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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe (10 news stories: 26.11.15)

26 November 2015

- Statewatch Briefing: Italy: MSF report on reception conditions in Pozzallo (pdf):

On 17 November 2015, MSF published a report on reception conditions in the CPSA (Centro di Primo Soccorso e Accoglienza, First Aid and Reception Centre) in Pozzallo which was submitted to the Commission of Inquiry into the system for reception, identification and holding of migrants, highlighting a number of serious shortcomings. MSF has been operating in the centre since February 2015, in order to attend to the medical and humanitarian needs of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who disembark in Sicily, in cooperation with the Ragusa province’s health authority (ASP, Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale).

- NORWAY SHUTS BORDERS from 26 November - 6 December: due to "migratory pressure": Temporary reintroduction of border controls at the Norwegian internal borders in accordance with Articles 23 and 25 of Regulation (EC) 562/2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) (pdf)

and see: Norway runs anti-refugee ads in Afghanistan (The Local.no, link): "Ads from the Norwegian government are in Afghan newspapers this week warning that potential asylum seekers “will be returned by force”."

- Hungary tries refugees for illegal entry (DW, link): "Hungary rid itself almost entirely of migrants by building a border fence. It also deemed entering the country without permission a crime. Daniella Cheslow reports from the trial of a Syrian refugee in Szeged, Hungary.

Kovacs said Budapest is providing money and manpower for border construction in Serbia, Macedonia and Slovenia. Inside Hungary, about 1,500 migrants remain of the more than 300,000 people who crossed the country over the summer, according to the Helsinki Committee. Prime Minister Victor Orban has vowed to challenge attempts by the European Union to impose a mandatory quota on Hungary to resettle 2,000 refugees.... A spokesperson for the Szeged court wrote DW that since mid-September, 688 people were found guilty of the felony charge of crossing the border illegally. Almost all were sentenced to expulsions lasting between one and five years. The United Nations has ruled that crossing a border to seek asylum is not a crime;" [emphasis added]

- News (26-11-15)

Frontex considers leaving its operational office in Greece (New Europe, link): "Frontex is considering packing up to go, according to NGO witnesses on the ground, the agency is not particularly up to the task of dealing with the crises.

Since late October, Frontex mobile teams went to Lesvos with their mission being to identify who is ‘illegally’ entering EU territory. The agency demanded the separation of Syrians and non-Syrians and went on to increase the scrutiny of the registration process. While doing so, they offered no technological, technical or other support to make that screening process more efficient and expedient. Since Frontex entered the scene, the registration processes slowed down dramatically"

Austria sees massive jump in right-wing crime (The Local.at, link): "Austria's police intelligence agency received 1,201 criminal complaints about racist and xenophobic crimes between January and September, compared to 750 in the same period last year - a jump of 60 percent.... The number of xenophobic and racist crimes in the first three quarters of 2015 was equal to the number reported for the previous three years, police figures showed. The interior ministry confirmed that this represented a real increase in crime, and not just an increased willingness to report racist and xenophobic crimes."

Alternate FM Xydakis and Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Ioannis Mouzalas visit Lesvos with EU and Schengen Ambassadors (24 November 2015) (link to Ministry, link)

Juncker: Euro doesn't make sense without Schengen (euobserver, link): "Juncker warned that the euro is pointless if people can't move around freely to use it"

Juncker warns against equating terrorists with refugees (Irish Times, link): "Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday morning , Mr Juncker said that those who perpetrated the attacks of November 13th were exactly the people who forced people to flee to Europe."

The Fear-mongers’ Bad Advice (HRW, link): "Favoring security over privacy only helps the terrorist agenda"

Italy: We were abandoned': migrants tell of suffering in Italy's private shelters (Guardian, link): "Hosting a refugee earns landlords €35 a day from the state, but asylum seekers report being left without gas, water and food"