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Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 13.7.16.16

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01 July 2016

Keep in touch: Statewatch Observatory: Refugee crisis in the Med and inside the EU: Daily news (updated through the day), commentaries and official documents

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 European Commission: 13 July 2016: Relocation and Resettlement, 13 July 2016

 

- Relocation and Resettlement: Positive trend continues, but more efforts needed (Press release, pdf)

"Relocation and Resettlement: Positive trend continues, but more efforts needed... During the reporting period from 14 June to 11 July, the number of relocations increased with an additional 776 persons being relocated,...

Although this constitutes positive progress and shows that Member States are stepping up their efforts, it still falls far short of the Commission's proposed target of relocating 6,000 people per month. Member States are not yet meeting the commitments they made under the Council Decisions on relocation.... relocation from Italy decreased and remained at a particularly low level compared to the continuously high number of potential applicants for relocation arriving in Italy....

Since 4 April 2016, a total of 802 Syrians have been resettled from Turkey to the EU, including 291 since the last report..."

- Communication: Fifth report on relocation and resettlement (COM 480, pdf):

"While relocation transfers from Greece increased during the reporting period (710 persons relocated compared to 594 during the previous reporting period), those from Italy decreased and remained particularly unsatisfactory (only 66 people relocated in the reporting period, compared to 186 in the previous reporting period)....

Greece is carrying out a mass, rapid pre-registration exercise that will accelerate the identification and full registration of applicants eligible for relocation. 34,000 applicants are expected to be eligible for relocation. Greece needs to continue increasing its processing capacity to avoid creating a bottleneck after the pre-registration is completed, so that applicants can fully lodge their applications as swiftly as possible, urgently establish the additional relocation centres and continue relocating those that are eligible."

- Annex 1: Greece (pdf)

- Annex 2: Italy (pdf)

- Annex 3: Resettlement (pdf)

- Factsheet: Relocation and Resettlement (pdf)

 New migrant crisis in the making in the Balkans (New Europe, link):

!Hundreds of migrants arrive daily to Serbia’s border with Hungary, packing inside a makeshift tent settlement without toilets, showers and with only one tap of running water as Hungary introduced new measures meant to try to keep them out of the EU.

“This is the problem. There’s no toilets, no place to take a shower. It is very difficult for us,” Rajawi said. “They (the Hungarians) let each day only 15 people. If (they let) more, it gets better for us. Because, we are human, we need human rights here.”

In what appears to be another refugee crisis in the making in Europe, the numbers are surging at this camp and other ones on Serbia’s border with EU country Hungary. The numbers have been growing since last week, when Hungary introduced forced deportations of migrants caught within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of border fences.

Hungary has also restricted the number of people who can apply for asylum in the country to 15 a day."

 Hungary: Migrants Abused at the Border - Ensure Asylum Access; Investigate Cruel, Violent Pushbacks (HRW, link):

" Migrants at Hungary’s border are being summarily forced back to Serbia, in some cases with cruel and violent treatment, without consideration of their claims for protection, Human Rights Watch said today.

New laws and procedures adopted in Hungary over the past year force all asylum seekers who wish to enter Hungary to do so through a transit zone on Hungarian territory, to which the government applies a legal fiction claiming that persons in the zone have not yet ‘entered’ Hungary:..."

 France, Grande-Synthe: Humanitarian camps are supposed to offer refugees shelter, not turn them away (msf.org, link):

"n Thursday 7 July, six Afghan men were refused entry to the migrant camp in Grande-Synthe. Set up in March 2016, the camp was constructed to offer shelter to all refugees needing safe lodging and basic services. The town council that manages the site in partnership with the French government and the camp manager, the AFEJI, now say that men travelling alone will not be allowed access to the camp. This decision comes amid growing pressure put on refugees by authorities in north France. MSF is extremely concerned by this decision and calls for it to be immediately overturned."

 Are You Syrious: AYS Daily News Digest 12/7: Far-right racist terror surges in Europe (link)

"The anger and fear of locals takes barbaric form as they attack and threaten refugees; we invite more people to express their solidarity in these difficult moments. Let’s make Europe safe for human differences!"

 News (13.7.16)

Austria will reach refugee limit by the fall: interior minister - Austria is 15,000 applications short of reaching government’s upper limit for 2016 (politico, link): "Austria’s self-imposed limit on the number of asylum applications it will accept — set at 37,500 a year — will be reached by the fall, the interior minister said Tuesday."

Italy is 'new front line' on migrant crisis (euobserver, link): "Fabrice Leggeri, the head of the EU’s Frontex border agency, said Tuesday on French radio that Italy is the “new front line” in the migration crisis. He said 750 people a day are coming to Italy, compared to 50 in Greece. He said there were 360,000 irregular crossings in the first six months of this year, a figure higher than last year, but that numbers were falling since April."

Germany content to return Afghan asylum seekers to ‘islands of safety’ (euractiv, link): "More than half of Afghan asylum-seekers have their applications rejected by German authorities and are returned to the Middle-Eastern country. EurActiv’s partner Der Tagesspiegel reports. In Kabul, more and more Afghans end up stranded, as they return from Germany or other European countries, having failed to secure asylum status. Around 3,500 have come back from Germany alone since last year. The returnees are left with little, even nothing, and have no social ties in the capital, said Omid Nouripour of the German Greens, who regularly travels to Afghanistan."