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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 25.4.16

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01 April 2016

 Will Europe do anything to stop the drownings of migrants? (Washington Post, link): "Nothing has been done to address the causes of the exodus, however, so smugglers might shift their activities from the Turkey-Greece route to the still more dangerous passage between the North African coast and Italy. Some 6,000 mostly African refugees arrived in southern Italian ports in four days last week, according to the International Organization for Migration, bringing the total for the year to nearly 24,000. Some 800 have died along the way, the agency said , including those in the latest accident."

 

 Europe is a moral wasteland: Countless refugees continue to die while the West turns a blind eye (Salon, link): "The European Union was “founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”

It’s now clear that the moral posturing of the West is fraudulent.

This is of course not to suggest that other places are of better moral quality. Far from it: consider the Thai junta returning Chinese dissidents to China, the Egyptian military dictatorship’s complicity in Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Gulf states’ systematic exploitation of guest workers, or the alleged abuses committed by Mexican agents, on behalf of the United States, against Central Americans fleeing gangster terror. The world is in large part run by mean, venal and greedy pfeople. But the next time the West invokes its moral superiority remember that they have already failed humanity’s most basic test."

 2016 will be remembered as the EU's year of shame (Open Democracy, link): "For years, after the great Lampedusa shipwreck on 3 October 2013, the EU has tacitly allowed the deaths at sea of thousands of refugees fleeing towards the European coasts, having been unable to guarantee safe and legal access routes to the Union.

This year, in 2016, the EU has taken a further step towards barbarity: not only has it closed its internal borders by dismantling the Schengen area, but it has consciously decided to send refugees back to the war zones from which they had previously fled, and from which they are still escaping.

The agreement with Turkey signed on 20 March 2016, which enables the mass deportation of refugees who manage to reach Greece, cannot be interpreted in any other way. Thousands of these returnees are sent back by the Erdogan regime to the Syrian war zones from which they had initially escaped: a deportation that violates national, European and international laws."

This article is the foreword from the recent report Death by Rescue: the Lethal Effects of the EU's Policies of Non-Assistance (link)

 News (25.4.16)

EU leaders' praise of Turkey triggers NGO anger (EUobserver, link): "”Turkey is the best example in the entire world of how to treat refugees”, European Council president Donald Tusk claimed on Saturday (23 April), drawing criticism from human rights organisations.

He spoke at a press conference in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, where he travelled together with German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

”Nobody has the right to lecture Turkey on what you should do. I am very proud you are my partner. I am absolutely sure we will succeed. We have no other way”, Tusk said.

His statement drew applause from the conference. "

Obama questions Merkel’s idea for safe zones in Syria (New Europe, link): "US President Barack Obama has openly disagreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the creation of “safe zones” for refugees in Syria. At a news conference in Hanover, however, the visiting president sought to smooth over any differences.

“As a practical matter, sadly, it is very difficult to see how it would operate short of us being willing to militarily take over a chunk of that country,” Obama told reporters in Hanover on April 24. “And that requires a big military commitment” to protect refugees from attacks.

As reported by Bloomberg, Merkel said safe zones couldn’t be imposed from outside but would have to come out of negotiations in Geneva to end the war, identifying areas where people can feel “particularly safe.” Obama said he agreed with that version of the proposal."

UK: Ministers urged to let in 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees (The Guardian, link): "Opposition MPs hope to inflict an embarrassing defeat on the government on Monday over its refusal to extend help to unaccompanied child refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries who are stranded in Europe.

Charities led by Save the Children are urging MPs on both sides of the house to back an amendment to the immigration bill tabled by the Labour peer Alf Dubs and passed by the House of Lords, which would force the government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied children.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, has written to every MP urging them to support the amendment. He said: “The vote on Monday is a test of Britain’s humanity. MPs must stand up for the values and traditions that make Britain great.”"