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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 16.8.16

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01 August 2016

 Migration: Cracks widen in “impossible” Italian asylum system (IRIN, link)

 

"Closed borders in the Balkans and the EU-Turkey deal have drastically reduced arrivals of migrants and refugees to Greece, but arrivals to Italy have continued at a similar rate to last year. The key difference is that fewer are able to move on to northern Europe, leaving Italy’s reception system buckling under the pressure and migrants paying the price.....

Yasha Maccanico, an Italian researcher for civil liberties monitoring organisation Statewatch, says Italy has been placed in an “impossible and unsustainable” position.

“Relocation was meant to be the justification for the hotspot system, but it simply has not happened,” he told IRIN. “And no matter what effort the state makes in providing adequate reception facilities, it will not be enough to match the numbers of migrants arriving.”"

 Greece: Arrvials in Lesvos (UNHCR, 16.8.116) in the last week:

09/08/2016:  34
10/08/2016   31
11/08/2016:  44
12/08/2016:  80
13/08/2016:  22
14/08/2016:  13
15/08/2016:  51

 Council of Europe: Turkey: Migrant children and refugees living precariously outside camps (link):

"Action needed to tackle child labour, encourage school attendance and improve the precarious living conditions of those outside refugee camps in Turkey.

“The Council of Europe should assist the Turkish authorities to develop effective policies to prevent refugee and migrant children working and to encourage their attendance at school”, says the Secretary General’s Special Representative on migration and refugees Ambassador Tomáš Bocek in a report published today. He also called for the Council of Europe to work with the Turkish authorities to help improve the precarious living conditions of the millions of refugees outside camps, in particular by making it easier for those of working-age to access the labour market."

 Are You Syrious (15.8.16)

Dramatic increase in refugees on the streets of Thessaloniki

"In the past two days, the number of refugees living in the streets and parks of Thessaloniki has dramatically increased, reaching almost 500, up from 200 on Monday, with around 200 new people coming from Athens. Only a few volunteers are currently active and long-term volunteers are desperately needed. Police is coming everyday, asking for people to join the camps but they are unwilling to do so."

Volunteer kitchen ransacked in Chios

"Gabrielle Tan in Chios reports a volunteer kitchen was ransacked on Saturday night and describes the overall situation on the island: On Sunday morning when they went to open the kitchen, preparing to feed the refugees on Chios as usual, the volunteers from Zaporeak Proiektua had a nasty surprise. Their kitchen was raided and damaged. This morning, they found their locks glued.

The doors of the European Union remain shut and none of the prosperous nations are living up to their promises of help. Greece remains its whipping boy, holding 57,000 internationally displaced people in distressing limbo. Chios holds about 3000ish?—?and numbers increasing steadily when the weather is calm. Athens is scrambling to put an emergency plan together?—?which will probably take months."

 Give us EU visa freedom in October or abandon migrant deal, Turkey says (euractiv, link):

"Turkey could walk away from its promise to stem the flow of illegal migrants to EU if the European Union fails to grant Turks visa-free travel to the bloc in October, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a German newspaper....

Asked whether hundreds of thousands of refugees in Turkey would head to Europe if the EU did not grant Turks visa freedom from October, Cavusoglu told Bild: “I don’t want to talk about the worst case scenario – talks with the EU are continuing but it’s clear that we either apply all treaties at the same time or we put them all aside.”

 News (16.8.16)

Danish politicians face charges for housing migrants (The Local.dk, link): "An Aarhus City Councilwoman and a parliamentary hopeful were in court on Tuesday to face charges of violating Denmark’s immigration laws by housing two African refugees."

Inclusion Of Refugee Children In Schools In Athens (News That Moves, link): "The Greek Ministry of Education and the Municipality of Athens announced a new pilot program that will give refugee children access to local public schools in Athens in September."

Europol to send terror experts to Greek migrant camps (euobserver, link): "The EU joint police body, Europol, will deploy a team of anti-terror experts to Greece in an attempt to single out potential jihadis among the 60,000 people stuck in the country. The team of 30 European experts will land in Athens by 20 August and travel on to the refugee camps, France24 reports ."