Tag Archives: Refugees

EU Approves Plan to Relocate Refugees Across Europe

European Union (EU) ministers met on Tuesday and approved a plan for the relocation of the 120,000 mostly-Syrian refugees that have recently arrived in Europe.

The Washington Post reports that all but five EU ministers voted for the plan. Those that were against the plan were: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania.

The plan includes spreading out the refugees who have already arrived, boosting border control so that fewer could sneak into nations undetected, and providing support to those in refugee camps in the nations surrounding Syria.

This plan to ease one of the worst humanitarian crises in years has divided European nations as richer nations like Germany and Sweden can handle more refugees while poorer nations reject the recent requirements because they feel they can’t handle any refugees. The poorer nations also point out that many refugees would more than likely move to other, richer nations. Currently, Germany has taken in the most refugees and expects to take in at least 800,000 this year.

Despite the EU’s plan, the United Nations has stated that their plans will not be enough, but despite their statement, many EU leaders are pushing for a compromise.

“We need solidarity and responsibility,” said German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, as he entered Tuesday’s negotiations. “This will be a hard session, a hard meeting. I’m not sure that we will have a result. We will work hard. I think it is unacceptable if Europe sends the message to Europeans and the world that there is no possible solution.”

An additional meeting between leaders of EU nations will take place on Wednesday in Brussels.

U.S. to Take 100,000 Refugees A Year by 2017

At a Sunday news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin regarding Europe and the increasing pressure from refugees who are fleeing Syria’s civil war and other Middle Eastern wars, John Kerry announced that the Obama administration will increase the number of refugees the United States takes in each year.  

This move by the Obama administration will increase the number of refugees each year to 100,000 by 2017, a significant increase over the current annual cap of 70,000, Secretary of State John Kerry said. This still falls short of the global demand for resettlement from people who continue to flee turmoil in Syria Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.

“This step that I am announcing today, I believe, is in keeping with the best tradition of America as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope,” Mr. Kerry said, adding that it “will be accompanied by additional financial contributions” for the relief effort.

This plan is not without controversy.   While all refugees would be subject to background checks, a few  Republican lawmakers expressed skepticism about the government’s ability to ensure militants posing as refugees do not infiltrate the U.S.

“ISIS and other terrorist groups have made it abundantly clear that they will use the refugee crisis to try to enter the United States,” wrote Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, in a join statement issued Sunday.

“Now, the Obama administration wants to bring in an additional ten thousand Syrians without a concrete and foolproof plan to ensure that terrorists won’t be able to enter the country. The administration has essentially given the American people a ‘trust me.’ That isn’t good enough,” they said.

The American response is unlikely to relieve much of the pressure on European countries, particularly Germany, which continues to be the most desirable destination for most of the migrants. In the absence of a unified policy, the refugees have been left to find their own way across the continent.

Croatia Closes Borders to Migrants

Croatia said Friday they are closing their borders to migrants after a wave of people overwhelmed their border personnel.

Croatian officials said all migrants will be forced to move through the nation to other countries and will not be allowed to remain on Croatian soil.  The government said they will provide food and water to those who arrive but then immediately will make them leave.

“We cannot register and accommodate these people any longer,” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told a news conference.  “They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant ‘hotspot’. We have hearts, but we also have heads.”

Over 11,000 migrants flooded into the country since Hungary closed their border with Serbia on Wednesday.

Many of the migrants are telling western media they have no choice but to continue.

“Returning back to our country is impossible, because we have no financial means or the moral strength to go back home,” Abu Mohamed who fled Idlib in Syria, told The Associated Press.

“We are coming with our modest Islamic perspectives,” he added. “Terrorism remains back home, terrorism is not coming with us. We were the victims and oppressed back home in our societies.”

President Obama Wants 10,000 Syrian Refugees in U.S.

The White House has announced that President Obama is instructing his administration to clear the way for 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the U.S. during the next fiscal year.

The plan was met with immediate criticism from both sides of the political spectrum over security concerns.  The 10,000 would mark a significant increase over the nearly 1,300 that will enter the country this fiscal year.  Less than 1,500 Syrian refugees have entered the U.S. since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011.

“Our enemy now is Islamic terrorism, and these people are coming from a country filled with Islamic terrorists,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York. “We don’t want another Boston Marathon bombing situation.”

State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted there was a “significant national security concern” related to the President’s demand.

“I’m not arguing that we’re going to cut corners here,” Kirby said. “But the president has laid out his decision and the target he wants to achieve for the next fiscal year with respect to Syrian refugees, and we’re going to work very hard to do that.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest tried to lay out the case that no corners would be cut.

“Refugees go through the most robust security process of anybody who’s contemplating travel to the United States,” Earnest said. “Refugees have to be screened by the National Counter Terrorism Center, by the F.B.I. Terrorist Screening Center. They go through databases that are maintained by D.H.S., the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. There is biographical and biometric information that is collected about these individuals.”

More than 4 million Syrians have fled that nation since the beginning of their civil war.

UN: EU Must Accept 200,000 Migrants

The United Nations has told member nations of the European Union (EU) that they must accept 200,000 migrants in a “common strategy” rather than their current “piecemeal” approach.

The head of the UN’s refugee agency said that the EU is reaching a “defining moment.”

Antonio Guterres said that the EU leadership must demand “mandatory participation” of any country in the EU.

Germany has been taking in the majority of the migrants but is starting to limit migrant access because of the mass influx.

“Germany is doing what is morally and legally required of us, no more and no less,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday. “That’s why this problem concerns all of us in Europe.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that because “Britain is a moral nation” they will fulfill their responsibilities.

Germany and France have sent a proposal to all EU nations with suggested amounts of migrants for each country but has found backlash from the smaller nations.  CNN reported over 350,000 migrants have come into Europe this year, a level not seen since World War II.  Over 3,600 people have died trying to make the journey.

Hungary Now Calls Migrant Crisis A “German Problem”

The leader of Hungary, which has been struggling with an influx of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, says the problem is a “German problem” because that’s the destination for most of the immigrants.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban added, however, that he would not allow migrants to leave his country without registering.

“Nobody would like to stay in Hungary, neither in Slovakia nor Poland nor Estonia,” Orban said.  “All of them would like to go to Germany. Our job is only to register them.”

The comments from the country’s leader comes as the country’s train station in the capital city of Budapest was reopened to migrants.  However, the trains that migrants board only travels to a registration center and not to Germany or other European Union (EU) nations.

Many of the migrants are resisting efforts to leave the trains at the registration center in Bicske and are having to be removed by police.

German officials have previously stated they expect to take in over 800,000 migrants this year, four times the number from last year.  However, they are calling for “fair” distribution of the current migrant influx to all EU nations.

Emergency meetings to discuss the situation between EU leaders is scheduled for mid-month.

Hungary Closes Train Station to Migrants; Icelanders Call For Government to Help

Migrants flooding into Hungary have begun rioting over the government’s decision to close a train station in Budapest, keeping them from streaming into Germany.

Police erected a blockage at the city’s main train terminal as about 1,000 migrants chanted “Germany! Germany!”  Later the protesters sat down in front of the barricaded entrance.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told the BBC that the country was enforcing the EU’s immigration laws.

The EU has a rule called the “Dublin Regulation” which requires all refugees to register for asylum in the first EU nation they enter.  Because Italy and Greece are overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of migrants, many skip those checkpoints and travel to other EU nations.

“Dublin rules are still valid and we expect European member states to stick to them,” a German interior ministry spokesman said.

EU leaders have already approved measures to help Greece and Italy with registration of migrants and are looking at ways to streamline the process of immigrants coming to other EU countries.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Icelandic residents have called on their government to welcome refugees into their country as way to escape the violence of the Middle East.

Hungary Sending Troops to Stop Migrants at Border

Hungarian officials are rushing military troops to their border to try and stop a massive wave of migrants attempting to escape the violence of the Middle East and Asia.

Hungarian officials said that a record 2,533 migrants were arrested attempting to enter the country on Tuesday.  Most of them were from Syria, Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Officials are calling the situation the worst migrant crisis since the second World War and Hungary is attempting to quickly build a 110 mile border fence with razor wire to stop the illegal immigration.

“Hungary’s government and national security cabinet … has discussed the question of how the army could be used to help protect Hungary’s border and the EU’s border,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told reporters.

The move by Hungary is coming under criticism from Germany and France.  The German and French governments are working to put together a comprehensive plan for all nations across Europe to accept migrants, but Hungary’s actions are countering the proposed actions.

Other nations are also overwhelmed.  Greece, which is in the midst of financial crisis unlike any other in the nation’s history, has been burdened with 50,000 migrants in just the month of July.

Germany to Welcome All Syrian Refugees

As a wave of Syrian refugees attempting to escape the violence of the Middle East drew closer to the Hungarian border, Germany announced they would be welcoming in anyone escaping the civil war.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the situation the biggest migration crisis since World War II.

The announcement comes as some smaller nations have declared states of emergency because of the mass wave of people fleeing ISIS and the Syrian war.  Macedonia first tried to use their military to keep out the migrants and when they were overrunning chartered trains to take the migrants directly to Germany or France.

German and French officials are working together to create a joint plan for all of Europe to deal with migrants from war torn areas.  The outline will provide expedited asylum for those refugees as well as returning to home countries those who are not arriving from an area of conflict.

“There are moments in European history when we face exceptional circumstances, and these are exceptional circumstances that will last,” Hollande said alongside Merkel before they met for talks in Berlin. “So rather than wait and then cope on a day-to-day basis, we must get organized and strengthen our policies.”

Germany announced they expect to absorb 800,000 migrants this year, after only receiving 44,417 in the first six months of the year.

Officials are dealing with a wave of anti-immigrant violence.  A shelter for migrants in the German town of Heidenau was attacked three consecutive nights despite police guarding the facility.

Belgium Rescues Over 200 Syrian Christians In Secret Operation

The Belgian government has carried out a secret operation to rescue 240 people, over 200 of them Christians, from the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Christians will be taken to Belgium and offered asylum by the Belgian government.

The secret two-month operation is still being mostly shrouded in secrecy by the Belgian government, likely to keep sources protected from Islamic extremists in the region.

“We did it via civil society organizations which could get them out of there,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson.

“The minority Christians were selected by a citizen ‘action committee’ run by a Belgian diplomat and a psychiatrist with a network of contacts in the country,” AFP news agency wrote. “They left Aleppo in small groups and in seven phases.”

Belgium has taken in about 5,500 refugees from Syria since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

“This is the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation,” UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “It is a population that needs the support of the world but is instead living in dire conditions and sinking deeper into poverty.”