Tag Archives: migrant crisis
| Greek islands overflowing with migrants amid EU fears Turkey will abandon refugee deal
Greek authorities on several islands in the Aegean Sea are raising the alarm over an increasing influx of refugees from Turkey, which has soared since the failed coup, while the EU fears Turkey will not keep to its promises regarding the refugee deal.
| Up to 35,000 migrants to be relocated over two years
Of the 49,000 migrants and refugees currently stranded in camps around the Greek mainland, up to 35,000 are expected to resettle in other European states over the next two years, Kathimerini understands.
A so-called pre-registration process, which is implemented by the Asylum Service in cooperation with UNHCR and the European Support Office on Asylum (EASO), should be completed by late July. The program allows individuals who entered the country between January 1, 2015 and March 19, 2016 to get a foot on the national asylum procedure ladder. It also gives them access to the EU’s relocation scheme. Individuals who skip the procedure will be deemed illegal and be subject to deportation by the authorities.
‘500 dead’, confirm survivors of latest Mediterranean boat tragedy
Survivors of the latest mass tragedy to strike the Mediterranean have spoken out about their horrifying ordeal, when the overloaded boat capsized last week while making a crossing to Europe, killing as many as 500 passengers.
The 41 survivors – 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child – of the crossing from Tobruk in Libya were rescued and taken to Greece. They have confirmed that hundreds of people drowned when the non-seaworthy vessel tipped over.
UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami also said on Wednesday that survivors from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt who were rescued from a small boat had described seeing a large shipwreck claiming hundreds of lives.
| Why is Belgium managing the recent fractures so badly?
Few countries in the European Union have such a large gap between native students and those of foreign origin, than Belgium does. There are few countries in the European Union where people of immigrant background (called “allochtones”, allochthonous) have as much trouble finding work. No other European country has provided so many fighters to Syria as Belgium. Didn’t we know this?
| International workshop in Budapest discusses refugee crisis
An international workshop titled “Crises and Victims: A Workshop on Refugees, Migrants, and Anti-Refugee Discourses in a New Way,” organized jointly by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Karl Polanyi Center for Global Social Studies, and Eszmélet journal, was organized in Budapest on February 26-27, 2016. The meeting was held at a critical conjuncture defined by two related developments. First, European governments have been doing their best to refuse admitting refugees escaping from wars in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, which started and/or escalated due partly to direct or indirect intervention of the same European powers. Second, xenophobia and racism, which have been important problems in Europe for a long time, have reached an alarmingly high level. In the workshop progressive and socialist intellectuals from various European countries discussed different perspectives on the contemporary refugee crisis and its possible progressive solutions.
