
EU official: Plan to distribute additional 120,000 migrants includes relocating 54,000 migrants from Hungary - @AP
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ad8c...est-british-leader-pledges-more-help-migrants
mzkitty
I give up.
4m
More: Hungary says it will send buses to Keleti train station in Budapest and M1 highway after hundred of migrants set for Austria on foot; 'We are taking this step so Hungary's transportation is not paralyzed during the next 24 hours,' prime minister's chief of staff says - @AP
--------------
The Latest: Hungary sending buses to take migrants to border
Sep. 4, 2015 4:09 PM EDT
BICSKE, Hungary (AP) — The latest news as tens of thousands of migrants pour into countries across Europe. All times local (CET):
__
10:05 p.m.
Hungary says it will send a fleet of buses to the main Keleti train station in Budapest and to the M1 highway heading to Vienna after hundreds of migrants decided to stop waiting for permission to get on trains and set off for Austria on foot.
In striking scenes, over 1,200 migrants walked all day and into the night along the highway, sometimes disrupting traffic with their vast numbers. At a train station in the northern town of Bicske, several hundred other migrants refused police demands to go to a camp, broke through a police cordon and took off for the Austrian border.
Janos Lazar, chief of staff for Prime Minister Viktor Orban says "this is a opportunity. The immigrants have to decide whether they want to take advantage of it. We are taking this step so Hungary's transportation is not paralyzed during the next 24 hours."
He said the buses will take the migrants to the main Hegyeshalom crossing with Austria. It's not clear, however, if the migrants will trust authorities and get on the buses. They were tricked earlier this week to get on a train that did not go to Austria.
Also there's no answer yet from Austria whether they will let the migrants in.
___
9:30 p.m.
In a surprise late announcement, the Hungarian government says it will offer buses to take hundreds of migrants to the border with Austria.
Earlier Friday, some 1,200 frustrated migrants left the Keleti train terminal in Budapest to walk all day along the city's main highway to Vienna.
Janos Lazar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, said Friday night in Parliament the buses would be sent because Hungarians' "transportation safety can't be put at risk."
Lazar said Hungary had asked Austria to clarify its position on the migrants but had not yet received an answer. Lazar said "a migration crisis is shaking Hungary" and blamed Germany's "contradictory communications" and the European Union's incompetence for the crisis.
___
9:15 p.m.
Slovakia has brushed aside a European Union proposal to share an additional 120,000 refugees in Greece, Hungary and Italy among their EU partners even before the offer is officially made public.
Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said Friday that "quotas solve nothing. We hear there are four million migrants in Turkey now, so where is it going to stop?"
Lajcak told reporters in Luxembourg that "the quotas are small part of the solution and we believe that European Union members pay too much attention to this small part."
The president of the EU's executive Commission is due to unveil the new relocation plan next week. EU leaders announced a plan in June to share 40,000 refugees arriving in Greece and Italy but some nations still refuse to accept their share.
More at link + video:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ad8c...est-british-leader-pledges-more-help-migrants
More: Hungary says it will send buses to Keleti train station in Budapest and M1 highway after hundred of migrants set for Austria on foot; 'We are taking this step so Hungary's transportation is not paralyzed during the next 24 hours,' prime minister's chief of staff says - @AP
--------------
The Latest: Hungary sending buses to take migrants to border
Sep. 4, 2015 4:09 PM EDT
BICSKE, Hungary (AP) — The latest news as tens of thousands of migrants pour into countries across Europe. All times local (CET):
__
10:05 p.m.
Hungary says it will send a fleet of buses to the main Keleti train station in Budapest and to the M1 highway heading to Vienna after hundreds of migrants decided to stop waiting for permission to get on trains and set off for Austria on foot.
In striking scenes, over 1,200 migrants walked all day and into the night along the highway, sometimes disrupting traffic with their vast numbers. At a train station in the northern town of Bicske, several hundred other migrants refused police demands to go to a camp, broke through a police cordon and took off for the Austrian border.
Janos Lazar, chief of staff for Prime Minister Viktor Orban says "this is a opportunity. The immigrants have to decide whether they want to take advantage of it. We are taking this step so Hungary's transportation is not paralyzed during the next 24 hours."
He said the buses will take the migrants to the main Hegyeshalom crossing with Austria. It's not clear, however, if the migrants will trust authorities and get on the buses. They were tricked earlier this week to get on a train that did not go to Austria.
Also there's no answer yet from Austria whether they will let the migrants in.
___
9:30 p.m.
In a surprise late announcement, the Hungarian government says it will offer buses to take hundreds of migrants to the border with Austria.
Earlier Friday, some 1,200 frustrated migrants left the Keleti train terminal in Budapest to walk all day along the city's main highway to Vienna.
Janos Lazar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, said Friday night in Parliament the buses would be sent because Hungarians' "transportation safety can't be put at risk."
Lazar said Hungary had asked Austria to clarify its position on the migrants but had not yet received an answer. Lazar said "a migration crisis is shaking Hungary" and blamed Germany's "contradictory communications" and the European Union's incompetence for the crisis.
___
9:15 p.m.
Slovakia has brushed aside a European Union proposal to share an additional 120,000 refugees in Greece, Hungary and Italy among their EU partners even before the offer is officially made public.
Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said Friday that "quotas solve nothing. We hear there are four million migrants in Turkey now, so where is it going to stop?"
Lajcak told reporters in Luxembourg that "the quotas are small part of the solution and we believe that European Union members pay too much attention to this small part."
The president of the EU's executive Commission is due to unveil the new relocation plan next week. EU leaders announced a plan in June to share 40,000 refugees arriving in Greece and Italy but some nations still refuse to accept their share.
More at link + video:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ad8c...est-british-leader-pledges-more-help-migrants
mzkitty
I give up.
34s
Germany and Austria to allow refugees and migrants in from Hungary, Austrian chancellor says - @itvnews
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-09-04/hungary-sends-buses-to-take-migrants-to-austrian-border/
9m
Video: Buses arrive for refugees who are attempting to walk from Budapest to Austrian border in Hungary - @BBCMatthewPrice
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/639916796104081408/video/1
Germany and Austria to allow refugees and migrants in from Hungary, Austrian chancellor says - @itvnews
http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-09-04/hungary-sends-buses-to-take-migrants-to-austrian-border/
9m
Video: Buses arrive for refugees who are attempting to walk from Budapest to Austrian border in Hungary - @BBCMatthewPrice
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/639916796104081408/video/1
mzkitty
I give up.
4m
Video: Bus to take migrants from Hungary to Austrian border clears after man fears they are being arrested; volunteers working to calm situation, @BBCMatthewPrice reports
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/639931087779708928
Video: Bus to take migrants from Hungary to Austrian border clears after man fears they are being arrested; volunteers working to calm situation, @BBCMatthewPrice reports
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/639931087779708928
mzkitty
I give up.
Dilma needs to STFU. I don't see her offering up Brazil to them on a silver platter. Do you?
37m
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff criticizes European nations for handling of migrant crisis; says Syrian child found on beach in Turkey died because he was 'not welcome' - @Reuters
23m
Austria says it and Germany will take refugees from Hungary - @AP
37m
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff criticizes European nations for handling of migrant crisis; says Syrian child found on beach in Turkey died because he was 'not welcome' - @Reuters
23m
Austria says it and Germany will take refugees from Hungary - @AP
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Thousands of migrants - many of them Syrian refugees - stream into Austria in the early hours of Saturday morning
Krisztina Than and Karin Strohecker
Published
05/09/2015 | 07:45
Migrants wait for buses after crossing Austrian border in Nickelsdorf, September 5, 2015.REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh
Thousands of exhausted refugees streamed into Austria on Saturday, bussed to the border by a Hungarian government that gave up trying to hold them back as Europe's asylum system buckled under pressure from the numbers reaching its frontiers.
After days of confrontation and chaos, Hungary's right-wing government deployed dozens of buses to move on migrants from the capital, Budapest, and pick up over 1,000 - many of them refugees from the Syrian war - who had set off by foot on Friday down the main highway to Vienna.
Austria said it had agreed with Germany that they would allow the refugees access, waiving the rules of an asylum system brought to breaking point by Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
Wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags against the rain, long lines of visibly exhausted people, many carrying small children, climbed off buses on the Hungarian side of the border and walked into Austria, receiving fruit and water from aid workers. Some waiting Austrians held signs that read, "Refugees welcome".
"We're happy. We'll go to Germany," said a Syrian man who gave his name as Mohammed. Another, who declined to be named, said: "Hungary should be fired from the European Union. Such bad treatment."
Austrian police said 2,000 had arrived at the border, with many more likely to follow during the day. Trains were laid on to take them from the border town of Nickelsdorf to Vienna.
Hungary cited traffic safety for its decision to move the migrants on.
But it appeared to mark an admission that the government had lost control in the face of overwhelming numbers determined to reach the richer nations of northern and western Europe at the end of an often perilous journey from war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
"Because of today's emergency situation on the Hungarian border, Austria and Germany agree in this case to a continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on his Facebook page.
On Friday, hundreds broke out of an overcrowded camp on Hungary's border with Serbia; others escaped from a stranded train, sprinting away from riot police down railway tracks, while still more took to the highway by foot led by a one-legged Syrian refugee and chanting "Germany, Germany!"
The scenes were emblematic of a crisis that has left Europe groping for answers, and for unity.
By nightfall, the Keleti railway terminus in Budapest, for days a campsite of migrants barred from taking trains west to Austria and Germany, was almost empty, as smiling families boarded a huge queue of buses that then snaked out of the capital.
The migrants left shoes, clothes and mattresses scattered behind them. Helicopters circled overhead.
Even as the buses arrived to collect them, some migrants remained suspicious, mindful of how hundreds of their number had boarded a train on Thursday that they believed was heading to the border but was stopped just west of Budapest by riot police who ordered them into a reception camp.
Ahmed, from Afghanistan, said of the buses to the border: "If it is true, it is victory. Maybe we can find a way now."
For days, Hungary has cancelled all trains going west to Austria and Germany, saying it is obliged under EU rules to register all asylum seekers, who should remain there until their requests are processed. Many have refused and several thousand had camped outside the Budapest train station.
On Friday, a crowd that swelled to over 1,000 broke away, streaming through the capital, over a bridge and out onto the main highway from Budapest to Vienna, escorted by police struggling to keep the road open. Some clutched pictures of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The turmoil contrasted with a pledge by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to get to grips with a crisis he says threatens Europe's prosperity, identity and "Christian values"; parliament on Friday tightened laws that his government said would effectively seal Hungary's southern border to migrants as of Sept. 15.
Orban, one of Europe's most outspoken critics of mass immigration, hailed "a different era", but Friday brought more desperate scenes. A Pakistani man died, police said. State television said he had stumbled and hit his head as he ran down train tracks.
More than 140,000 migrants have been recorded entering Hungary so far this year through the EU's external border with Serbia, where Orban's government is building a 3.5-metre (11.5-foot) high wall. Countless others may have entered without registering.
Hungary says they have been spurred by Germany saying it would accept asylum requests from Syrian refugees regardless of where they enter the EU, contrary to EU rules.
On Friday, lawmakers adopted some of a raft of measures creating "transit zones" on the border, where asylum seekers would be held until their requests are processed and deported if denied.
The measures introduce jail terms for those who cross the border without permission or damage the fence, and may eventually provide for the use of the army.
Reuters
http://www.independent.ie/world-new...early-hours-of-saturday-morning-31504351.html
Krisztina Than and Karin Strohecker
Published
05/09/2015 | 07:45
Migrants wait for buses after crossing Austrian border in Nickelsdorf, September 5, 2015.REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh
Thousands of exhausted refugees streamed into Austria on Saturday, bussed to the border by a Hungarian government that gave up trying to hold them back as Europe's asylum system buckled under pressure from the numbers reaching its frontiers.
After days of confrontation and chaos, Hungary's right-wing government deployed dozens of buses to move on migrants from the capital, Budapest, and pick up over 1,000 - many of them refugees from the Syrian war - who had set off by foot on Friday down the main highway to Vienna.
Austria said it had agreed with Germany that they would allow the refugees access, waiving the rules of an asylum system brought to breaking point by Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
Wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags against the rain, long lines of visibly exhausted people, many carrying small children, climbed off buses on the Hungarian side of the border and walked into Austria, receiving fruit and water from aid workers. Some waiting Austrians held signs that read, "Refugees welcome".
"We're happy. We'll go to Germany," said a Syrian man who gave his name as Mohammed. Another, who declined to be named, said: "Hungary should be fired from the European Union. Such bad treatment."
Austrian police said 2,000 had arrived at the border, with many more likely to follow during the day. Trains were laid on to take them from the border town of Nickelsdorf to Vienna.
Hungary cited traffic safety for its decision to move the migrants on.
But it appeared to mark an admission that the government had lost control in the face of overwhelming numbers determined to reach the richer nations of northern and western Europe at the end of an often perilous journey from war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
"Because of today's emergency situation on the Hungarian border, Austria and Germany agree in this case to a continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on his Facebook page.
On Friday, hundreds broke out of an overcrowded camp on Hungary's border with Serbia; others escaped from a stranded train, sprinting away from riot police down railway tracks, while still more took to the highway by foot led by a one-legged Syrian refugee and chanting "Germany, Germany!"
The scenes were emblematic of a crisis that has left Europe groping for answers, and for unity.
By nightfall, the Keleti railway terminus in Budapest, for days a campsite of migrants barred from taking trains west to Austria and Germany, was almost empty, as smiling families boarded a huge queue of buses that then snaked out of the capital.
The migrants left shoes, clothes and mattresses scattered behind them. Helicopters circled overhead.
Even as the buses arrived to collect them, some migrants remained suspicious, mindful of how hundreds of their number had boarded a train on Thursday that they believed was heading to the border but was stopped just west of Budapest by riot police who ordered them into a reception camp.
Ahmed, from Afghanistan, said of the buses to the border: "If it is true, it is victory. Maybe we can find a way now."
For days, Hungary has cancelled all trains going west to Austria and Germany, saying it is obliged under EU rules to register all asylum seekers, who should remain there until their requests are processed. Many have refused and several thousand had camped outside the Budapest train station.
On Friday, a crowd that swelled to over 1,000 broke away, streaming through the capital, over a bridge and out onto the main highway from Budapest to Vienna, escorted by police struggling to keep the road open. Some clutched pictures of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The turmoil contrasted with a pledge by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to get to grips with a crisis he says threatens Europe's prosperity, identity and "Christian values"; parliament on Friday tightened laws that his government said would effectively seal Hungary's southern border to migrants as of Sept. 15.
Orban, one of Europe's most outspoken critics of mass immigration, hailed "a different era", but Friday brought more desperate scenes. A Pakistani man died, police said. State television said he had stumbled and hit his head as he ran down train tracks.
More than 140,000 migrants have been recorded entering Hungary so far this year through the EU's external border with Serbia, where Orban's government is building a 3.5-metre (11.5-foot) high wall. Countless others may have entered without registering.
Hungary says they have been spurred by Germany saying it would accept asylum requests from Syrian refugees regardless of where they enter the EU, contrary to EU rules.
On Friday, lawmakers adopted some of a raft of measures creating "transit zones" on the border, where asylum seekers would be held until their requests are processed and deported if denied.
The measures introduce jail terms for those who cross the border without permission or damage the fence, and may eventually provide for the use of the army.
Reuters
http://www.independent.ie/world-new...early-hours-of-saturday-morning-31504351.html
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Brewer posted this as a separate thread but I wanted to add it here for balance; I may not a agree with it but it does represent the real feelings of many people, including a lot of Europeans. Until this past week, this was more the sort of Opinion Pieces we were seeing over here; once that photo hit the news it totally changed and now it is hard to find a dissenting voice outside of Eastern Europe and not all of that is published in English - Melodi
The Syrian Refugee Crisis is Not Our Problem
We didn’t cause it. We don’t have to solve it.
September 4, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
1.6K102219
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
The Syrian refugee crisis that the media bleats about is not a crisis. And the Syrian refugees it champions are often neither Syrians nor refugees. Fake Syrian passports are cheaper than an EU politician’s virtue and easier to come by. Just about anyone who speaks enough Arabic to pass the scrutiny of a European bureaucrat can come with his two wives in tow and take a turn on the carousel of their welfare state.
Or on our welfare state which pays Christian and Jewish groups to bring the Muslim terrorists of tomorrow to our towns and cities. And their gratitude will be as short-lived as our budgets.
The head of a UNHCR camp called Syrian refugees "The most difficult refugees I've ever seen. In Bulgaria, they complained that there were no jobs. In Sweden, they took off their clothes to protest that it was too cold.
In Italy, Muslim African “refugees” rejected pasta and demanded food from their own countries. But the cruel Europeans who “mistreat” migrants set up a kitchen in Calais with imported spices cooked by a Michelin chef determined to give them the stir-fried rabbit and lamb meatballs they’re used to. There are also mobile phone charging stations so the destitute refugees can check on their Facebook accounts.
It had to be done because the refugees in Italy were throwing rocks at police while demanding free wifi.
This is the tawdry sense of entitlement of the Syrian Muslim refugee that the media champions.
Hussein said: "We have the feeling that the aid workers are heartless." (He) lives in a trailer that cost $3,000. The air-conditioner runs with electricity he is tapping from the Italian hospital. The water for his tea is from canisters provided by UNICEF. He hasn't worked, paid or thanked anyone for any of it.”
And why would he? He’s entitled to it by virtue of his superiority as a Muslim and our inferiority as infidels. There is no sense of gratitude. Only constant demands as if the people who drove out their own Christians and Jews have some moral claim on the charity of the Christians and Jews of the West.
The media howls that the Syrian refugee crisis is our fault. That is a lie.
What is happening in Syria is a religious civil war fought over the same ideologies as the ones practiced by the vast majority of the refugees. This is an Islamic war fought to determine which branch of Islam will be supreme. It is not a war that started last week or last year, but 1,400 years ago.
We can’t make it go away by overthrowing Assad or supporting him, by giving out candy or taking in refugees. This conflict is in the cultural DNA of Islam. It is not going anywhere.
This war is not our fault. It is their fault.
There are Christian and non-Muslim minorities who are genuine refugees, but the two Muslim sects whose militias are murdering each other are not victims, they are perpetrators. Just because Sunnis are running from a Shiite militia or Shiites from a Sunni militia right now doesn’t make them victims.
The moment that their side’s militia wins and begins slaughtering the other side, the oppressed will become the oppressors. Such shifts have already taken place countless times in this conflict.
The refugees aren’t fleeing a dictator. They’re fleeing each other while carrying the hateful ideologies that caused this bloodshed with them.
We aren’t taking in people fleeing the civil war. We’re taking in their civil war and giving it a good home.
The Tsarnaevs left behind their old war with the Russian infidels to begin a new phase of it against the American infidels. The children of the Syrian Muslim refugees we’re taking in will be raised in a faith and a culture that will cause them to play out the same old patterns that led to the current tragedy.
There are already Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fighting each other in Greece. Muslim migrants are murdering Christian refugees on the journey over. And this is only the beginning.
The ranks of the refugees include possible war criminals like Abu Hussein, the commander of a Free Syrian Army militia named the Falcons of the Tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, who controls portions of a UNHCR refugee camp and threatens to kill aid workers when they won’t give him what he wants.
The bleeding hearts of Europe and America want to take in the cute kiddies, but they’ll be getting the Husseins instead who will be running neighborhoods in London, Paris and Toronto. And then the kindly natives will notice that their daughters are coming home late and wonder what is happening to them.
Syria will happen to them. Just as Pakistan and Afghanistan happened to the British girls victimized by the Muslim sex grooming gangs in the UK. Just as Saudi Arabia happened to us on September 11.
A popular meme claims that the UK has taken in only enough refugees to fit on a subway train. My question to the meme spreaders is how would they like to be on that train, wedged between the terrorists, the sex groomers and the Sunnis and Shiites trying to reach across and throttle each other.
We are told that the Syrian refugees “stir the conscience” of the world; certainly not the Muslim world. The Saudis don’t want them. Jordan and Turkey have resentfully set up refugee camps without actually offering permanent legal status to them the way that Europe, Canada and America are expected to.
What do Muslim countries know about the Syrian Civil War that we don’t?
The Saudis, Jordanians and Turks have their own problems. They don’t want to import the Syrian Civil War into their own borders. Only Western countries are stupid enough to do that.
The Syrian refugee crisis is a voluntary crisis. It would go away in a snap with secure borders and rapid deportations. The fake Syrians would stay home if they knew that their fake passport wouldn’t earn them a train ride to Germany’s Hartz welfare state, but a memorable trip to the Syrian Civil War.
Even announcing such a policy would lead to a rapid wave of self-deportations by finicky refugees for whom Bulgarian jobs, Italian food and Swedish weather aren’t good enough.
Plenty of Syrian refugees returned on their own from the Zaatari camp in Jordan when they saw that there weren’t enough treats for them. They went back to Syria from Turkey and even Europe when they didn’t find life to their liking. If they were really facing death back home, they would have stayed. There were no Jews going back to Germany during the Holocaust because they couldn’t find jobs in New York. Nobody goes home to a genocide. They go home because they were economic migrants, not refugees.
The crisis here is caused by the magnet of Western welfare states. Get rid of the magnet and you get rid of the crisis. Stop letting migrants who show up stay and there will be no more photogenic rafts filled with “starving” and “desperate” people who pay thousands of dollars to get to Europe and then complain about the food and the weather. Put up border fences and the “hikers” will go back home.
Keeping the doors open intensifies the crisis. It’s the sympathy of the bleeding hearts that leads to dead children whose parents are willing to risk their lives for their own economic goals. The left creates the crisis and then indicts everyone else for refusing to accept its solution that would make it even worse.
The “humanitarian catastrophe” in which the migrants use their children as photogenic human shields would go away if the doors were closed to everyone except real refugees who were not part of this war. The only thing that taking in fake refugees does is attract more of them and that empowers the left which uses dead children for its power and profit at more places than just Planned Parenthood.
Slovakia has announced that it will only take in Christian refugees and that’s the right thing to do. Christians are the real victims of this Muslim conflict. The vast majority of the refugees, many of whom aren’t even Syrians, aren’t. The rest of Europe should use Slovakia’s refugee policy as a model.
Tags: African Migrants, Crisis, Europe, refugee, Syria
Share
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260020/syrian-refugee-crisis-not-our-problem-daniel-greenfield
The Syrian Refugee Crisis is Not Our Problem
We didn’t cause it. We don’t have to solve it.
September 4, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
1.6K102219
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
The Syrian refugee crisis that the media bleats about is not a crisis. And the Syrian refugees it champions are often neither Syrians nor refugees. Fake Syrian passports are cheaper than an EU politician’s virtue and easier to come by. Just about anyone who speaks enough Arabic to pass the scrutiny of a European bureaucrat can come with his two wives in tow and take a turn on the carousel of their welfare state.
Or on our welfare state which pays Christian and Jewish groups to bring the Muslim terrorists of tomorrow to our towns and cities. And their gratitude will be as short-lived as our budgets.
The head of a UNHCR camp called Syrian refugees "The most difficult refugees I've ever seen. In Bulgaria, they complained that there were no jobs. In Sweden, they took off their clothes to protest that it was too cold.
In Italy, Muslim African “refugees” rejected pasta and demanded food from their own countries. But the cruel Europeans who “mistreat” migrants set up a kitchen in Calais with imported spices cooked by a Michelin chef determined to give them the stir-fried rabbit and lamb meatballs they’re used to. There are also mobile phone charging stations so the destitute refugees can check on their Facebook accounts.
It had to be done because the refugees in Italy were throwing rocks at police while demanding free wifi.
This is the tawdry sense of entitlement of the Syrian Muslim refugee that the media champions.
Hussein said: "We have the feeling that the aid workers are heartless." (He) lives in a trailer that cost $3,000. The air-conditioner runs with electricity he is tapping from the Italian hospital. The water for his tea is from canisters provided by UNICEF. He hasn't worked, paid or thanked anyone for any of it.”
And why would he? He’s entitled to it by virtue of his superiority as a Muslim and our inferiority as infidels. There is no sense of gratitude. Only constant demands as if the people who drove out their own Christians and Jews have some moral claim on the charity of the Christians and Jews of the West.
The media howls that the Syrian refugee crisis is our fault. That is a lie.
What is happening in Syria is a religious civil war fought over the same ideologies as the ones practiced by the vast majority of the refugees. This is an Islamic war fought to determine which branch of Islam will be supreme. It is not a war that started last week or last year, but 1,400 years ago.
We can’t make it go away by overthrowing Assad or supporting him, by giving out candy or taking in refugees. This conflict is in the cultural DNA of Islam. It is not going anywhere.
This war is not our fault. It is their fault.
There are Christian and non-Muslim minorities who are genuine refugees, but the two Muslim sects whose militias are murdering each other are not victims, they are perpetrators. Just because Sunnis are running from a Shiite militia or Shiites from a Sunni militia right now doesn’t make them victims.
The moment that their side’s militia wins and begins slaughtering the other side, the oppressed will become the oppressors. Such shifts have already taken place countless times in this conflict.
The refugees aren’t fleeing a dictator. They’re fleeing each other while carrying the hateful ideologies that caused this bloodshed with them.
We aren’t taking in people fleeing the civil war. We’re taking in their civil war and giving it a good home.
The Tsarnaevs left behind their old war with the Russian infidels to begin a new phase of it against the American infidels. The children of the Syrian Muslim refugees we’re taking in will be raised in a faith and a culture that will cause them to play out the same old patterns that led to the current tragedy.
There are already Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fighting each other in Greece. Muslim migrants are murdering Christian refugees on the journey over. And this is only the beginning.
The ranks of the refugees include possible war criminals like Abu Hussein, the commander of a Free Syrian Army militia named the Falcons of the Tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, who controls portions of a UNHCR refugee camp and threatens to kill aid workers when they won’t give him what he wants.
The bleeding hearts of Europe and America want to take in the cute kiddies, but they’ll be getting the Husseins instead who will be running neighborhoods in London, Paris and Toronto. And then the kindly natives will notice that their daughters are coming home late and wonder what is happening to them.
Syria will happen to them. Just as Pakistan and Afghanistan happened to the British girls victimized by the Muslim sex grooming gangs in the UK. Just as Saudi Arabia happened to us on September 11.
A popular meme claims that the UK has taken in only enough refugees to fit on a subway train. My question to the meme spreaders is how would they like to be on that train, wedged between the terrorists, the sex groomers and the Sunnis and Shiites trying to reach across and throttle each other.
We are told that the Syrian refugees “stir the conscience” of the world; certainly not the Muslim world. The Saudis don’t want them. Jordan and Turkey have resentfully set up refugee camps without actually offering permanent legal status to them the way that Europe, Canada and America are expected to.
What do Muslim countries know about the Syrian Civil War that we don’t?
The Saudis, Jordanians and Turks have their own problems. They don’t want to import the Syrian Civil War into their own borders. Only Western countries are stupid enough to do that.
The Syrian refugee crisis is a voluntary crisis. It would go away in a snap with secure borders and rapid deportations. The fake Syrians would stay home if they knew that their fake passport wouldn’t earn them a train ride to Germany’s Hartz welfare state, but a memorable trip to the Syrian Civil War.
Even announcing such a policy would lead to a rapid wave of self-deportations by finicky refugees for whom Bulgarian jobs, Italian food and Swedish weather aren’t good enough.
Plenty of Syrian refugees returned on their own from the Zaatari camp in Jordan when they saw that there weren’t enough treats for them. They went back to Syria from Turkey and even Europe when they didn’t find life to their liking. If they were really facing death back home, they would have stayed. There were no Jews going back to Germany during the Holocaust because they couldn’t find jobs in New York. Nobody goes home to a genocide. They go home because they were economic migrants, not refugees.
The crisis here is caused by the magnet of Western welfare states. Get rid of the magnet and you get rid of the crisis. Stop letting migrants who show up stay and there will be no more photogenic rafts filled with “starving” and “desperate” people who pay thousands of dollars to get to Europe and then complain about the food and the weather. Put up border fences and the “hikers” will go back home.
Keeping the doors open intensifies the crisis. It’s the sympathy of the bleeding hearts that leads to dead children whose parents are willing to risk their lives for their own economic goals. The left creates the crisis and then indicts everyone else for refusing to accept its solution that would make it even worse.
The “humanitarian catastrophe” in which the migrants use their children as photogenic human shields would go away if the doors were closed to everyone except real refugees who were not part of this war. The only thing that taking in fake refugees does is attract more of them and that empowers the left which uses dead children for its power and profit at more places than just Planned Parenthood.
Slovakia has announced that it will only take in Christian refugees and that’s the right thing to do. Christians are the real victims of this Muslim conflict. The vast majority of the refugees, many of whom aren’t even Syrians, aren’t. The rest of Europe should use Slovakia’s refugee policy as a model.
Tags: African Migrants, Crisis, Europe, refugee, Syria
Share
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260020/syrian-refugee-crisis-not-our-problem-daniel-greenfield
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Also from Brewer and from the same publication: Front Page Magazine
The Hijrah Into Europe
“Refugees” colonize a continent.
September 4, 2015
Robert Spencer
2.4K200296
Approximately 104,460 asylum seekers arrived in Germany during the month of August, setting a new record. That makes 413,535 registered refugees and migrants coming to Germany in 2015 so far. The country expects a total of around 800,000 people to seek asylum in Germany this year. And that’s just Germany. The entire continent of Europe is being inundated with refugees at a rate unprecedented in world history. This is no longer just a “refugee crisis.” This is a hijrah.
Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.
To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.
And now a hijrah of a much greater magnitude is upon us. Evidence that this is a hijrah, not simply a humanitarian crisis, came last February, but was little noted at the time and almost immediately forgotten. The Islamic State published a document entitled, “Libya: The Strategic Gateway for the Islamic State.” Gateway into Europe, that is: the document exhorted Muslims to go to Libya and cross from there as refugees into Europe. This document tells would-be jihadis that weapons from Gaddafi’s arsenal are plentiful and easy to obtain in Libya – and that the country “has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat.”
The Islamic State did not have in mind just a few jihadis crossing from Libya: it also emerged last February that the jihadis planned to flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. Now the number is shooting well beyond that in Germany alone. Of course, not all of these refugees are Islamic jihadis. Not all are even Muslims, although most are. However, no effort whatsoever is being made to determine the refugees’ adherence to Sharia and desire to bring it to their new land. Any such effort would be “Islamophobic.” Yet there are already hints that the Islamic State is putting its plan into effect: jihadis have already been found among the refugees trying to enter Europe. There will be many more such discoveries.
Eight hundred thousand Muslim refugees in one year alone. This will transform Germany, and Europe, forever, overtaxing the welfare economies of its wealthiest nations and altering the cultural landscape beyond recognition. Yet the serious public discussion that needs to be had about this crisis is shouted down by the usual nonsense: the Washington Post Wednesday published an inflammatory and irresponsible piece likening those concerned about this massive Muslim influx into Europe to 1930s Nazis ready to incinerate Jews by the millions. Hollywood star Emma Thompson accused British authorities of racism for not taking in more refugees – as if British authorities haven’t already done enough to destroy their nation.
And so it goes. If you don’t accept the brave new world that is sure to bring more jihad and more Sharia to Europe, you’re a Nazi and a racist. Meanwhile, no one is bothering even to ask, much less answer, one central question: why is it incumbent upon Europe have to absorb all these refugees? Why not Saudi Arabia or the other Muslim countries that are oil-rich and have plenty of space? The answer is unspoken because non-Muslim authorities refuse to believe it and Muslims don’t want it stated or known: these refugees have to go to Europe because this is a hijrah.
This is also Europe’s death knell.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260019/hijrah-europe-robert-spencer
The Hijrah Into Europe
“Refugees” colonize a continent.
September 4, 2015
Robert Spencer
2.4K200296
Approximately 104,460 asylum seekers arrived in Germany during the month of August, setting a new record. That makes 413,535 registered refugees and migrants coming to Germany in 2015 so far. The country expects a total of around 800,000 people to seek asylum in Germany this year. And that’s just Germany. The entire continent of Europe is being inundated with refugees at a rate unprecedented in world history. This is no longer just a “refugee crisis.” This is a hijrah.
Hijrah, or jihad by emigration, is, according to Islamic tradition, the migration or journey of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. It was after the hijrah that Muhammad for the first time became not just a preacher of religious ideas, but a political and military leader. That was what occasioned his new “revelations” exhorting his followers to commit violence against unbelievers. Significantly, the Islamic calendar counts the hijrah, not Muhammad’s birth or the occasion of his first “revelation,” as the beginning of Islam, implying that Islam is not fully itself without a political and military component.
To emigrate in the cause of Allah – that is, to move to a new land in order to bring Islam there, is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. “And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance,” says the Qur’an. “And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” (4:100) The exalted status of such emigrants led a British jihad group that won notoriety (and a shutdown by the government) a few years ago for celebrating 9/11 to call itself Al-Muhajiroun: The Emigrants.
And now a hijrah of a much greater magnitude is upon us. Evidence that this is a hijrah, not simply a humanitarian crisis, came last February, but was little noted at the time and almost immediately forgotten. The Islamic State published a document entitled, “Libya: The Strategic Gateway for the Islamic State.” Gateway into Europe, that is: the document exhorted Muslims to go to Libya and cross from there as refugees into Europe. This document tells would-be jihadis that weapons from Gaddafi’s arsenal are plentiful and easy to obtain in Libya – and that the country “has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat.”
The Islamic State did not have in mind just a few jihadis crossing from Libya: it also emerged last February that the jihadis planned to flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. Now the number is shooting well beyond that in Germany alone. Of course, not all of these refugees are Islamic jihadis. Not all are even Muslims, although most are. However, no effort whatsoever is being made to determine the refugees’ adherence to Sharia and desire to bring it to their new land. Any such effort would be “Islamophobic.” Yet there are already hints that the Islamic State is putting its plan into effect: jihadis have already been found among the refugees trying to enter Europe. There will be many more such discoveries.
Eight hundred thousand Muslim refugees in one year alone. This will transform Germany, and Europe, forever, overtaxing the welfare economies of its wealthiest nations and altering the cultural landscape beyond recognition. Yet the serious public discussion that needs to be had about this crisis is shouted down by the usual nonsense: the Washington Post Wednesday published an inflammatory and irresponsible piece likening those concerned about this massive Muslim influx into Europe to 1930s Nazis ready to incinerate Jews by the millions. Hollywood star Emma Thompson accused British authorities of racism for not taking in more refugees – as if British authorities haven’t already done enough to destroy their nation.
And so it goes. If you don’t accept the brave new world that is sure to bring more jihad and more Sharia to Europe, you’re a Nazi and a racist. Meanwhile, no one is bothering even to ask, much less answer, one central question: why is it incumbent upon Europe have to absorb all these refugees? Why not Saudi Arabia or the other Muslim countries that are oil-rich and have plenty of space? The answer is unspoken because non-Muslim authorities refuse to believe it and Muslims don’t want it stated or known: these refugees have to go to Europe because this is a hijrah.
This is also Europe’s death knell.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260019/hijrah-europe-robert-spencer
Melodi
Disaster Cat
Refugee crisis: European leaders preparing EU-wide protection force to deal with unfolding humanitarian catastrophe
Exclusive: Under the plans, legal responsibility for deporting people deemed to be economic migrants would pass from the member states to the European Union
Oliver Wright Author Biography
Friday 04 September 2015
European leaders are preparing to create a powerful EU-wide border protection force to deal with the refugee crisis engulfing the continent, The Independent understands.
Under plans being discussed by officials in Brussels, legal responsibility for deporting people deemed to be economic migrants would pass from the member states to the European Union.
The proposal – which would have legal force – will be discussed at the meeting of EU interior and justice ministers later this month.
At the same time the Commission will draw up a list of “safe countries of origin”. Migrants from these countries would be returned, because the EU considers them to be sufficiently stable. The list is expected to include all the Balkan States, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal and a number of other African countries.
The plan would mean that Frontex – the EU agency that currently acts as the liaison point for individual member states’ border controls – would take on new legal responsibilities. It would be able to arrange the deportation of people deemed to be economic migrants from across the EU as well as possibly managing the relocation of refugees across Europe.
On 9 September, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, will present a plan to relocate 120,000 Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans who have already entered the EU to states across the union. This is in addition to the relocation of 40,000 asylum-seekers previously proposed.
Presidency of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker Presidency of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
Britain is not expected to take part in the relocation programme as it has an opt-out on EU justice and home affairs issues under the Lisbon Treaty. David Cameron has pledged that the UK would welcome “thousands” of Syrian refugees under a separate scheme.
The EU plan will need to overcome the opposition of Spain and several East European countries which have previously opposed the redistribution of refugees. Two months ago EU leaders rejected Commission plans for a similar compulsory quota scheme and agreed to share out only 32,000 asylum-seekers – short of the original 40,000 target.
Mr Juncker’s address is expected to kick off a move to agree a new plan ahead of an emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on 14 September.
Frontex was established in 2004 to reinforce and streamline co-operation between national border authorities.
But under the new plan its responsibilities and powers would be hugely extended, which would bring closer the reality of a single European border force. It could still run into difficulties as the plan would need approval not just from member states but also the European Parliament.
However it is likely to be welcomed by some member states including the Hungarians, who are keen for a tougher line on immigration across the Continent.
“If we don’t discuss the real issue, which is the border control, we can divert the discussion in the wrong direction,” said Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister. “Without providing strict border control, just to speak about a quota system – it’s an invitation for those who would like to come. That’s a problem.”
The political tensions undermining the EU’s response to the refugee crisis were exposed at the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on 4 September.
Countries such as Germany and Italy called for the EU rapidly to put in place a common asylum system or face the collapse of its cherished right to free movement.
“If we have learnt anything from the last three, four weeks it’s that we won’t overcome this crisis if we keep pointing fingers at each other,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He urged countries to back the joint push by France and Germany for a binding quota system for handling refugees.
But Italy’s Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said this would not fully address the crisis. “The problem is not so much about quotas,” he said. “The real problem is that we need a common right of asylum.” Current EU rules – known as the Dublin Regulation – which make refugees the responsibility of the first EU country they reach do not work any more, Mr Gentiloni said.
“Those fleeing wars or bloody dictatorships don’t want to stay in the first country they reach. They want to come to Europe.
“If we go on with this conflict of everyone against the other we risk jeopardising free movement,” he said, adding that “it is not by building walls that countries can stay out of this process”.
Juncker to propose increase in refugee quotas
The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, is to propose an increased quota system next week for the relocation of refugees.
The new figure is expected to be 160,000 – up from the 40,000 previously agreed by a number of nations – with the burden distributed among the member states to ease the problems faced by Greece, Italy and Hungary.
The Refugee Council has called for the British Government to consider accepting tens of thousands of refugees “in order to make a significant difference to those struggling to survive in the region”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees suggested that the number accepted by Britain could be around 4,000, before withdrawing the number and saying a firm figure was yet to be communicated. The UNHCR has said that more than 300,000 refugees and migrants have used the sea route across the Mediterranean so far this year with almost 200,000 of them landing in Greece and a further 110,000 in Italy.
The Italian government established the search-and-rescue operation Mare Nostrum in the Mediterranean in October 2013 but this was replaced last year by a smaller EU operation which largely ceased search-and-rescue missions.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, and his ministers back the creation of an EU-wide immigration policy and an EU asylum law to ease the burden on countries on the front line.
Exclusive: Under the plans, legal responsibility for deporting people deemed to be economic migrants would pass from the member states to the European Union
Oliver Wright Author Biography
Friday 04 September 2015
European leaders are preparing to create a powerful EU-wide border protection force to deal with the refugee crisis engulfing the continent, The Independent understands.
Under plans being discussed by officials in Brussels, legal responsibility for deporting people deemed to be economic migrants would pass from the member states to the European Union.
The proposal – which would have legal force – will be discussed at the meeting of EU interior and justice ministers later this month.
At the same time the Commission will draw up a list of “safe countries of origin”. Migrants from these countries would be returned, because the EU considers them to be sufficiently stable. The list is expected to include all the Balkan States, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal and a number of other African countries.
The plan would mean that Frontex – the EU agency that currently acts as the liaison point for individual member states’ border controls – would take on new legal responsibilities. It would be able to arrange the deportation of people deemed to be economic migrants from across the EU as well as possibly managing the relocation of refugees across Europe.
On 9 September, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, will present a plan to relocate 120,000 Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans who have already entered the EU to states across the union. This is in addition to the relocation of 40,000 asylum-seekers previously proposed.
Presidency of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker Presidency of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
Britain is not expected to take part in the relocation programme as it has an opt-out on EU justice and home affairs issues under the Lisbon Treaty. David Cameron has pledged that the UK would welcome “thousands” of Syrian refugees under a separate scheme.
The EU plan will need to overcome the opposition of Spain and several East European countries which have previously opposed the redistribution of refugees. Two months ago EU leaders rejected Commission plans for a similar compulsory quota scheme and agreed to share out only 32,000 asylum-seekers – short of the original 40,000 target.
Mr Juncker’s address is expected to kick off a move to agree a new plan ahead of an emergency meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers on 14 September.
Frontex was established in 2004 to reinforce and streamline co-operation between national border authorities.
But under the new plan its responsibilities and powers would be hugely extended, which would bring closer the reality of a single European border force. It could still run into difficulties as the plan would need approval not just from member states but also the European Parliament.
However it is likely to be welcomed by some member states including the Hungarians, who are keen for a tougher line on immigration across the Continent.
“If we don’t discuss the real issue, which is the border control, we can divert the discussion in the wrong direction,” said Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister. “Without providing strict border control, just to speak about a quota system – it’s an invitation for those who would like to come. That’s a problem.”
The political tensions undermining the EU’s response to the refugee crisis were exposed at the start of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on 4 September.
Countries such as Germany and Italy called for the EU rapidly to put in place a common asylum system or face the collapse of its cherished right to free movement.
“If we have learnt anything from the last three, four weeks it’s that we won’t overcome this crisis if we keep pointing fingers at each other,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He urged countries to back the joint push by France and Germany for a binding quota system for handling refugees.
But Italy’s Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said this would not fully address the crisis. “The problem is not so much about quotas,” he said. “The real problem is that we need a common right of asylum.” Current EU rules – known as the Dublin Regulation – which make refugees the responsibility of the first EU country they reach do not work any more, Mr Gentiloni said.
“Those fleeing wars or bloody dictatorships don’t want to stay in the first country they reach. They want to come to Europe.
“If we go on with this conflict of everyone against the other we risk jeopardising free movement,” he said, adding that “it is not by building walls that countries can stay out of this process”.
Juncker to propose increase in refugee quotas
The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, is to propose an increased quota system next week for the relocation of refugees.
The new figure is expected to be 160,000 – up from the 40,000 previously agreed by a number of nations – with the burden distributed among the member states to ease the problems faced by Greece, Italy and Hungary.
The Refugee Council has called for the British Government to consider accepting tens of thousands of refugees “in order to make a significant difference to those struggling to survive in the region”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees suggested that the number accepted by Britain could be around 4,000, before withdrawing the number and saying a firm figure was yet to be communicated. The UNHCR has said that more than 300,000 refugees and migrants have used the sea route across the Mediterranean so far this year with almost 200,000 of them landing in Greece and a further 110,000 in Italy.
The Italian government established the search-and-rescue operation Mare Nostrum in the Mediterranean in October 2013 but this was replaced last year by a smaller EU operation which largely ceased search-and-rescue missions.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, and his ministers back the creation of an EU-wide immigration policy and an EU asylum law to ease the burden on countries on the front line.
mzkitty
I give up.
Here is a study done in 2011, about what the world will look like muzzie-wise by 2030.
Take a look. It's scary:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jan/28/muslim-population-country-projection-2030
Take a look. It's scary:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jan/28/muslim-population-country-projection-2030
Lilbitsnana
On TB every waking moment
Conflict News @Conflicts 48m48 minutes ago
Syrian refugees make up 30% of #Lebanon's population: UN Palestinian refugees another 12% - @intlspectator
Conflict News @Conflicts 50m50 minutes ago
EU threatens sanctions against countries who don’t help with #refugees #RefugeeCrisis - @blakehounshell http://www.politico.eu/article/sanctions-considered-for-refugees-migrants-quota-crisis-opt-out/ …
Conflict News @Conflicts 51m51 minutes ago
Ferry chartered by the Greek government brings 2500 people to Piraeus from islands - @daphnetoli
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Conflict News retweeted Szabolcs Panyi
Hungarian police now banning #RefugeeMarch from walking on highway, must take less trafficked roads
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Thousands of #refugees arrive at #Austrian border, start boarding trains to #Vienna, Salzburg - RT
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Finnish Prime Minister is now inviting #refugees to stay in his house #RefugeeCrisis - @lindseyhilsum
Conflict News retweeted
Gissur Simonarson CN @GissiSim 1h1 hour ago
Wondering why the #refugees are trying to reach Europe? Here is #Kobane where #AlanKurdi came from #RefugeeCrisis
Syrian refugees make up 30% of #Lebanon's population: UN Palestinian refugees another 12% - @intlspectator
Conflict News @Conflicts 50m50 minutes ago
EU threatens sanctions against countries who don’t help with #refugees #RefugeeCrisis - @blakehounshell http://www.politico.eu/article/sanctions-considered-for-refugees-migrants-quota-crisis-opt-out/ …
Conflict News @Conflicts 51m51 minutes ago
Ferry chartered by the Greek government brings 2500 people to Piraeus from islands - @daphnetoli
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Conflict News retweeted Szabolcs Panyi
Hungarian police now banning #RefugeeMarch from walking on highway, must take less trafficked roads
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Thousands of #refugees arrive at #Austrian border, start boarding trains to #Vienna, Salzburg - RT
Conflict News @Conflicts 1h1 hour ago
Finnish Prime Minister is now inviting #refugees to stay in his house #RefugeeCrisis - @lindseyhilsum
Conflict News retweeted
Gissur Simonarson CN @GissiSim 1h1 hour ago
Wondering why the #refugees are trying to reach Europe? Here is #Kobane where #AlanKurdi came from #RefugeeCrisis
mzkitty
I give up.
1m
Slovenia to accept 631 refugees under new EU proposal - @STA_English
17m
Video: Germans at Munich railway station applauding refugees arrival - @jennyhillBBC
https://twitter.com/jennyhillBBC/status/640157837684015104/video/1
49m
Video: Austrian officials tries to provide buses direct to Germany for migrants coming from Hungary - @BBCMatthewPrice
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/640151440229593088/video/1
22m
Photo: A woman takes waterfrom Hungary civilian aid workers while walking to Austria - @margitfeher
4m
Photo: Hungarian riot police moving refugees in Roszke detainment camp on Serbian border to buses - @AnshelPfeffer
Slovenia to accept 631 refugees under new EU proposal - @STA_English
17m
Video: Germans at Munich railway station applauding refugees arrival - @jennyhillBBC
https://twitter.com/jennyhillBBC/status/640157837684015104/video/1
49m
Video: Austrian officials tries to provide buses direct to Germany for migrants coming from Hungary - @BBCMatthewPrice
https://twitter.com/BBCMatthewPrice/status/640151440229593088/video/1
22m
Photo: A woman takes waterfrom Hungary civilian aid workers while walking to Austria - @margitfeher
4m
Photo: Hungarian riot police moving refugees in Roszke detainment camp on Serbian border to buses - @AnshelPfeffer
Attachments
mzkitty
I give up.
2h
New Democratic Party in Canada present plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by end of the year and 9,000 each year after that for next 4 years - @shaaminiwhy
2h
Statement: Canada's New Democratic Party on aiding Syrian refugees: 'There are moments in history that define us as a people and as country. With so many in dire need, this is out moment. We must act now.' - @althiaraj
New Democratic Party in Canada present plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by end of the year and 9,000 each year after that for next 4 years - @shaaminiwhy
2h
Statement: Canada's New Democratic Party on aiding Syrian refugees: 'There are moments in history that define us as a people and as country. With so many in dire need, this is out moment. We must act now.' - @althiaraj
Attachments
mzkitty
I give up.
1h
Munich police say at the end of today, 3,000 migrants will have entered the Germany city - @PolizeiMuenchen
18m
Video: Arrival scene of refugees in Nickelsdorf, Austria - @ronbrown01
https://twitter.com/ronbrown01/status/640201112608444416
1h
Photo: Austrians offer water, shoes and fresh fruit to refugees arriving from Hungary - @BenBrownBBC
1h
Photo: A flyer handed out to refugees in Budapest, Hungary indicatcing safe modes of transportation to Austria - @MurphyPeterN
Munich police say at the end of today, 3,000 migrants will have entered the Germany city - @PolizeiMuenchen
18m
Video: Arrival scene of refugees in Nickelsdorf, Austria - @ronbrown01
https://twitter.com/ronbrown01/status/640201112608444416
1h
Photo: Austrians offer water, shoes and fresh fruit to refugees arriving from Hungary - @BenBrownBBC
1h
Photo: A flyer handed out to refugees in Budapest, Hungary indicatcing safe modes of transportation to Austria - @MurphyPeterN
Attachments
Tex88
Veteran Member
Goodie.
GERMANY OPENS ITS DOORS TO 'ANYONE SEEKING ASYLUM' AS THOUSANDS POUR IN
Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country will not stop anyone seeking asylum as thousands of migrants left Hungary and made their way westward towards Germany and Austria.
German officials recently predicted that up to 800,000 migrants would arrive by the end of the year, many of them refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rted-walk-100-miles-border.html#ixzz3ktIG1ebD
GERMANY OPENS ITS DOORS TO 'ANYONE SEEKING ASYLUM' AS THOUSANDS POUR IN
Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country will not stop anyone seeking asylum as thousands of migrants left Hungary and made their way westward towards Germany and Austria.
German officials recently predicted that up to 800,000 migrants would arrive by the end of the year, many of them refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rted-walk-100-miles-border.html#ixzz3ktIG1ebD
mzkitty
I give up.
1h
Majority of Britons favor leaving European Union amid concerns over immigration, opinion poll shows - @Reuters
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Majority of UK voters favour leaving EU, migration fears weigh -poll
1 Hour Ago
LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A majority of Britons now favour leaving the European Union amid concerns over immigration, an opinion poll showed on Saturday, signalling a shift in views ahead of a referendum on Britain's membership of the bloc.
The survey, by polling firm Survation for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, found 51 percent of respondents wanted to leave the EU and 49 percent wanted to remain, excluding undecided voters.
While the results are within the poll's margin of error and represent a statistical tie, the previous comparable poll, carried out in late June and early July, had found support for staying in the EU at 54 percent while 45 percent wanted the country out of the 28-nation bloc.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's EU ties ahead of the referendum which is due to take place before 2017.
But the anti-EU UK Independence Party says the government cannot address the freedom of workers from within the EU to come to Britain under one of the bloc's core principles.
Survation said the Mail on Sunday poll was the first time it had found a lead for the "out" campaign since November 2014.
The polling firm also said a "significant minority" of voters who favour remaining in the EU would consider changing their minds should Europe's migration crisis worsen.
The latest online poll was conducted on Sept. 3 and 4 and heard the opinions of 1,004 adults, a smaller sample size than the previous poll.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/05/reut...ur-leaving-eu-migration-fears-weigh-poll.html
Majority of Britons favor leaving European Union amid concerns over immigration, opinion poll shows - @Reuters
--------------
Majority of UK voters favour leaving EU, migration fears weigh -poll
1 Hour Ago
LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A majority of Britons now favour leaving the European Union amid concerns over immigration, an opinion poll showed on Saturday, signalling a shift in views ahead of a referendum on Britain's membership of the bloc.
The survey, by polling firm Survation for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, found 51 percent of respondents wanted to leave the EU and 49 percent wanted to remain, excluding undecided voters.
While the results are within the poll's margin of error and represent a statistical tie, the previous comparable poll, carried out in late June and early July, had found support for staying in the EU at 54 percent while 45 percent wanted the country out of the 28-nation bloc.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's EU ties ahead of the referendum which is due to take place before 2017.
But the anti-EU UK Independence Party says the government cannot address the freedom of workers from within the EU to come to Britain under one of the bloc's core principles.
Survation said the Mail on Sunday poll was the first time it had found a lead for the "out" campaign since November 2014.
The polling firm also said a "significant minority" of voters who favour remaining in the EU would consider changing their minds should Europe's migration crisis worsen.
The latest online poll was conducted on Sept. 3 and 4 and heard the opinions of 1,004 adults, a smaller sample size than the previous poll.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/05/reut...ur-leaving-eu-migration-fears-weigh-poll.html
Lilbitsnana
On TB every waking moment
Conflict News @Conflicts 4h4 hours ago
SAUDI ARABIA: "There are 500k Syrian refugees in Saudi Arabia" according to the acting regional representative to the country at the UNHCR.
SAUDI ARABIA: "There are 500k Syrian refugees in Saudi Arabia" according to the acting regional representative to the country at the UNHCR.