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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 1.2.16

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01 February 2016

 Europe scales up plans to control migration (Irish Examiner, link): "As drownings in the Mediterranean continue and winter grips the perilous routes refugees are beating towards Europe, EU leaders remain divided over how to deal with the largest movement of people since the Second World War.

 

At the heart of the political debate are quotas, border controls, and controversial plans, announced by the European Commission in December, for a new European border and coastguard agency.

Amid a climate of fear following the Paris attacks, the commission presented an ambitious proposal, aimed at “securing the EU’s borders… while safeguarding the principle of free movement of persons”."

 Refugees and migrants can help build inclusive European societies (New Europe, link): "In 2016, let us embrace the migrants fleeing war, torture and abject misery to seek sanctuary and refuge in Europe. The distraught faces of families who have survived the treacherous sea passage to reach safety tell us what we need to know; no-one risks their life and the lives of their children unless they sense death at their heels.

If we fail to respond, we deny our humanity, our common values. We have a duty to provide sanctuary for those seeking asylum. And, when they arrive, as the Council of Europe’s Secretary General has frequently reminded our 47 Member States, migrants have the same human rights as native citizens. In return, they too must respect the human rights of others and Europe’s laws. This applies, for example, to the alleged mass sexual attacks on women, in Cologne, Sweden and elsewhere, that are currently in the news."

 

 News (1.2.16)

18 Breathtaking Photos That Try To Capture What Its Like To Be Stateless (Buzzfeed, link): "Photographer Greg Constantine has spent the better part of a decade documenting the lives of stateless people all over the world. His photographs can be seen in a stunning photo book, “Nowhere People”, in which he examines the effects of statelessness on individuals and society. The project is far-reaching, exploring what it means to be stateless across Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia."

10,000 refugee children are missing, says Europol (The Guardian, link): "At least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared after arriving in Europe, according to the EU’s criminal intelligence agency. Many are feared to have fallen into the hands of organised trafficking syndicates.

In the first attempt by law enforcement agencies to quantify one of the most worrying aspects of the migrant crisis, Europol’s chief of staff told the Observer that thousands of vulnerable minors had vanished after registering with state authorities."

Austria says it plans to step up deportations of migrants (Reuters, link): " Austria will step up deportations of migrants and is adding Morocco, Algeria and other states to a list of countries it deems safe, enabling it to send people back there more quickly, government ministries said on Sunday.

(...)

Now the government has decided to carry out at least 50,000 deportations in the same period, according to a summary of an agreement between the interior, defence and integration ministries published on Sunday."

ECRE strongly opposes legitimising push-backs by declaring Turkey a "safe third country" (ECRE, link): "ECRE is concerned about the Dutch government’s proposal to return all those arriving in Greece back to Turkey without access to asylum procedures, in exchange for a large scale resettlement programme. While the concrete modalities remain unclear, a key feature of the plan would reportedly be based on designating Turkey a “safe third country”."