Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 22.8.16
Topic
01 August 2016
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Hungarian politician suggests hanging pigs' heads along border to deter Muslim refugees (The Telegraph, link):
"Severed pigs’ heads should be hung along Hungary’s border to deter Muslim refugees and migrants from entering the country, an MEP has suggested.
Gyorgy Schopflin, a member of the Right-wing government of Viktor Orban, the prime minister, sparked outrage and disbelief with the suggestion.
He made it during an ill-tempered exchange on Twitter with a human rights campaigner."
UK: Britain wants to save refugee children - so why is government shunning these helpless infants? (International Business Times, link): "It is now several months since the Immigration Act became law. It contained one crucial amendment, that the UK should take an unspecified number of unaccompanied child refugees from Europe. So far very little seems to have happened."
EU: Rumours and lies: 'The refugee crisis is an information crisis' (The Guardian, link): "“You need to puncture your raft before you arrive, or they’ll send you back.” “If you apply for the relocation programme, they send you to Venezuela.” “In Europe you won’t need money, everything is free.”
These are just three of the many confusing rumours that migrants and refugees might hear. Some of them are downright dangerous, like the one about the raft. Others cause people to make the wrong decisions or take risks.
In response, the Mediterranean Rumour Tracker project has been launched to better inform migrants of the facts. Fieldworkers who speak Arabic or Farsi engage with people in the Greek camps, collect the rumours that are circulating, and then verify or dispel them. This information is posted on a dedicated website and corresponding Facebook pages in English, Arabic, Farsi and Greek."
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