June 26,2015

Europe migrant crisis: How are countries coping?

By Laurence Peter
BBC News
26 June 2015
From the section Europe

A migrant holds a placard reading "We are not going back" as he waits near the sea, in the city of Ventimiglia at the French-Italian border, on 15 June 2015
Many migrants were blocked earlier in June at the French-Italian border
Europe's migration crisis affects EU member states in different ways - so it is proving difficult to agree on common rules.
The influx of migrants into southern Europe has escalated, driven by the wars in Syria and Iraq, as well as conflict in many parts of Africa. More than 150,000 have arrived this year - far more than in the first half of last year.
The EU is struggling with shifting migration patterns, creating particular problems for individual countries. How are they coping?

Italy

For months Italy has been on the frontline of the crisis, as boatloads of desperate migrants risk their lives trying to reach Lampedusa or Sicily.
Last year Italy controversially reduced its naval patrols off war-torn Libya, telling its EU partners that they must contribute to efforts to stop the migrant boats coming.

After hundreds of migrants drowned off Lampedusa this year, the EU agreed to launch a joint naval operation to rescue migrants in distress. But aid agencies say patrols ought to cover a wide area on the high seas - not just the EU's territorial waters.
Italy says its EU partners must also share the burden of housing migrants and processing asylum claims.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi voiced anger at East European leaders who rejected an EU plan for mandatory quotas to distribute migrants across the 28-nation bloc.
Recently France blocked hundreds of migrants at Ventimiglia, on the Italian border.
Many migrants staying at makeshift camps in Italy are desperate to move on to northern Europe.

Greece

The boatloads of migrants heading for Greek islands have increased sharply this year.
Lesvos is a particular pressure point. Many of the migrants are Syrians, and many of them will be entitled to refugee status, having fled the civil war.
But Greece's reception centres are overcrowded and some are in a deplorable state.
Heavily indebted Greece, already unable to pay its bills, cannot cope with the influx. It has a massive backlog of asylum claims to process.
There is much hostility in Greece towards non-EU migrants, and many of them quickly try to move north via the Balkans to reach other EU countries.
In the current economic crisis many Greeks fear competition from foreigners for scarce jobs.

France

In recent years France has sent many poor Roma (Gypsies) back to Romania and Bulgaria, after they entered France illegally.
But now the French focus is on the growing numbers of migrants entering Europe from the Mediterranean. They include many sub-Saharan Africans, some of whom have camped out on the streets of Paris.
The latest pressure point is Calais, where about 3,000 irregular migrants are sleeping rough, getting little local help. They want to get to the UK - and pictures of them jumping on to UK-bound lorries triggered fresh British criticism of lax security at the French port.
France says the UK must provide more help to solve the Calais crisis.

Migration into Europe
153,000
migrants crossed into Europe so far this year
149% increase from 2014
63,000 migrants reached Greece by sea
62,000 migrants reached Italy by sea
10,000 on Hungary/Serbia border in May

UK

The UK's emphasis is on breaking up the people-smuggling networks - trying to tackle the problem before the migrants turn up in Europe.
UK politicians point out that the UK spends more than many other EU countries on development aid, which can help stem the flow of economic migrants from poor countries.
The UK and some other EU countries also want stronger EU efforts to send failed asylum seekers back. Last year the rate for sending migrants back was just 39%.
But the British debate has tended to focus on the Conservatives' ambition to reduce immigration from EU countries. The government wants to tighten the rules on migrants' social benefits, as a disincentive for would-be immigrants from the EU.
The UK is involved in the Mediterranean naval operation, but has opted out of the EU plan to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from overcrowded migrant centres in Italy and Greece.

Germany

Germany has more asylum seekers than any other EU country. Its strong economy is a magnet for migrants desperate to start a new life.
But like other EU countries, Germany wants much better screening of migrants, to determine who has the skills that the German economy needs.
The birth rate in Germany, as in Italy, is low - so both countries will need immigrants to fill labour market gaps in future.
Germany has a tradition of welcoming migrants - after all, Turks, Yugoslavs and some other nationalities contributed greatly to Germany's post-war economic boom.
Germany and Austria support the EU plan for resettling asylum seekers. That contrasts with the reluctance of most East European countries to take in more migrants.
Germany has been the preferred destination of many Chechens, who fled Russia's bloody crackdown against separatist fighters.
Partly the East Europeans are worried that they could see an influx from Ukraine, where fighting continues between government troops and pro-Russian rebels.
But apart from Hungary and Bulgaria, the other eastern countries have relatively low rates of immigration.

Hungary

Tensions have risen between Hungary and neighbouring Austria recently, since Hungary announced that it would not take back migrants who had moved elsewhere in the EU.
Hungary now says it is a temporary measure, because of a sudden influx - not a violation of the EU's Dublin Regulation. That rule says the country where a migrant first arrives is responsible for handling the migrant's asylum claim.
This year Hungary has experienced a surge of migrants trying to enter from Serbia. It has announced plans to fence off the Serbian border.
Many of Hungary's recent immigrants are escaping dire poverty in Kosovo, and many of their asylum claims are likely to be rejected.
Hungary and Bulgaria are exempt from the new EU plan to relocate asylum-seekers across the EU.
Bulgaria, like Hungary, says it cannot cope with any more, as its reception centres are overcrowded.
---------------------------------------------------------July 9, 2015

[url[http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/amid-europes-immigration-crisis-julian-assange-asks-for-asylum/

Amid an immigration crisis, Julian Assange asks for asylum
Leah McLaren on how WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s plea for protection in France couldn’t have come at a worse time

Leah McLaren
July 9, 2015

Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Of all the desperate migrants seeking asylum in Europe last week in the hope of a better life,   Julian Assange was perhaps the least sympathetic.

In a summer that’s seen thousands of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean off the shores of Italy and Greece, and, more recently, storming the Calais tunnel for passage into the U.K., Assange’s open letter to President François Hollande, printed last week in Le Monde, hit a distinctly off note. The Australian WikiLeaks founder has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, when prosecutors in Sweden announced they wanted to question him for alleged sex crimes, including rape, sexual molestation and illegal coercion.

Assange denies the allegations (no formal charges have been made) and says the European warrant for his arrest is, in fact, part of an extensive plot by American authorities to have him extradited to the U.S., where he could be tried for treason. In his letter to Hollande, Assange stated that his life was in danger, and that,“by welcoming me, France would carry out a humanitarian and symbolic gesture, sending encouragement to every journalist and whistleblower.”

According to the letter, his request was prompted by an invitation to visit France from a group of French civil rights activists backed by French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira. In June, Taubira told French news channel BFMTV that she “absolutely would not be surprised” if France granted asylum to both Assange and National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden, currently living in Russia. She added that it would be a “symbolic gesture,” in part motivated by the NSA’s sweeping surveillance of three French presidents.

Yet Assange’s plea was not well-received at the highest levels of French government. The French president’s office responded immediately with an unequivocal smackdown. “The situation of Mr. Assange does not present any immediate danger,” the statement read. “Furthermore, he is subject to a European arrest warrant.”

In a head-scratching (and hair-splitting) turn of events, Assange’s legal team responded by saying that he hadn’t actually made any request at all. Baltasar Garzón, the head of his defence team, told the British media that Assange’s letter had not been a request for asylum, but an expression of his willingness “to be hosted in France if, and only if, an initiative was taken by the competent authorities.”

But reading the letter, it seems awfully clear that Assange was hoping for the same protection once extended to that other high-profile accused rapist, the American director Roman Polanski. Assange describes himself as a “journalist pursued and threatened with death by the United States authorities” (though he does not give evidence of the alleged death threats). He links the claim to the 2010 WikiLeaks release of a classified video leak by the soldier Chelsea Manning (a male-to-female transsexual then-named Bradley). The video showed a series of ground-to-air strikes by American forces against unarmed Iraqis that ended up killing 18 civilians, including two Reuters journalists. (In 2013, Manning was charged and convicted of offences under the U.S. Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years in prison.)

In an extra twist, in his open letter, Assange added that his youngest child, whom he hasn’t seen in five years (and whose sex he will not specify), lives in France with the child’s mother. “I have had to keep their existence secret up to today, in order to protect them,” he wrote. Assange has long been rumoured by tabloids to have fathered several children around the world. According to the book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by Guardian journalists Luke Harding and David Leigh, Assange was enamoured with the idea of impregnating the many women he slept with, and balked at the idea of contraception.

According to the European arrest warrant, he is accused of raping a 26-year-old Swedish woman whom he “improperly exploited” because she, “due to sleep, was in a helpless state.” According to Swedish statutes of limitation, prosecutors only have until August to question Assange about the crimes of which he’s accused. But they also have until 2020 to investigate the most serious allegation of rape.

He remains in the Ecuadorian Embassy, but has said he is planning to leave “soon.” Two members of London’s metropolitan police force are continually on guard outside the Embassy, in case he decides to do so. Earlier this year, Scotland Yard confirmed that policing Assange has so far cost the British taxpayers almost $20 million.

RELATED STORIES
Why refugees are fleeing France for Britain

Migrants queue to receive their daily food distribution in a makeshift camp known as the "jungle", in Calais, northern France, Thursday, June 25, 2015. Migrants from Sudan, Eritrea and elsewhere are camped by the thousand in the port city of Calais trying to reach Britain, where they believe they will have better job prospects.

Vienna,

The Austrian authorities say at least 20 migrants have been found dead in a lorry near the eastern border with Hungary.
The number of dead could be as high as 50, they say.
The grim find comes as a summit focussing on migration takes place in the Austrian capital, Vienna.
Tens of thousands of migrants from conflict-hit states in the Middle East and Africa have been trying to make their way to Europe.
Austrian police said there appeared to be 20 to 50 bodies in the lorry, judging by its size. They described the deaths as a horrible crime.


The lorry was parked in a lay-by on the A4, the main road to Vienna, near the town of Pansdorf.
The vehicle had been there since Wednesday but was not found until early Thursday.
'Dark day'
The victims had been dead for some time and the bodies had begun to decompose.
Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told a news conference it was a "dark day" and that their thoughts were with the victims and their families.
The tragedy again underlined the urgent need for common EU policies to protect migrants and to combat people traffickers, she said.
In Vienna, Serbia and Macedonia have told the summit that EU must come up with an action plan to respond to the influx of migrants into Europe.
A record number of 107,500 migrants crossed the EU's borders last month and on Wednesday police counted more than 3,000 crossing into Serbia.
Germany has called on all European states to share the burden.
Thursday's summit was expected to discuss ways to strengthen support for Western Balkan states as well as ways of tackling human trafficking gangs and providing better protection for the EU's external borders.

The Arab Spring has resulted in the Arab Flood..

Update:

4 arrests made in the deaths of 71

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/28/europe/migrant-crisis/


http://youtu.be/m9vzP0FpncY/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34124021
Migrant crisis: Thousands arrive in mainland Greece

2This week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated that over 2,000 migrants have died so far this year while attempting to cross the Mediterranean, surpassing 2014's 1,607 deaths during the same period.

2015 is on its way to being the deadliest year for migration on record.

The Central Mediterranean migration route, originating in Libya and channelling individuals across the Mediterranean and into Europe, has officially claimed the most lives.

This was also the week when the UK/France Calais crisis peaked .

It is clear these events are connected, and that the world is closely watching the European Union and its response to this global migration crisis.

It is difficult to see a clear difference between how individual European countries are reacting, and how the EU is reacting as a unified entity.

Tragic human misery

There is clearly a problem at Calais; the squalid main camp - which houses around 3,000 migrants - has seen tragic human misery for the migrants making multiple attempts to reach the UK.

There has also been economic loss and disruption for the UK citizens.


Crisis in Calais
Despite the relatively small numbers in Calais compared to the 175,000 migrants who have entered the EU so far this year, the daily TV images have produced visceral, negative reactions with even the UK Prime Minister David Cameron dehumanising them by using the term "swarms" in a recent speech.

Removing support altogether from UK asylum seekers will make them destitute because UK law (the UK does not opt in to EU migration law) does not allow asylum applicants to work.

The idea the UK is a "soft touch" is not supported by the fact that most citizens of non-EU countries have no recourse to receive public funds initially, and asylum seekers are not eligible for UK benefits while their cases are pending.

Perception matters

In fact, support levels for UK asylum seekers are lower than those in all other Western European countries.

Many of the 3,000 at Calais want to come to the UK not because of the "benefits", but because this residual number knows of other people or communities they can join within the UK, and because they believe they can obtain work legally or illegally.

They perceive that the UK offers some form of freedom, even to those without ID cards or citizenship. Common language and post-colonial links also act as a draw for many.

They miss the crucial point that many asylum seekers are detained, removed, and deported every year - so the positive perception remains.

The understanding within the UK, fed through our tabloids, "that they all want to come to the UK" remains strong.

The truth is, more migrants head for Germany or Sweden for similar reasons. Many remain in the countries they first entered - Italy, Spain, Greece, and new situations in Hungary.

No easy solutions

All of this explains why national deterrent policies to stop asylum seekers making perilous journeys at the national level are not the "easiest" solution.

There are no "silver bullets" in this situation - but the EU provides at least one possible set of solutions to meet the national pressures of member states.

The solutions offered by the European Commission and the European Parliament have been fought against and diluted by EU member states, but they are worth serious consideration.

...the numbers of migrants the EU has been talking about in terms of resettlement were in the tens of thousands for the whole of the EU - manageable when responsibility is shared.



Firstly, the European Commission understands that there is, indeed, a global migration crisis - it is not the biggest the EU has faced, but it is the most challenging.

In 1992, we faced an emerging refugee crisis from all over the world and from our very doorstep; there were 672,000 asylum applications to the EU, which then included 15 countries.

Top of political agendas

Today, there are 626,000 applications to our 28 member states.

The EU is in post-crash "austerity" with populist political movements in many of the EU's member states which hardly registered in 1992.

Immigration is now near the top of every member state's political agenda in every political cycle. Crucially, the way in which migrants are making their journeys are more brutal and are frequently organised by people smugglers.

Modern media technologies have allowed these journeys to be communicated in a more direct way, and are almost always framed as deeply negative in our 24-hour news cycles.

Importantly, the EU's neighbouring countries are taking on a great burden in this crisis - Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan are taking refugees in the millions and not squabbling over tens of thousands.

Union of values

The EU must do what it was brought in existence to do - show solidarity between members, and show the rest of the world that the EU is a union of values - that it is capable of managing a migration policy with fair rules, compassion, and the rule of law.

Here, the Commission has proposed immediate search and rescue proposals to compensate for the removal of the EU Mare Nostrum - an emergency relocation mechanism and a resettlement programme based on the size and ability of each country to take a modest number of refugees.

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From the Telegraph"

"Hungary using unemployed to build anti-immigration fence
Almost 500 people on job seeker’s allowance told to report for duty or face having their dole money stopped as Hungary races to complete fence by end of the month "

See, Obama could start a new jobs program ...

You mean all of those "shovel ready" jobs Obama talked about?

Mass Immigration and the Undoing of Europe
by Vijeta Uniyal


In Germany, where traffickers are now dropping off illegal immigrants on Autobahns, authorities have reacted -- not by trying to intercept or discourage traffickers, but by putting up new road signs alerting drivers of potential pedestrians on the highway.

Last month alone, more migrants landed on the shores of Greece than in the whole of 2014.

If the mainstream media keep reminding everyone how the rioting immigrant youths in France or Britain are driven by economic inequality now, imagine the scale of unrest once European welfare states cannot finance "half the planet" anymore and are forced to cut welfare benefits.

No one, however, especially the media, blames migrants for their own actions.

This is the real tragedy of the unfolding refugee crisis in Europe: apart from those fleeing combat zones, most migrants swarming European borders and coastlines do not appear to be in any real or dire need.

With the European Union surrendering its immigration policy to people smugglers, the immigration crisis in Europe keeps reaching staggering new heights. The word has gone out that Fortress Europe is scalable. From Morocco to Turkey, people smuggling has turned into an irresistibly big business.

From small-time thugs to the terror outfit Hamas -- for $2500-$3000 per person smuggled -- many evidently want to seize a slice of this lucrative business that was created by the EU's collective inaction.

In Germany, where traffickers are now dropping off illegal immigrants on Autobahns, authorities have reacted -- not by trying to intercept or discourage the traffickers, but by putting new road-signs alerting drivers of potential pedestrians on the highway.

Even before this year's mass immigration began, Germany was struggling to deal with roughly a quarter of a million asylum applicants -- without even accounting for the illegal immigrants already in the country. The recent wave of migration would push those figures to record heights.

The trend in Germany merely reflects the overall scale of the European immigrant crisis. In July 2015, an estimated 50,000 refugees entered Greece, a surge of 750 percent. Last month alone more migrants landed than in the whole of 2014.

In Germany, the head of Lower Saxony's Municipal Federation, Marco Trips, told local reporters that the "system has already collapsed." This sentiment is apparently shared by municipalities across Germany. In a historic move, the German federal government has now called in the military to assist in setting up new tent cities and providing basic amenities for ever-rising number of refugees.

The majority of those entering Europe illegally seem not to be fleeing armed conflicts, but seeking a better life in a welfare paradise. Europe's answer is to throw money at the problem -- money Europe does not have. Britain's Defence Secretary has suggested that the UK's £12 billion ($19 billion USD) foreign aid budget can "discourage" mass migration.

The European welfare system, funded increasingly by governments' debt in recent decades, is showing signs of an impending collapse. There is no end in sight for Greece's debt crisis, despite repeated bailout packages to the tune of €326 billion ($375 billion USD). Slow economic growth, high youth unemployment and an aging population makes the European welfare model increasingly untenable.

If the mainstream media keep reminding everyone how rioting immigrant youths in France or Britain are driven by economic inequality now, imagine the scale of unrest once European welfare states cannot finance "half the planet" anymore and are forced to cut welfare benefits.


African migrants camp out on the beach in the northern Italian town of Ventimiglia, along the French border, as they wait for the opportunity to cross into France. (Image source: AFP video screenshot)
Europe's answer to this imminent financial doom is to create still more welfare dependents or, even better, "invite" them by failing to secure the borders.

EU bureaucrats not only refuse to implement basic border controls but rebuke any EU member state moving to secure its borders. European politicians and the mainstream media are up in arms against Hungary's move to erect a border fence along its southern border. American public broadcaster PBS ran a report telling its viewers about Hungary's "new Iron Curtain." The Associated Press quoted unnamed "critics" who compared the Hungarian fence to "Communist-era barriers like the Berlin Wall."

The EU bureaucrats in Brussels want to force a single asylum policy on all 28 member states, asking that they take in more migrants. According to this common asylum policy proposed by Brussels, asylum seekers entering EU would be divided among EU members.

Hungary, with 60,000 migrant arrivals so far just this year, entering mainly from Serbia, remains the most vocal opponent of the EU's proposed policy.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been virtually ostracized by European politicians and media, for not complying with EU's immigration policy. Contrary to the EU's position, he has called for a "distinction" between EU member-state citizens moving within Europe and non-EU foreigners. "There are economic immigrants who are just in search of a better life... Unfortunately in Hungary we can't give jobs to all of these immigrants," Orbán said, and called the EU's proposal for member states to take in more refugees "absurd, bordering on insanity."

Europe, itself reeling under a financial crisis, cannot provide housing, employment and social benefits to the thousands who each day land on European shores and cross over borders. German newspapers are full of countless reports of immigrants disappointed after arriving in Europe, almost always followed by a reporter's plea for urgent action to address the said grievance. These "disappointments" often turn into violent clashes. Police across Germany have their hands full just to keeping rival migrant gangs from turning on each other or on officials.

No one, however, especially the media, blames migrants for their own actions. The mainstream media in Germany apparently refuse to connect the dots, so as not to "feed into negative stereotypes." A columnist for Germany's Tageszeitung even wrote of an elaborate government conspiracy that drives immigrants to turn violent -- allegedly just to give them a bad name.

Tageszeitung also ran a story lamenting the "alarming conditions" of refugees landing on Greek islands. The article was accompanied by a photograph of smiling, well-fed, sturdy young men, posing for "selfies" on their smartphones while holding cigarettes in their hands. One of them was thoughtful enough to bring along a selfie-stick for his smartphone, to capture the moment he fled a "war zone" or acute "economic misery."

This, however, is the real tragedy of the unfolding refugee crisis in Europe: apart from those fleeing combat zones, most migrants swarming European borders and coastlines do not appear to be in any real or dire need. Economic disparity on other continents should not oblige Europeans to open its own floodgates for mass migration.

This crisis seems to be one of Europe's own making -- that seems to be the logical conclusion of Europe's debt-driven welfare system and the EU's contempt for national boundaries.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6370/mass-immigration-europe/

The problem is that a lot of them take the piss. I have no problem with genuine hard working people but some, and I repeat some, come here, to the UK, my home, the land of my birth, and sell drugs and become pimps and get into all kinds of no good.

It's unfortunate that the few spoil it for the majority but our health service is at breaking point. Our government owes billions and still sends billions in aid abroad.

It's tough but until we learn to help ourselves I don't see how we can help others.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-34149231

Hungary passes new migrant laws

A little earlier, Hungary's parliament passed a series of new laws as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants, meaning:

It will be a criminal offence to cross or damage the fence being constructed along the border with Serbia

Illegal border crossing will be punishable by up to three years in prison

It will be possible to submit asylum requests at border crossing points


Earlier, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio: "Now we talk about hundreds of thousands [of migrants] but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this.

"All of a sudden we will see that we are in a minority in our own continent."

Meanwhile, about 2,300 migrants at a reception camp in southern Hungary have threatened to follow 300 who have already broken out.

Candy and cuddly toys: Migrants finish epic trek to Germany

http://news.yahoo.com/hungarian-bus-fleet-delivers-migrants-austria-welcome-062852405.html

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — For weeks while they traveled a punitive road, Europe cast a cold eye on their unwelcome progress. On Saturday, for the first time since fleeing their troubled homelands, they could set foot in their promised land — and it came with a German face so friendly that it brought some newcomers to tears of joy.

More than 7,000 Arab and Asian asylum seekers surged across Hungary's western border into Austria and Germany following the latest erratic policy turn by Hungary's immigrant-averse government. Within hours, travelers predominantly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who had been told for days they could not leave Hungary were scooped from roadsides and Budapest's central train station and placed on overnight buses, driven to the frontier with Austria and allowed to walk across as a new day dawned.

They were met with unexpected hospitality featuring free high-speed trains, seemingly bottomless boxes of supplies, and well-wishers offering candy for everyone and cuddly toys for the children in mothers' arms. Even adults absorbed the sudden welcome with a look of wonderment as Germans and Austrians made clear that they had reached a land that just might become a home.

"I'm very glad to be in Germany. I hope that I find here a much better life. I want to work," said Homam Shehade, a 37-year-old Syrian shopkeeper who spent 25 days on the road. He left behind his parents, a brother, wife, a 7-year-old boy and a 2 ½-year-old girl. He hopes to bring them all to Germany. Until then, he said: "I hope that God protects them from the planes and bombs. My shop was bombed and my house was bombed."

As the migrants departed Hungary, leaders took a few final swipes at their departing guests.


Migrants storm into a train at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, September 3, 2015 as H …
Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters that Hungary drove the migrants to the border only because they were posing a public menace, particularly by snarling traffic and rail lines west of Budapest when they mounted a series of surprise breakouts from police-controlled positions Friday and headed for Austria on foot.

Orban said the people being taken by Germany mostly come "from regions that are not ravaged by war. They just want to live the kind of life that we have. And I understand that, but this is impossible. If we let everybody in, it's going to destroy Europe."

Orban said Hungary was determined to staunch the flow of foreigners traversing the country. He criticized European Union plans to reach a bloc-wide agreement at a summit Sept. 14 committing each nation to accept higher quotas of foreigners to shelter, arguing that this would only spur more one-way traffic.

"What will it solve if we divide 50,000 or 100,000 migrants among us, when uncountable millions will be on the way?" Orban said.

A central Budapest rally by Hungary's third-largest party, the neo-fascist Jobbik, underscored why many of those seeking sanctuary in Europe wanted to get through the country as quickly as possible. Earlier in the week, many of the same Jobbik activists traveled south to the border with Serbia to hurl verbal abuse at newly arrived travelers.


Refugees flash victory signs and wipe away tears as they arrive at the main train station in Munich, …
Jobbik leader Gabor Vona told the crowd of 300 waving Hungarian and party flags "that Hungary belongs to the Hungarians. We like everybody, we respect everybody — but we don't want anybody coming here."

Other speakers branded supporters of refugee rights "traitors" and "scum."

The contrast could not have been greater in Vienna's central train station. When around 400 asylum seekers arrived on the morning's first border train, charity workers offered food, water and packages of hygiene products for men and women. Austrian onlookers cheered the migrants' arrival, with many shouting "Welcome!" in both German and Arabic. One Austrian woman pulled from her handbag a pair of children's rubber rain boots and handed them to a Middle Eastern woman carrying a small boy.

Sami Al Halbi, a 28-year-old veterinarian from Hama in Syria, said he fled to avoid mandatory military service. "They asked me to join the army. I am educated. For years I've been holding a pen. I do not want to hold a weapon," he said. "We all want to have a better future."

It got better as travelers continued west on more trains, some of them specially provided for the migrants. As Austria's government noted, virtually none of those coming intended to seek asylum before reaching Germany, the Eurozone powerhouse that has pledged to aid Syrians fleeing from their 4-year-old civil war. Germany expects to receive a staggering 800,000 asylum seekers this year.


A woman holds her smiling baby in her arms as she arrives at the Hauptbahnhof station in Salzburg, A …
In Munich's central station, the first arrivals from Hungary received cheering and applause. Many who had endured nights sleeping on crowded concrete floors at Budapest's Keleti station appeared disoriented as Germans approached them holding trays of food. The youngest brightened up as teddy bears were offered as gifts.

"We are giving a warm welcome to these people today," said Simone Hilgers, spokeswoman for Upper Bavaria government agencies tasked with providing the migrants immediate support. "We realize it's going to be a big challenge but everybody, the authorities and ordinary citizens, are pulling together."

A total of about 6,000 people had come through Munich by Saturday evening, Hilgers said. All were given food and drink, and most were housed in temporary accommodation.

The latest arrivals add to the tens of thousands of migrants who have been streaming each month into Germany, the EU's most populous nation with 81 million residents. The influx has strained emergency accommodation and local bureaucracy, triggered sporadic violence by neo-Nazi extremists, and inspired empathy from many more Germans. Volunteer groups have sprung up to help asylum seekers find permanent housing and jobs, and to receive free German language lessons. German media estimate this year's expected bill for providing sanctuary to be 10 billion euros ($11 billion), should the forecast 800,000 arrive.

Germany typically places newcomers in housing earmarked for asylum seekers. They are provided free meals, clothing, health care and household support, as well as monthly spending money averaging 143 euros ($160). After three months, they receive restricted work opportunities. By contrast, the migrants left behind a Hungary that stuck them in sweltering outdoor facilities on the Serbian border, left any aid to private charities, and pocketed the money the migrants paid to buy cross-border train tickets that they were blocked from using.


Forensic police officers inspect a parked truck in which up to 50 migrants were found dead, on a mot …
Hungary announced Saturday morning that its emergency bus services to the border had finished and would not be repeated. Almost immediately, two new groups started long walks to the border: about 200 people who walked out of an open-door refugee camp near the city of Gyor, and about 300 who left Keleti station. Hundreds more made their way west independently, on foot and by train.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/09/05/gulf-states-refuse-to-take-a-single-syrian-refugee-say-doing-so-exposes-them-to-risk-of-terrorism/



Muslim Countries Refuse to Take A Single Syrian Refugee, Cite Risk of Exposure to Terrorism

I am in Greece at the moment and I'm seeing the calamity first hand, at least 15000 refugees in mitilini Greece on the island of lesvos... You can't appreciate the severity of this crisis until you see it. They've ran out of places to releave themselves and the situation is dire. Still 12 hours away from the mainland by ferry, it is a disaster in the making.
My opinion may not be a popular one but I believe every single able bodied man should not be able to stay and returned immediately to fight for their homeland, there is no other choice, it is not possible for anyone else to fight with vigor for the safety of their own country. It is necessary to purge this evil at once.

I would fight to the death myself to preserve my home, absolutely!

Are there are any syrians that would like to comment? Fox?

There is a world domination conspiracy to this ^^.

something is definitely amiss.

Hmmm, four million refugees ... say one quarter able bodied ... a one million man army .... Fleeing from how many radicals????

Precisely, the strange thing is the radicals aren't syrians they're imported fighters easily distinguishable... It's puckin stoopid really

I need more info from inside that country to explain this, just doesn't make sense

With the refugee crisis worsening as many Syrians attempt to flee to Europe, many people may find themselves wondering just how the war in that country got so bad, and why so many are fleeing now. Here, then, is a very brief history of the war, written so that anyone can understand it:

Syria is a relatively new country: Its borders were constructed by European powers in the 1920s, mashing together several ethnic and religious groups. Since late 1970, a family from one of those smaller groups — the Assads, who are Shia Alawites — have ruled the country in a brutal dictatorship. Bashar al-Assad has been in power since 2000.

This regime appeared stable, but when Arab Spring protests began in 2011, it turned out not to be. The country's Sunni Arabs, the largest demographic, were clearly sick of their second-class status, and of the country's corruption, brutality, and inequity. Protests began that spring.

On March 18, Syrian security forces opened fire on peaceful protestors in the southern city of Deraa, killing three. Protests grew, and so did the increasingly violent crackdowns. Assad's troops shot demonstrators, abducted and tortured activists, and even murdered children.

Perhaps inevitably, Syrians took up arms to defend themselves. Defectors from Assad's regime joined them. By early 2012, the protests had become a civil war. Government forces indiscriminately bombed and shelled civilian populations; Assad aimed to crush the rebels and their supporters by brute force.

Assad deliberately targeted Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, civilian and rebel alike, for slaughter. His goal was to polarize the conflict on religious lines, to turn what began as a broad-based uprising against a dictator into a sectarian war, with religious minorities on his side. He knew this would attract extremists to the rebel side, which would make the world afraid of seeing Assad lose.

It worked. By 2013, hard-line Sunni Islamists had become some of the most effective anti-Assad fighters, backed by Sunni states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Meanwhile, Iran's Shia government backed Assad with cash, weapons, and soldiers. It became, in part, a Middle East sectarian proxy war of Shia versus Sunni.

Meanwhile, a Sunni extremist group known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, which had been mostly defeated in 2007, was rebuilding itself. It grew strong fighting against Assad in Syria, and later swept northern Iraq under the new name ISIS.

By 2014, Syria was divided between government, rebel, ISIS, and Kurdish forces. (The Kurds, an ethnic minority, have long sought independence.) It is divided in a terrible stalemate:
Civilians always suffer most in war, but Syria's have suffered especially. Assad targets them ruthlessly, including with barrel bombs and chemical weapons. ISIS and other groups, when they take over towns, put them under brutal and violent rule. Fighting has left entire neighborhoods and towns flattened.

About 250,000 people have been killed and half of the country's population has been displaced, with 4 million fleeing as refugees:

www.realclearpolitics.com

The Past and Future of the Refugee Crisis

By Thomas Sowell - September 8, 2015

The refugee crisis in Europe is one of those human tragedies for which there are no real solutions, despite how many shrill voices in the media may denounce those who fail to come up with a solution.

Some options may be better than others, but there is nothing that can honestly be called a solution. Nevertheless many countries, including the United States, could do a lot better.


The immediate problems are the masses of desperate men, women and children, fleeing from the wars and terrorism of the Middle East, who are flooding into Europe. But the present crisis cannot be dealt with as if it had no past and no future.

The future is in fact one of the biggest constraints on what can be done in the present. Anyone with a sense of decency and humanity would want to help those who have been through harrowing experiences and have arrived, exhausted and desperate, on the shores of Europe. But the story will not end there, if they do.

With refugees, as with all other human beings, the current generation will pass from the scene. Those who may be grateful to have found a refuge from the horrors of the Middle East will have a new generation of children in Europe, or in any other place of refuge, who will have no memory of the Middle East.

All the new generation will know is that they are not doing as well as other people in the country where they live. They will also know that the values of their culture clash with the values of the Western culture around them. And there will be no lack of "leaders" to tell them that they have been wronged, including some who will urge them to jihad.

Europeans have already seen this scenario play out in their midst, creating strife and even terrorism. Most of the Muslims may be peaceful people who are willing to live and let live. But it takes only a fraction who are not to create havoc.

No nation has an unlimited capacity to absorb immigrants of any sort, and especially immigrants whose cultures are not simply different, but antagonistic, to the values of the society in which they settle.

The inescapable reality is that it is an irreversible decision to admit a foreign population of any sort -- but especially a foreign population that has a track record of remaining foreign.

The past, as well as the future, casts its shadow over the current refugee crisis. It may be no accident that President Obama is up in Alaska, talking about changing the name of Mount McKinley, while this massive human tragedy is unfolding in the Middle East and in Europe.

Barack Obama's decision to pull American troops out of Iraq, with happy talk about how he was ending a war, turned out to be a bitter mockery when the policy in fact opened the doors to new wars with unspeakable horrors in the present and incalculable consequences for the future.

The glib rhetoric that accompanied the pullout of American troops from Iraq was displayed once again when the rise of ISIS was dismissed as just a junior varsity team trying to look like a serious threat. But now that ISIS controls a big chunk of Iraq and a big chunk of Syria, it is the Obama foreign policy that looks like the work of a junior varsity team.

Undermining stable governments in Egypt and Libya that posed no threat to Western interests in the Middle East was another rhetoric-laden catastrophe of the Obama administration. No wonder President Obama does not want to get involved in the refugee crisis that his own policies did so much to create. Talking about renaming Mount McKinley seems far safer politically.

Middle Eastern countries might have been expected to take in more refugees who are their Muslim brothers -- especially oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia. But the West, including the United States, could at least send more financial aid to Middle Eastern countries like Jordan and Egypt, to ease the burden of the refugees they have already taken in.

Sending money to Middle Eastern countries that are taking in Muslim refugees makes a lot more sense for the West than taking in more refugees themselves. It may even encounter far less political opposition at home. But a real attempt to deal with the underlying causes of this human tragedy will probably have to wait until Barack Obama is gone from the White House.