NPR: That Little Syrian Boy: Here's Who He Was (Warning: Graphic)

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/09/23/uk-europe-migrants-eu-officials-idUKKCN0RN2NE20150923

EU leaders pledge aid for Syria refugees at 'excellent' meeting

 

European Union leaders pledged 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to help U.N. agencies support Syrian refugees who remain in the Middle East at a crisis summit on migration, the meeting's chairman Donald Tusk said early on Thursday.

 

Other officials said a number of other pledges were made and Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's chief executive, told reporters that the summit was conducted in an "excellent" atmosphere that was less tense than some had forecast.

 

Tusk and Juncker said they would host a meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 5 as part of efforts to cooperate with Ankara to limit the numbers of migrants reaching Greece. The leaders also agreed to tighten controls using EU-backed border personnel on the bloc's external frontiers.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/23/us-europe-migrants-croatia-serbia-idUSKCN0RN1TS20150923

Serbia bans Croatian goods as ties hit low over migrants

 

Serbia banned Croatian cargo traffic and goods on Wednesday in a bitter row over the flow of migrants across their joint border, plunging relations to their lowest ebb since the overthrow of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

 

Serbia imposed the embargo in retaliation for border restrictions levied by European Union member Croatia, which has hit out at its eastern neighbor for directing the flow of migrants through the Balkan peninsula over their joint border.

 

Zagreb had banned all trucks but those carrying perishable goods from entering from Serbia and shut seven of eight road border crossings, saying Serbia should direct the migrants to Hungary and Romania too.

 

As a midnight deadline set by Serbia for Croatia to lift the blockade expired, Belgrade said it was left with no choice but to “introduce measures to protect its statehood.”

 

“From this moment, the Serbian police will not allow the entry through any border crossing any cargo vehicle registered in Croatia nor any truck carrying goods made in Croatia,” Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told reporters on the Serbian-Croatian border.

 

“We are ready to talk to reach an agreement even tonight,” he said.

 

The dispute is now the most serious in the 15 years since the ouster of Milosevic, who presided over Belgrade’s backing for Serb rebels in Croatia during a 1991-95 war after Zagreb declared independence from socialist Yugoslavia.

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/finland-groups-attack-refugees-150925123046167.html

Finland far-right groups attack refugees

 

Demonstrators have attacked a bus load of refugees arriving at a reception centre in southern Finland with stones and fireworks.

 

Between 30 and 40 protesters, one wearing a white robe like those worn by the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan in the US, waved the Finnish flag and shouted abuse at the bus in the southern town of Lahti late on Thursday.

 

Some demonstrators also hurled stones and let off fireworks at the vehicle carrying 40 refugees, including several young children, Finnish television YLE said.

 

"The protesters were young people from Lahti... At this point we have no indication that they would be somehow organised," chief inspector Martti Hirvonen told the local Finnish outlet STT, according to the AFP news agency.

 

Meanwhile, a petrol bomb was thrown at another reception centre in Kouvola, also in southern Finland, police said. No one was known to be hurt in the incidents, the Reuters news agency reported.

 

"The Finnish government strongly condemns last night's racist protests against asylum seekers who had entered the country," the government said in a statement.

 

"Violence or the threat of violence is always to be condemned."

Prime Minister Juha Sipila this month offered to take in refugees at his home, a move that attracted international attention but also criticism in Finland.

'Christmas gift'

 

"Sipila's noble-minded gesture was like a Christmas gift for human traffickers and refugees. The news about open doors in Finland have sent many young men on a journey towards the promised land," Mika Niikko, a deputy from anti-immigrant party The Finns, said last week in a statement.

 

So far this year more than 13,000 refugees have come to Finland, compared to just 3,600 in the whole of last year.

 

In recent days, about 500 refugees per day have crossed the Finnish land border in Tornio, near the Arctic Circle, after a long journey through Sweden.

The Finnish government has launched random border checks and identity checks around the country amid the influx of people.

 

Finland was the only EU state to abstain from this week's vote about relocating refugees across the member countries.

 

It accepted its 2 percent share of 120,000 refugees in question but said it was opposed to a mandatory quota system.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3235512/You-not-welcome-town-Far-Right-mayor-causes-outrage-France-filmed-trying-evict-family-Syrian-refugees.html

‘You are not welcome in this town’: Far-Right mayor causes outrage in France as he is filmed trying to evict family of Syrian refugees from his town

 

A far-right French major has sparked outrage by storming into a squat and telling a family of Syrian refugees, 'you are not welcome in this town'.

 

Robert Menard, a politician linked to the National Front party in Beziers, is shown marching into a squat surrounded by police, including an armed guard.

Angry that the refugees have allegedly broken in, 62-year-old Mr Menard uses a translator to say: ‘You are not welcome in this town. You came in this apartment breaking the door.'

 

He adds: ‘You are stealing the water. People are paying for the water, but you are stealing electricity and water.

 

'I’m saying it again: you are not welcome in this town. If you behave correctly, you are welcome, but not if you behave like this.’

 

The astonished refugee - a man in his 30s – asks if there is anywhere else he can go, and then says he will leave ‘after one month’.

 

But Mr Menard tells him that he has no interest in refugees who ‘break in’ to properties, and tells him that he can ‘go where he likes’.

Mr Menard then launches into other tirades, one in front of a father, his wife, and at least one young child.

 

‘You will be welcome only if you respect the rules of this country, and this town,’ Mr Menard said.

 

Opponents immediately branded Mr Menard’s intervention as brutal and insensitive because the refugees have no money and nowhere to go.

Aime Couquet, another local politician, accused the mayor of ‘acting illegally’, saying: ‘You need a court order to expel someone.'

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/26/us-un-assembly-refugees-idUSKCN0RQ0RJ20150926?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

U.N. says world waited too long to act on refugee crisis

 

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees said on Saturday the world waited far too long to respond to the refugee crisis sparked by the wars in Syria and elsewhere, though rich countries now appear to understand the scale of the problem.

 

"Unfortunately only when the poor enter the halls of the rich, do the rich notice that the poor exist," U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

 

"Until we had this massive movement into Europe, there was no recognition in the developed world of how serious this crisis was," he said. "If, in the past, we had more massive support to those countries in the developing world that have been receiving them and protecting them, this would not have happened."

For years, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan have struggled to cope with millions of refugees from Syria's 4-1/2-year civil war.

 

"The refugees are living worse and worse," he said. "They're not allowed to work, the overwhelming majority of them live below the poverty line. It's more and more difficult for them to have any hope in the future.

 

"Without peace in Syria, and without massive support to the neighboring countries ... we risk a massive exodus" of refugees from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

He also disputed some assessments, including Hungary's, that most of the people reaching the EU's doorsteps from the Balkans were economic migrants, not refugees who deserve protection. Most of them are genuine refugees, he said.

 

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is convening a high-level meeting on Wednesday on the refugee and migration crisis.

Guterres said rich countries appeared to be finally waking up.

 

"I think political leaders are starting to understand ... the scale of the problem and the need to have a much stronger response, response in humanitarian aid.

 

"One of the reasons that refugees started to move in such big numbers was because international assistance declined," he said, adding that Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon would need billions of dollars in assistance to cope with the refugees.

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/446f755846e546869baa2ba91b7ed36c/17-syrian-migrants-die-turkish-coast-official-says

17 Syrian migrants die off Turkish coast, official says

 

An official says 17 Syrians have drowned after their boat sank off the Turkish coast on its way to the Greek island of Leros.

 

Gov. Amir Cicek of Mugla province told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the Turkish Coast Guard rescued 20 other Syrian refugees early on Sunday. No one was missing or unaccounted for.

 

Cicek said the 37 Syrians had boarded the boat at the holiday resort of Gumusluk on the Bodrum peninsula. It sank soon after leaving the coast.

 

The governor said an investigation had been launched into the incident.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/28/us-europe-migrants-japan-idUSKCN0RS03Y20150928?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Japan to offer $810 million to support refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq: NHK

 

Japan, which accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of 5,000 applications last year, will provide about $810 million in aid in response to refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected to announce the new aid when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, NHK said, but it made no reference to whether Japan would ease its own strict conditions for accepting refugees.

 

The United Nations said on Friday it could see no easing of the flow of refugees into Europe, with 8,000 arrivals daily, and that problems now facing governments may turn out to be only "the tip of the iceberg".

 

Japan's foreign ministry last Friday announced it would provide grant aid of $2 million to support Syrian refugees and host communities in Lebanon and another $2 million for West Balkan countries such as Serbia and Macedonia, which are facing an influx of refugees and migrants.

 

In 2014, Japan accepted 11 asylum seekers out of a record 5,000 applications. Earlier this month, Tokyo announced changes to its refugee system that activists said will make the country even harder to reach for people needing protection.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/politics/in-two-charts-this-is-what-refugees-say-about-why-they-are-leaving-syria-now/2015/09/28/9a785b0d7d77ed3c6ef8527b185fd56e_story.html?tid=kindle-app

What refugees say about why they are leaving Syria now

 

The overwhelming size and scope of Syria’s refugee crisis—which has uprooted more than 12 million people, 8 million internally displaced persons and 4 million refugees—has not been seen since the Rwandan genocide and the Balkan wars of the 1990s, if not World War II.

 

The increasing influx of refugees and asylum-seekers to Europe is signaling to the West that the Syrian conflict can no longer be neglected without consequences.

 

But if governments are going to craft an effective response, it would be helpful to know who has left, why they’ve left now, and how many more are likely on their way.

 

To find out, we conducted a survey in Turkey, asking refugees why they decided to leave Syria and what they hope for the future. We find that for most refugees and would-be asylum-seekers, the decision to leave Syria is a simple cost-benefit calculation. As the conflict drags on, ordinary people inside Syria see fewer prospects for a negotiated settlement or an outright military victory by any side. Those already in refugee camps in neighboring countries are losing hope of ever returning home, and are increasingly seeking alternatives to the purgatory of camp life.

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34388914

US soap star 'back from dead' for Syria refugee

 

Noujain Mustaffa is a disabled 16-year-old Syrian migrant with an unwavering smile who made the odyssey to Europe in her wheelchair.
She told journalists she had learnt English by watching a US soap opera, Days of Our Lives.

 

Now one of its characters - played by James Scott - has "returned from the dead" to in a spoof paying tribute.

 

Noujain was one of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have undertaken the arduous 4,000-mile (6,400km) journey to Europe in recent months.

But her courage in attempting the journey in her wheelchair - and her unshakeable optimism - captured the attention of the world's media, initially the BBC's Fergal Keane.

 

Noujain revealed that her accomplished English was down to watching her favourite TV show, the long-running US daytime drama Days of Our Lives, back in her home town of Kobane.

 

"I was waking up at 08:00 some days to watch it. That's a great show," she told BBC partner ABC. "But they killed the main character that I loved!"

 

That lament came to the attention of comedian John Oliver, who picked up on Noujain's story at the end of a segment examining Europe's treatment of the migrants on the latest edition of his late-night show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

"Coming back from the dead, that's not hard," EJ tells Sami - played by Alison Sweeney - during the scene. "You know what's hard? Getting from Syria to Germany."

"Have you seen what those migrants are going through?" Sami responds.

 

Later, EJ says: "I read about this incredible 16-year-old girl from Kobani called Noujain Mustaffa. Yes, Noujain Mustaff," he says, looking into the camera with a smile.

Scott later tweeted his thanks to Last Week Tonight, Alison Sweeney and Noujain for "one last DiMera dance!"

 

Noujain, meanwhile, succeeded in reaching Germany where she was reunited with her brother. She has now applied for asylum in Dortmund.

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/09/27/current-migrant-crisis-america-must-more/HHS3z6SgmWhfvvJjCsd3gI/story.html?event=event25

In the migrant crisis, America must do more

 

THERE HAVE BEEN many significant days in my life, but the most important of all was Nov. 11, 1948. That was the day my family and I arrived in the United States, beginning a new life in exile from our native Czechoslovakia.

 

In contrast to countless Americans who came before and after us, we were not a hardship case. My father was at the United Nations and we had diplomatic passports. We did not escape through barbed wire, or cross stormy seas by raft. But we were fleeing a brutal communist government, and found a welcoming home in the most generous nation on earth.

 

Today, there are millions of people across the Middle East and Africa facing far more dire circumstances, and for them America remains a beacon of hope. Yet as the world confronts the worst refugee crisis in decades, barely a trickle of those displaced by violence are being offered resettlement in the United States.

 

During the more than four years of fighting in Syria, we have taken in only a little more than 1,500 of the four million people who have fled the country. America can and must do much, much more.

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c4269a509dd2415d8863f96eb312256d/trump-says-hed-send-back-syrians-taken-us

Trump says he'd send back Syrians taken in by US

 

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that if he's elected president he would send back Syrian refugees taken in by the U.S. because they may be Islamic State militants in disguise.

 

"I'm putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration," Trump said during an evening rally in Keene, New Hampshire. "If I win, they're going back."

 

The billionaire businessman, who is leading early opinion polls, said during an hour-long speech — which included several profanities — that he was worried the refugees, who have been fleeing their country after years of civil war, could be Islamic State militants looking to get into the U.S.

 

"They could be ISIS, I don't know," said Trump, who questioned both the number of men in their ranks and why Syrians were fleeing their country instead of staying and fighting.

 

"This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time. A 200,000-man army, maybe," he later added. "That could be possible."

 

Millions of Syrians, many risking their lives in crowded boats and rafts, have been fleeing a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011. As many as 9 million people have been displaced, including more than 4 million who have fled the country, according to the United Nations.

 

Secretary of State John Kerry announced earlier this month that the U.S. would significantly increase the number of migrants it takes in over the next two years, with 85,000 refugees from around the world allowed in next year and up to 100,000 in 2017.

 

That's less than some have urged, but as many, he said, as the U.S. can handle given post-Sept. 11 screening requirements and a lack of resources. Other countries, such as Germany, are accepting far more.

 

I wonder what he thinks we should do with the Syrians already here....

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/syria-refugees-texas-dallas

'My body is in America but my soul is in Syria': a refugee family's journey to US

 

Faez knew it was time to get out of Syria the day a stranger saved his life as he made his way to work.

 

It was April 2013, and he was walking to his job at a healthcare company in the southern city of Deraa. Sometimes his mother would accompany him because then the soldiers were less likely to bother him.

 

On this day, however, Faez was alone. As he neared a government checkpoint, he found himself cornered by soldiers who were pursuing a young man.

 

“They thought that I knew the person they were chasing. They arrested four or five of us, and started calling us names. They threatened to shoot us,” he said.

 

That was when the stranger appeared and vouched for a man she had never met. “An old lady came by, crying and pleading with the soldiers to let us go. She said: ‘He’s my son,’” he said. Faez never found out who the woman was, but he is convinced that her intervention saved his life.

 

A couple of days later, Faez and his wife, Shaza, packed a suitcase and fled to Jordan. Their escape started a process that eventually saw them celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary last weekend in a small apartment in a Dallas suburb, watching TV news with images of Syrians crammed on European trains – and feeling at once distant from and deeply connected to the ongoing disaster engulfing their homeland.

 

Syria has dominated the United Nations general assembly this week, where Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin offered rival visions for a solution to the conflict which has killed about 250,000 people since 2011 and turned an estimated four million into refugees.

 

Meanwhile, Europe has struggled to cope with the largest influx of refugees since the second world war. As national governments and the European Union scramble to frame a common response to the crisis, aid groups and politicians have urged the US to take in thousands more Syrians.

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http://darbarnensover.aftonbladet.se/chapter/english-version/

Where the children sleep

 

One is missing his bed. Another, her doll with the dark eyes. A third is dreaming himself back to a time when his pillow was not an enemy.

 

The war in Syria has continued for almost five years and more than two million children are fleeing the war, within and outside of the country borders. They have left their friends, their homes, and their beds behind. A few of these children offered to show where they sleep now, when everything that once was no longer exists.

 

Magnus Wennman, winner of two World Press Photo Awards and fourfold winner of Sweden’s Photographer of the Year Award, has met refugees in countless refugee camps and on their journeys through Europe this year. The story of when the night comes is a living narrative with no given ending.

 

Fotografiska and Aftonbladet aim to recognize the vulnerable situation of these children who have been displaced by war in order to support the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/refugee-crisis-glasgow-becomes-first-uk-city-to-accept-new-cohort-of-syrian-asylum-seekers-a6676966.html

Refugee crisis: Glasgow becomes first UK city to accept new cohort of Syrian asylum seekers

 

Glasgow will become the first British city to accept Syrian refugees since the current crisis began with dozens set to arrive before Christmas.

 

The city council has made an agreement with the Home Office to identify 63 people from refugee camps in Lebanon and Iraq. Families are expected to travel to Scotland to begin a new life later this month.

 

Accommodation and services are in place following weeks of negotiations to ensure the city is ready for the new arrivals.

 

Duncan Campsie, from the city council's Asylum and Refugee Service, said although Glasgow is currently willing and able to help a longer-term plan was needed. Current UK government funding is handed out on the basis of each group of people.

 

Mr Campsie said: “We need to speak to the Home Office for funding. It needs to be a five year thing. It's not just about taking the numbers in and putting them in a flat. It's schools, health, benefit arrangements.

 

”We will continue to do our bit.“

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/malaysia-to-accept-3-000/2165028.html

Malaysia to accept 3,000 Syrian refugees: PM Najib

 

Malaysia will open its doors to 3,000 Syrian migrants over the next three years to help alleviate the refugee crisis, Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday (Oct 1) at the United Nations General Assembly.

 

Mr Najib said Muslim countries were partly responsible for ensuring the well-being of the marginalised Syrians fleeing their country in massive numbers, causing social and economic stresses in Europe.

 

"This is why Malaysia has taken, over the years, many people fleeing war, starvation and persecution," said Mr Najib. "We currently have hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants, and we took in more earlier this year when there was a dire humanitarian situation in the Andaman Sea."

 

It is reported that about four million Syrian refugees have fled into neighbouring countries since the start of the civil war in 2011. Mr Najib said new international solutions were needed to deal with the migration crisis.

 

He said that "we must respect our common humanity" and the fleeing of millions of Syrians from their own country should be a world concern.

 

"For it is only when we transcend the silos of race and faith, only when we look at images of desperate migrants, the victims of extremists, and those whose lives are degraded by hunger and poverty – and see not strangers, but our brothers and sisters," said Mr Najib. "And it is only when we see that dreadful picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore – and recognise our own children in that tragic boy’s innocent face – that we will act as our better selves."

 

He added: "People around the world cry out for our help. We cannot, we must not, pass on by."

 

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/germany-expects-15-million-asylum-seeker-report-151005084730574.html

Germany expects 1.5 million asylum-seekers, report says

 

Germany could receive up to 1.5 million asylum-seekers this year, according to a newspaper quoting a confidential document containing estimates that are far higher than publicly released official figures.

 

Authorities have so far predicted that Europe's biggest economy would record between 800,000 and one million new arrivals in 2015.

 

But Bild paper quoted the document saying that the authorities were now expecting to receive 920,000 new arrivals in the coming three months alone, bringing the total number of asylum-seekers this year to 1.5 million.

 

"The migratory pressure will increase. For the fourth quarter, we expect between 7,000 and 10,000 illegal entries a day," according to extracts of the document, although Bild did not specify its source.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/middleeast/obama-turns-to-crowdfunding-to-aid-fleeing-syrians.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0

Obama Turns to Crowdfunding to Aid Fleeing Syrians

 

As Syrian refugees continue to flee the violence at home, President Obama is turning to the modern tools of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship as a supplement to the more traditional means of humanitarian relief.

 

At the request of officials from the White House Office of Digital Strategy, the crowdfunding website Kickstarter has begun its first social service campaign aimed at raising money for the United Nations refugee agency on behalf of Syrian refugees.

 

Visitors to the site, which is better known for helping inventors and filmmakers, can contribute $15 to buy a sleeping bag, $70 for an emergency rescue kit, or $160, which the site says could pay for a refugee’s shelter in a “well-built group tent, complete with sleeping bag and mat.”

 

The weeklong campaign, which began Tuesday, had raised more than $550,000 as of that night for a nonprofit organization that supports the United Nations refugee agency, an amount the site said had already helped more than 2,000 people.

 

In a blog post on the White House website, Joshua Miller, an official in the digital strategy office, wrote that the Kickstarter effort — along with a similar one with Instacart, an online grocery delivery service — is an effort to follow up on Mr. Obama’s plea for Americans to do their part on behalf of the refugees.

 

White House officials said the online fund-raising would not replace the government’s efforts or other programs to help manage the refugee crisis. The administration has said it plans to increase by 10,000 the number of Syrian refugees admitted into the United States in the next year and to further expand the number of refugees admitted from other countries.

[visionary]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/national/the-latest-hollande-calls-for-common-eu-asylum-policy-mjsurnpublicidaporga8afeab130464f7094f9822f6a0-331044141.html

The Latest: UK wants UN vote soon on refugee smuggling

 

Britain says it is hoping for a vote in the coming days on a U.N. resolution that would authorize the European Union and individual countries to take "enforcement action" on the high seas off Libya against vessels trying to smuggle refugees to Europe.

 

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Wednesday the Libyan government has approved the EU mission and expressed hope for a vote possibly this week with a high number of "yes" votes.

 

But Russia's deputy ambassador, Petr Iliichev, said "we still have concerns" about the proposed resolution, which would also allow the seizure and destruction of boats after the migrants were taken to safety.

 

Several African countries have objected to the resolution being drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which can be militarily enforced.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/follow-one-refugees-journey-new-future-n439211?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=57ec3b79f6a9ecb78a38229877a45df8

Follow One Refugee's Journey to a New Future

 

NBC News first met Salma on a sweltering September afternoon in the Greek border town of Idomeni.

 

The 29-year-old mother of two was already several weeks into her journey out of Syria — they had used traffickers to cross into Turkey then taken a dangerous boat ride to Greece. Salma and her family were desperate and determined to get to Germany.

 

NBC News followed Salma and her family on their journey — which included sleepless nights, trains, buses and traffickers. This is their story.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/germany-france-call-united-eu-front-refugees-151007150224925.html

Germany and France call for united EU front on refugees

 

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have urged fellow EU leaders to unite to resolve the ongoing refugee crisis.

 

Merkel warned leaders of the dangers of succumbing to nationalism at a meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

 

"In the refugee crisis, we must not succumb to the temptation of falling back into acting in nationalistic terms ... national solo efforts are no solution to the refugee crisis," Merkel said.

 

Merkel went on to call existing EU rules on asylum "obsolete", as they place a burden on EU states where people arrive first to process claims for refugee status.

 

The German leader spoke after France's Hollande, who told EU leaders they risked the "end of Europe" if member states failed to remain united to tackle the refugee, euro currency and other crises.

 

"We need not less Europe but more Europe. Europe must affirm itself, otherwise we will see the end of Europe - our demise," Hollande said.

[visionary]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/08/refugee-crisis-germany-creaks-under-strain-of-open-door-policy

Refugee crisis: Germany creaks under strain of open door policy

 

The realities of shouldering Europe’s refugee crisis are coming home to Germany, amid daily reports of clashes in asylum seeker homes; bureaucrats overwhelmed by a backlog of registration claims and deep divisions within chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative ranks over how to manage the enormity of the challenge.

 

Just weeks after Merkel responded to the refugee crisis with the declaration: “Wir schaffen es – We can do it” – the euphoric mood has been replaced by a more sombre response with the realisation that the newcomers are here to stay, with all the consequences that entails.

 

School authorities are calling for at least 25,000 new teaching recruits to cope with the large numbers of new pupils, police officers are being brought out of retirement in their thousands, and the nation is being scoured for suitable accommodation as winter approaches.

 

“The welcome parties in Munich, Berlin and elsewhere were great,” said the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung in a recent editorial. “They showed a generous and open Germany of which we can be very proud, headed by a chancellor who seemed to surprise herself with her response, (and) tens of thousands of volunteers ... but now we’re in the stark light of day which consists of overcrowded refugee centres and local authorities and police stretched to their limits.”

 

Arson attacks on refugee shelters continue on an almost daily basis. Reports of refugees being greeted at the doors of their new homes by neo-Nazis humming Third Reich songs or being pelted with banana skins are not uncommon. There are mounting concerns that elements of the far-right have found new oxygen in the crisis by tapping into ordinary people’s fears that Europe’s largest economy may be unable to cope with the decision to allow so many to take refuge within its borders.

 

Latest estimates, so far unconfirmed by the government, are that Germany might expect as many as 1.5 million refugees by the end of the year, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

There are no signs the numbers will let up in the near future, with one government minister warning this week that many women and children can be expected to follow the males who made up the majority of those making the journey first. Merkel’s decision last month to “open the doors”, particularly to Syrian refugees, has attracted growing criticism even within her own party as an estimated 10,000 people continue to arrive every day.

[visionary]

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN0S30DZ20151009

Baby dies after migrant boat breaks down off Greek island

 

ATHENS (Reuters) - A baby died after the rubber boat carrying him and another 56 migrants broke down and was left adrift off the Greek island of Lesbos, the Greek coastguard said on Friday.

 

The 1-year-old boy, whose nationality was not made known, was found unconscious on a rubber dinghy which had broken down and went adrift late on Thursday. The boy was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

 

The coastguard rescued the rest of the migrants, some of whom were in the sea.

 

The baby was one of thousands of refugees - mostly fleeing war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq - who attempt the short but perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to Greek islands by boat, often in rough seas.

 

Almost 400,000 people have arrived in Greece this year, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has said, overwhelming the crisis-stricken government's ability to cope. Most have rapidly headed north towards Germany.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/world/americas/canadian-premiers-office-slowed-syrian-refugee-claims.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur

Canadian Prime Minister’s Office Slowed Syrians’ Asylum Claims

 

The office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper slowed the handling of refugee claims from Syrians by intervening in the review process, the government confirmed on Thursday.

 

The unusual move, which revived the handling of refugee claims as an issue in Canada’s current election campaign, was first reported by The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper. It was unclear why Mr. Harper’s office took the step against Syrians in particular. But Chris Alexander, the minister of citizenship and immigration, described it as a security audit.

 

“Starting a new refugee resettlement program in a volatile conflict zone poses particular challenges,” Mr. Alexander said in a statement sent by email. “The government has consistently been concerned that the most vulnerable refugees get the protection they need and that Canadian security is not compromised in any way.”

 

Criticism from political opponents fell on Mr. Harper and his Conservative government last month after it emerged that the family of Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old boy whose death drew great attention after his body was photographed on a Turkish shore, had hoped to come to Canada.

 

The government promised in January to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees into Canada over three years. But refugee aid groups and potential sponsors have repeatedly complained about the sluggishness of that process. As of late August, only 1,074 Syrian refugees had been admitted.

 

Jennifer Bond, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in refugee issues, said that while much remained unclear about the actions of the prime minister’s office, the decision unquestionably delayed refugees seeking safety.

 

“There was a delay during a time when there was a desperate need for Syrians to get protection,” she said. Professor Bond added that Canada has a carefully developed system in which experts consider security, among other factors, in assessing claims, “and those experts are not in the prime minister’s office.”

[visionary]

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/566034-lonesome-refugees-in-forlorn-countries

Lonesome refugees in forlorn countries

 

“We walked off the ferry along the wide, sloping gangplank, and when my feet hit the firm wooden planks of the jetty, I staggered, legs suddenly feeling like jelly. I took Mum's hand, whispering, ‘Are we really safe here?’”

This short excerpt comes from Alwyn Evans’ first novel, Walk in My Shoes, about the adventures of a family fleeing the atrocities of Afghanistan in order to settle down in Australia. Whilst the first part of the book slowly describes the bumpy road ahead for asylum-seekers and refugees, the characters get decidedly livelier and more optimistic in the second half of the book.

Yet, this poignant story can easily be told by thousands upon thousands of refugees — boat people, land people, camp people, from Syria, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere — who have been escaping the constant danger and remorseless misery in their lives and who are trying to carve out a new and more hopeful existence in Europe. It is not only Aylan Kurdi who should pinch our consciences. After all, nobody could have really missed out on the images of the young or old stubbornly braving the elements and trying to reach a land that — with some exceptions — was quite chary of their arrival. ‘Why are they coming here and cramping our space?’ was on the tongues or in the minds of many Europeans as they struggled hard to choose between human compassion and primal instincts.

Roughly 500,000 people have arrived into the EU this year as they seek not just sanctuary but also jobs. Either way, they have sparked the biggest refugee emergency in decades. But should we in Europe not have anticipated this influx? After all, how long could we keep a war in Syria burning at such wrathful levels whilst also expecting Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey to bear the crippling brunt of 4 million Syrians who have escaped their country? That, in my opinion, is the problem when we stray into reactive tactical decisions and forget the broader strategy. We have been unable — reluctant at times — to deal with the war in Syria and we are now also unable to harness its humanitarian overspill. So we are, alas, left with a critical situation where Syria is inexorably spinning out of control, where more refugees and economic migrants try to head to the EU borders, and where we flex our muscles or exhibit our prowess as we seek ways of coping with those ‘visitors.’

But are those men, women and children temporary visitors or permanent residents? Are they guests, as Turkey characterises them? Or are they refugees as Jordan labels them, even though the kingdom has not ratified the 1951 Convention? Or are they brothers and sisters coming into Lebanon and shaking its demographic (and dare I add sectarian) makeup? And we in the EU have already started battening down the hatches as our ministers discuss in Luxembourg and elsewhere the measures that must be taken to ensure the irregular migrants’ effective return.

 

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/opinion/a-refugee-lesson-for-europe.html?emc=edit_ee_20151009&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=67172246&referer=

Indifference Kills

And so, for a few months now, camp beds have been set out every night to the left of the main entrance. In all, about 3,500 people have been sheltered, mainly Eritreans, but also Syrians and Afghans, part of the largest movement of refugees and migrants since the end of World War II.

Children are given toys and crayons. Adults get a new pair of shoes: A pile of discarded footwear testifies to their popularity. A jury-rigged pipe provides a shower in the washrooms. When I visited, 38 refugees had spent the previous night at the memorial. They come in the evening from the station, where municipal authorities and an organization called Progetto Arca have set up a processing center. They sleep near the Indifference Wall. They leave the next morning, usually headed north toward Germany.

 

There is no direct analogy between the situation of millions of refugees today and the Jews who were deported from Milan’s Platform 21 (as the memorial is also known). The refugees are fleeing war — not, in general, targeted annihilation. They are victims of weak states, not an all-powerful one. Their plight often reflects the crisis of a religion, Islam — its uneasy adaptation to modernity — not the depredations of a single murderous ideology.

 

Still, there are echoes, not least in that word, indifference.

 

The indifference of Hungary, with its self-appointed little exercise in bigotry: the defense of Europe as Christian Club. The indifference of Britain, where the prime minister speaks of “swarms,” the foreign secretary of “desperate migrants marauding,” and the home secretary of threats “to a cohesive society.” The indifference of a Europe that cannot rouse itself to establish adequate legal routes to refugee status that would stem trafficking that has left about 3,000 people dead this year in the Mediterranean.

 

Then there is the indifference of an America that seems to have forgotten its role as haven for refugees of every stripe. The indifference of a world unready to acknowledge that more than 4 million Syrian refugees absorbed by Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon need a massive program of economic and educational aid over the next decade to confront the crisis. “It’s a trend and not a blip,” David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee, told me.

 

If the counter-indifference gesture of Milan’s Holocaust memorial were repeated myriad times across a European Union of more than half a billion people, the impact would be dramatic. One quarter of Lebanon’s population is now composed of Syrian refugees; the numbers reaching the E.U. constitute less than 0.5 percent of its population.

[Zguy28]

Powerful video. Really puts things in perspective and how wonderfully well off most of us are in the West.

 

[HogNose]

Powerful video. Really puts things in perspective and how wonderfully well off most of us are in the West.

 

 

Thanks for posting that...very powerful.  Here I am worrying about my fantasy lineup and other trivial things while these poor people are going through hell.

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/donald-trump-immigrants-angela-merkel-214648

Trump calls German chancellor's immigration moves ‘insane’

 

Donald Trump says German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to accept thousands of Syrian refugees is 'insane."

 

“They’re going to have riots in Germany,” the Republican presidential hopeful said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." “I always thought Merkel was, like, this great leader. What she’s done in Germany is insane. It’s insane… letting in that many people."

“What they should do is get all the countries together, including the Gulf States, which have nothing but money. They should all get together and they should take a big swath of land in Syria,” Trump said. “They should do a safe zone for people where they could live. And then ultimately go back to their country, go back to where they came from.”

 

The billionaire real estate developer and entertainer also reiterated the U.S. should limit the number of the refugees allowed into the U.S. “10,000, I'm not thrilled, but maybe. 200,000 people?” he asked.

 

“This could make the Trojan horse look like peanuts if these people turned out to be a lot of ISIS," Trump declared.

 

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2015/1011/Exodus-to-Europe-Despite-hardships-most-Syrians-opt-to-stay-in-Turkey?cmpid=addthis_twitter

Exodus to Europe? Despite hardships, most Syrians opt to stay in Turkey.

 

The first failure was hard enough. Abu Ahmed took his Syrian refugee family on a costly, 17-hour bus ride across Turkey – only to be stopped by Turkish police at the Greek border with crowds of would-be immigrants to Europe.

 

The human traffickers who said they could help were thieves, the family believed, so they returned to this city near Syria, safe but with spirits low and cash supplies dwindling – and still desperate for emergency medical care for two sons.

 

But it was the second failure that broke Abu Ahmed’s heart and is forcing his family to remain among the more than 2 million Syrian refugees still eking out a living in Turkey, left behind by the mass exodus to Europe.

Refugee purgatory in Turkey may be better than dodging bullets, government barrel bombs, and jihadists in Syria. But for many, life in Turkey is an uncertain existence marked by severe want, second-class status, and constant humiliation, and a lack of options that the United Nations and relief agencies are struggling to remedy.

 

Despite the mass migration of some 550,000 souls to Europe this year – the region's largest refugee movement since World War II, with 70 percent of them Syrians, according to the UN – overall refugee numbers in Turkey still grow month after month.

 

Not to be defeated by his first failure, Abu Ahmed, a stocky carpenter with graying, short-cropped hair and seven children, made a last solo bid to cross to Europe by boat this past week. He left Gaziantep with all his family’s hope, and all the rest of their cash – $1,000 from a local donor.

 

In Izmir, where most rubber boats launch from Turkey to make the six-mile journey to the Greek island of Lesbos, he struck a deal with traffickers. He and two Syrian men he met along the way paid $800 each for the illegal crossing, and before departure were treated to a fine breakfast in a safe house.

 

He knew it was dangerous, but Abu Ahmed never got to risk the water. The traffickers sent the men to a beach meeting point, then disappeared; they had rented the safe house just for one day, to scam the Syrians.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/world/middleeast/refugees-stuck-in-grinding-us-process-wait-and-hope.html?smid=tw-share

Refugees, Stuck in Grinding U.S. Process, Wait and Hope

 

A hushed room of diplomats listened intently as a man who called himself Adnan described his escape from Mosul, Iraq, when the Islamic State laid siege to the city in 2014: As a gay man, he told them via videolink from Lebanon, he knew he would be killed, and that even members of his family would not be sorry.

 

Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, who organized the meeting, hailed his testimony as part of her government’s efforts to raise the plight of gays and lesbians at the Security Council. But even as she did so, Adnan’s hopes for a new life in the United States came in for a rude awakening. Case workers vetting his refugee claim told him that although he was an ideal candidate for resettlement in the United States — a gay man at high risk of persecution — he would have to wait for at least a year.

 

The reason: American immigration officials had stopped coming to Lebanon to interview potential refugees from Iraq and Syria, because the United States Embassy compound outside Beirut was being renovated, and they considered no other location safe enough to house immigration officials for the night.

 

The paradox did not escape him. “I am eligible to speak at the Security Council and not eligible to travel to the U.S.A.,” Adnan said in an interview in Lebanon a few weeks later. He uses a pseudonym because he does not feel safe in Lebanon.

 

Adnan’s predicament highlights the many bureaucratic hurdles and security concerns that make refugee admissions to the United States so tortuously slow, even as pressure mounts on the Obama administration to increase the number of refugees it accepts from the world’s widening war zones.

 

The Obama administration has promised a gradual increase in the total refugees it resettles — from a current ceiling of 70,000 each year to 85,000 next year and 100,000 in 2017. That falls far short of what refugee advocates are demanding, but American officials say even the current goals will not be easy to pull off.

 

“It’s a stretch,” said Anne C. Richard, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. “It’s going to take lot of effort, a lot of cooperation.”

 

It is United States policy to accept the most vulnerable of those fleeing war and persecution abroad — torture victims, widows with children, and religious or sexual minorities, like Adnan, who face heightened risks. But the White House is under intense scrutiny to ensure that terrorists do not slip in with refugees, so the process for vetting and admitting refugees takes up to two years, requiring several rounds of background checks across a network of intelligence agencies, plus a face-to-face interview to check if an applicant has a valid refugee claim.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/over-710-000-migrants-crossed-eu-frontex-105912331.html

Over 710,000 migrants crossed into EU this year: Frontex

 

EU border agency Frontex said on Tuesday that 710,000 migrants entered the European Union in the first nine months of this year, compared to only 282,000 in all of 2014.

 

The Warsaw-based agency released the latest figures a day after the UN refugee agency said the EU's new relocation scheme for refugees fleeing conflict and poverty is "not enough" to address the scope of the problem.

 

"The total number of migrants who crossed the EU's external borders in the first nine months of this year rose to more than 710,000 with the Greek islands on the Aegean continuing to be the most affected by the unprecedented inflow of people," Frontex said in a statement.

 

"This compares with 282,000 recorded in all of last year."

 

Frontex added however that the number of migrant crossings in September fell to 170,000 from 190,000 in August.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/13/us-europe-migrants-germany-gallows-idUSKCN0S71VC20151013?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Germany investigates mock gallows for Merkel at anti-Islam rally

 

German prosecutors have opened an investigation after a demonstrator held up a mock gallows with nooses marked for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her deputy at a protest organized by anti-Islam movement PEGIDA on Monday.

 

Several thousand people took part in Monday's rally in the eastern German city Dresden. Germany, a favored destination for refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, expects a record 800,000 to a million asylum seekers to arrive this year.

 

Public prosecutors in Dresden said a criminal investigation had been opened into persons unknown for disturbing the peace and threatening crimes, as well as public incitement to commit crimes.

 

Many Germans have welcomed the influx. But others oppose Merkel's welcoming stance. German federal police have counted 26 arson attacks on refugee shelters in the first nine months of the year.

 

Politicians from Merkel's ruling coalition of her conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) were quick to condemn the mock gallows with nooses marked as 'reserved' for the chancellor and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel.

 

"A line has been crossed here," said Michael Grosse-Broemer, deputy floor leader of Merkel's conservative CDU in parliament.

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/dick-durbin-to-support-syrian-aid-bill-214799

Sen. Durbin will support Syrian aid bill

 

Frustrated by continued U.S. reluctance to take in more Syrian refugees, Sen. Dick Durbin and three other Democratic senators quietly visited Greece over the weekend to view the humanitarian crisis up close.

 

Alongside Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Durbin visited with refugees on the streets of the island of Lesbos and in processing centers, praising cash-strapped Greece and Turkey for their work caring for those fleeing the Syrian civil war.

 

But Durbin returned from his trip more resolute than ever that the United States should step up, announcing he’d support a bipartisan supplemental spending bill aimed at helping Syrian refugees and criticizing the U.S. for taking in just 2,000 Syrians.

 

“You have to understand how desperate people would be to send a 15-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister, alone,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday. “We can do better. And I think we should, after careful vetting.”

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/record-refugee-arrivals-overwhelm-sweden-151015050829829.html

Record refugee arrivals overwhelm Sweden

 

With the refugee crisis worsening, the European Union has agreed to relocate a further 120,000 people after overriding opposition from the same eastern European states.

 

More refugees have sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 than any other year in the country's history, with 86,000 people applying for asylum.

 

Last year Sweden took in more refugees per capita than any other EU country.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/15/us-europe-migrants-norway-russia-idUSKCN0S90E520151015?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Norway seeking to return some Syrian asylum seekers to Russia

 

Norway is seeking to return a growing number of Syrian asylum seekers arriving in the Arctic north back to Russia, government ministers said.

 

About 1,200 people have made the journey this year, up from a dozen in 2014, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration says. The journey is a more roundabout, but legal, and safer, way to enter Europe than by crossing the Mediterranean.

 

But from next week the Nordic country will seek to return Syrians who have lived in Russia for an extended period prior to entering the country.

 

"Some of the people who are passing the Storskog border crossing have lived for a long time in Russia and have leave to remain there. So they are not fleeing war, need and hunger," Justice Minister Anders Anundsen told public broadcaster NRK on Wednesday.

 

"They have had a safe place to be in Russia. We have had a return agreement with Russia and we should use it," said the official, who is from the anti-immigration Progress Party.

 

Foreign Minister Boerge Brende addressed the issue with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone call late on Wednesday.

 

"I asked for a briefing on what he (Lavrov) thinks are the causes of this," Brende, a member of the centre-right Conservatives, told NRK early on Thursday. "What type of visa do they have in Russia. Have they (the refugees) had residency for a long time?"

 

 

http://www.globalpost.com/article/6668895/2015/10/14/eu-summit-push-turkey-migrants

EU summit to push Turkey on migrants

 

European Union leaders will on Thursday try to thrash out solutions to the continent's spiralling migrant crisis and step up a diplomatic offensive aimed at winning Turkey's help in stemming the flow of Syrian refugees.

 

The summit will focus on working with countries outside Europe's borders to help tackle the worst crisis of its kind since World War II.
The leaders will also discuss creating a possible safe zone in the north of war-torn Syria.

 

The key issue will be efforts to get a reluctant Turkey's approval for an EU plan to assist it in hosting over two million refugees, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel heading to the country on Sunday for talks.

 

EU Vice-President Frans Timmermans and other senior officials meanwhile arrived in Turkey on Wednesday to push the government on the plan, having postponed their visit after deadly suicide attacks in Ankara at the weekend.

 

"An agreement with -- and concessions to -- Turkey only make sense if it effectively reduces the influx of migrants," European Council President Donald Tusk said as he prepared to host the summit.

 

European leaders hope that helping refugees inside Turkey, giving it money and aiding the country to strengthen its coastguard will discourage Syrian refugees from taking perilous sea and land routes into the continent.

With no end in sight to Syria's four-year war, the EU has been toughening its stance in recent months over the flow of migrants, amounting to nearly 600,000 into Europe this year alone.

 

Arguments over the redistribution of 160,000 refugees from the frontline states of Greece and Italy have given way to fears that Europe's passport-free Schengen zone could collapse as some countries try to curb the huge numbers of migrants criss-crossing the continent.

 

The EU leaders will on Thursday discuss a possible EU border guard system and other ways of strengthening the bloc's external borders, Tusk said in his invitation letter for the summit.

 

They will also look at the future of the EU's Dublin asylum regulations, which say that refugees must seek asylum in the first EU country that they land in.
The rule is being sorely tested as the majority head for Germany.

 

The EU leaders will also discuss so-called "hotspots" -- controversial reception centres where migrants are registered, fingerprinted and sorted into genuine refugees and economic migrants at their first entry point into the bloc.

 

They will also discuss how to work with non-EU Balkan countries through which many migrants transit, and with African countries whose leaders they are due to meet at a migration summit in Malta in November.

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/07dc14049ce049cfa09b6ed3a361dca2/rubber-boat-lebanon-family-12-sinks-aegean-sea

Rubber boat with Lebanon family of 12 sinks in Aegean Sea

 

When the rubber boat carrying a Lebanese family of 12 punctured in the choppy Aegean Sea waters, they first started throwing their belongings in the water to keep afloat. Inevitably, it sank, all but wiping out the Safwans.

 

Moussa Safwan held his 18-year old pregnant wife for several hours in the water until— her body stiff— he let go and swam to shore. He is one of three survivors; relatives were gathered in Beirut on Thursday to await what likely would be tragic news of four still missing.

 

The Lebanese family tragedy highlights how the flood of refugees to Europe is encouraging disenchanted people from across the region to take make the journey, risking their lives in choppy seas to get to safer and more prosperous lands.

 

More than 500,000 people fleeing war or poverty have entered Europe this year, from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Many Lebanese have also left their country, escaping economic hardship and the weight of neighboring Syria's war on their fragile country. The small country of more than 4 million people hosts about 1.2 million Syrian refugees.

The wave of Syrian refugees "opened a door for all, even those who have money and are greedy, to escape the unstable conditions here. Insecurity makes people leave too," said Hani Safwan, a relative of those who died.

 

Kelly Safwan, 22, said she learned the boat carrying her family was punctured and sank soon after it left Turkey late Monday. It was carrying her father and mother, two young sisters, her brother and his pregnant wife, her sister and three children, her uncle and his son.

 

She said her family was seeking a better life in Europe, looking to join other relatives who are in Germany. Moussa and his pregnant wife, due in just two weeks, wanted to start their family in Europe. Her sister's 7-year-old child suffered from diabetes and wanted to get better care. To cross the Aegean Sea, each paid $1,200 and the smuggler told them to drive the boat themselves into the night, relatives said.

 

"Life is not good here. They were not happy. It is clear to everyone how the situation is in Lebanon. Everyone is leaving," said Kelly Safwan, who is her last year of university. "(My brother) held (his wife) for several hours. At the end, she froze, so he let her go. She died in his arms. He let her go and continued to the shore."

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-campaign-manager-americans-wouldnt-flee-as-refugees-li#.dlD0xx1NL

Trump Campaign Manager: Americans Wouldn’t Flee As Refugees Like Syrians Have

 

Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says Americans wouldn’t become refugees like Syrians and questioned why young Syrian men are leaving instead of fighting to support their country.

 

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, millions of Syrians have fled the war torn country for Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

 

“When you think about it, fundamentally, people say okay, if you want to leave your country and you’re a healthy male maybe between the age of 18 and 35, why are you leaving you country to go to another country,” Lewandowski said this week on the John Fredericks Show. “I can’t imagine anyone from our country doing that. We would see our men, double down, support their country, make sure that we continue to have the greatest country in the world.”

 

And, so [Trump] raised the issue, ‘hey are these the refugees that we are gonna be taking in,” Do we really need 200,000 additional Syrians coming to our country. Why don’t they stay and fight for their own country as opposed to us putting our troops over there, fighting for them. Maybe there’s something fundamentally wrong with that.’”

 

In interview and speeches, Trump has said he believes taking in “trojan horse” Syrian refugees could result in an ISIS “military coup” in the U.S..

 

The Obama administration announced in early September that it hopes to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees next year. Refugees seeking entry into the United States undergo multiple high-level security checks and an in-person interview with a representative from the Department of Homeland security. It’s unclear where Trump got the 200,000 figure he and his campaign have repeated.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-turkey-agree-joint-migrant-action-plan-juncker-230000765.html

EU and Turkey agree joint migrant action plan: Juncker

 

EU leaders approved Thursday an action plan for Turkey to help stem the flood of migrants in return for concessions from Brussels, including easier visa access.

 

European Council president Donald Tusk said after a summit of all 28 EU leaders that Turkey had to live up to its commitments as the "action plan only makes sense if it stems the flow of refugees."

 

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU agreed to speed up work on easing visa access for Turkey but also stressed the bloc would not compromise on its standards.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-europe-migrants-idUSKCN0SA26B20151016?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Turkey grumbles as EU hails deal to stem migration

 

Turkish leaders accused Europeans on Friday of treating their country shabbily and warned that a new deal with the EU to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe was not completely finalised.

 

Officials in Brussels, where EU leaders agreed overnight to offer Ankara cash, easier visa terms and a "re-energized" consideration of its EU membership bid, voiced cautious optimism that Turkey would do its part to encourage Syrian refugees not to head to Europe and to deter economic migrants from Asia.

 

President Tayyip Erdogan, the object of ardent wooing over the past month by Europeans who had long shown a cold shoulder to what they see as his increasingly authoritarian ways, told Turks he was unimpressed by their belated change of heart.

 

"Europe's security and stability is contingent on our security and stability. They have accepted this now," he told an audience in Istanbul. "OK. But how long have we been shouting and calling? In Turkey now there are 2.2 million Syrians alone."

 

Nearly half a million people, including many Syrians now despairing of an end to the war in their homeland, have made dangerous journeys by sea from Turkey to Greece this year, a surge that has plunged the European Union into crisis.

Nearly half a million people, including many Syrians now despairing of an end to the war in their homeland, have made dangerous journeys by sea from Turkey to Greece this year, a surge that has plunged the European Union into crisis.

 

At their summit, leaders reached no new conclusions on the future redistribution of asylum seekers around the bloc from frontline states Greece and Italy -- an issue that provoked furious rows among governments over the summer.

 

Pilot schemes on relocation are getting under way, though they have got off to a slow start and it remains unclear how Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans -- the main beneficiaries -- can be made to stay in the countries to which they are assigned when most want to go to Germany, Sweden or other wealthy states.

 

There was more focus at the summit on stemming the flow of migrants, both by improving the welfare of refugees in the Middle East and encouraging development in Africa, and by tightening controls on the external frontiers of the Union. One idea is to establish a common EU border guard system.

 

Amnesty International warned against measures that do not protect those entitled to protection: "European leaders’ desperate attempts to enlist Turkey as Europe's gatekeeper are ignoring the manifest failures of the Turkish authorities to respect the rights of refugees and migrants," it said.

 

Some European states have taken an increasingly tough line on keeping people out. Hungary, which has already fenced off its border with non-EU Serbia to keep out people trekking across the Balkans from Greece, announced it would seal off its frontier with fellow EU member Croatia at midnight on Friday.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/16/us-europe-migrants-poland-idUSKCN0SA26X20151016?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Polish opposition asks how government will protect people from any diseases brought by refugees

 

The leader of Poland's main opposition party, tipped to win an election on Oct. 25, called on the government on Friday to explain how it will protect people from any diseases he says are carried by refugees from the Middle East.

 

Jaroslaw Kaczynski was widely criticized in the media and by the ruling centrists this week after he warned that migrants could bring diseases and parasites into Poland.

 

It was not clear on what grounds Kaczynski made his warnings, and European health authorities have reported no evidence of widespread outbreaks of infectious diseases in parts of Europe with high numbers of migrants.

 

Poland is due to take in 4,500 refugees fleeing war in the Middle East and North Africa, adding to some 2,000 it has already accepted, under a European Union relocation plan strongly opposed by the opposition conservatives.

 

Kaczynski met with voters in front of a migrant reception center in Biala Podlaska, a town 172 km (107 miles) east of Warsaw. The facility is being used to house refugees from Chechnya and Georgia.

 

"The point is to make sure that these decisions (by the authorities) will not lead to creating dangers that are real," Kaczynski said, referring to the possible spread of diseases.

 

"The point is to present detailed information on how it is going to look."

 

Kaczynski's conservatives have used the refugee crisis in Europe to tap into deep-seated mistrust of foreigners in Poland in their bid to retake power after the election.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/gloom-hungary-seals-croatian-border-155412207.html

Gloom as Hungary seals Croatian border

 

"Closure!" barks the Hungarian army officer shortly after midnight, prompting the soldiers to unfurl the final length of the country's new anti-migrant fence and attach it to steel columns -- and the border with Croatia is officially sealed.

 

Behind the wire, a group of migrants disappears into the gloomy darkness toward Zakany station where a train waits to bring them to Austria.

They are the last of around 1,500 people to make it through just before the shutdown, ordered by Budapest barely a month after it also sealed its border with Serbia to stem the huge refugee influx.

 

Since then, some 185,000 migrants have crossed into the country from Croatia, many through a field at Zakany.

 

But this route is now no longer an option after thousands of soldiers, guards and even prisoners finished building the barrier along the F long Croatian frontier.

"We can go home soon at last, it's been tough work," a prison guard tells AFP next to the barrier in Zakany where he and a dozen colleagues wait for the final arrivals from Croatia.

 

Suddenly the faint sound of Arabic is heard in the distance on the Croatian side. Then out of the darkness some migrants appear, walking in a single file as they are escorted by Croatian police toward Hungary.

 

The crowd remains mostly silent, with many coughing and some children crying.

 

"Blue line, blue line!" shout the Hungarian police, an instruction to keep within a narrow cordoned-off track, as the migrants shuffle slowly across the border.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/slovenia-suspends-trains-croatia-ahead-migrant-arrivals-railways-210454919.html

Slovenia suspends trains from Croatia ahead of migrant arrivals: railways

 

Slovenia on Friday suspended its rail links with Croatia ahead of the anticipated arrival of large numbers of migrants being rerouted towards the Alpine country after Hungary announced it would close its border with Croatia.

 

"Given the exceptional circumstances, the passenger traffic between Croatia and Slovenia has been suspended," Slovenia's national rail company said on its website, adding it had taken the decision "in coordination with the authorities".

 

Earlier Croatia announced that it would divert migrants to Slovenia after Hungary said it would close the border with its fellow EU member -- a major transit point for tens of thousands of refugees -- at midnight (2200 GMT).

 

Slovenia's Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar earlier said that her government was in talks with Croatia on agreeing "one or two" border crossings for migrant arrivals.

 

Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec also suggested that Slovenia could cope if the influx of migrants into the region continued at similar rate.

 

"If the flow continues at the current pace, we will be capable of managing it. If this system breaks down, we don't know what could happen," he told reporters.

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/turkey-rejects-eu-offer-refugee-crisis-151016194610039.html

Turkey rejects EU offer on refugee crisis

 

A proposed financial package from the EU to Turkey to help ease the refugee crisis is "unacceptable" and "insignificant", the country's foreign minister has said.

Feridun Sinirlioglu slammed the offer on Friday, without giving specific details, saying the action plan agreed in Brussels a day earlier was a draft and not final.

"There is a financial package proposed by the EU and we told them it is unacceptable," Sinirlioglu told reporters.

 

A day earlier, the EU and Turkey had struck what was described as a deal on an action plan aimed at stemming a massive influx of refugees into the bloc.

The minister complained that the EU had been seeking to give the funds out of the budget allocated for Turkey.

"It is out of the question for us to accept an understanding of aiding Syrian refugees from funds allocated for Turkey," he said.

The final offer had to be more than the "insignificant and meaningless amount that they proposed before," he said.

 

He refused to provide any exact amount Ankara required but said: "If (the EU) delivers 3bn euros ($3.4bn) in the initial phase, it would be meaningful.

"We have spent $8bn (on refugees) and our gross national product is around $800bn. Their (GNP) is $18trn.

 

"Three billion euro versus $18trn (GNP) is comic but it is much better than the $500m that they had delivered."

Sinirlioglu rejected any "bargaining" with the EU, saying: "The aid to be delivered will not be for Turkey but to support Syrians in desperation."

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/german-politician-attacked-refugee-crisis-151017141236999.html

Attack on German politician 'linked to refugee crisis'

 

A German politician has been seriously wounded in a knife attack police suspect was linked to her work dealing with the ongoing refugee crisis.

 

An official for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CPD) told Al Jazeera that Henriette Reker was attacked in Cologne while campaigning for the city's mayoral election due to be held on Sunday.

 

Reker, an independent who is backed by the CPD and two other parties, was handing out roses to passers-by when she was set upon by a man in his mid-forties carrying two knives, the official said.

 

"He asked if he could have a rose, she said 'yes', and then the person attacked her with two knives and she was hurt," the CPD official said, adding that Sunday's vote was expected to continue as scheduled.

 

Reker's campaign team posted a statement on Twitter saying the candidate's condition was "serious but stable", and thanked paramedics for preventing worse.

 

Germany's Bild newspaper quoted a regional police official who said they arrested a man who had admitted to attacking Reker out of "xenophobic" and "political" motives.

 

Reker is the current deputy-mayor of Cologne and had been responsible for accommodating refugees arriving in the city, the newspaper said.