Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 17 10.16
Topic
01 October 2016
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EU-Africa talks pose questions on aid and security (euobserver, link):
"Later this week in Brussels, EU leaders will be discussing forthcoming deals with a handful of African states.
With repressive regimes like Sudan demanding that the EU finance border controls, leaders appear increasingly willing to do almost anything to stop people from crossing the Mediterranean to reach Italy. Last November, Sudan’s foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandoursaid the EU should help pay to keep migrants from crossing its borders into Libya and Egypt.
A few months later, it sent the EU commission a wish list of demands. Sudan requested the EU pay for "computers, cameras, scanners, servers, cars, aircraft" at 17 crossing points along its borders under a programme that is part financed by the European Development Fund. "In principle yes but aircraft unlikely," responded the commission, in a document that can be found on the commission's website.
"The EU is in essence providing these repressive regimes with a cloak of international legitimacy at a time when more scrutiny on their domestic policies is needed," wrote Kloe Tricot O'Farrell, the NGO's EU advocacy officer."
Migrants riot in Greece after car kills woman, her child (ekathimerini.com, link):
"Greek police say migrants living in a camp outside the northern city of Thessaloniki have rioted after a woman and her son were struck and killed by a car.
The riot started Sunday night after an ambulance was late to arrive. Camp residents claimed that they asked police to take the 35-year-old Kurdish Syrian woman and her 10-year-old son to a hospital in a patrol car and they refused.
Migrants blocked the road outside the camp, threw rocks at the police and set fire to two patrol cars. Police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Migrants also set fire to trash cans as a defense against tear gas. Calm has returned to the camp, which hosts about 1,300 migrants."
Greece: Another 58 Returned To Turkey (News That Moves, link):
"Personnel from Frontex, the EU agency for the management of border controls, and the Greek police returned another 58 irregular migrants from Greece to Turkey on October 13.
This followed 65 deportations on October 5 and 6.
Most of those returned on October 13 were citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran and Pakistan.
The returns were carried out partly under the EU-Turkey deal of March 2016, partly under the Greece-Turkey Readmission Protocol of 2002, and under the EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement of 2014."
Are You Syrious (16.10.16, link):
France: Clashes between Calais residents and the police, volunteers prevented from approaching the site
"Another violent clash between the riot police and the refugees happened in Calais, where refugees are preparing to leave the site they got to call home over the last months. On Saturday, workers started erecting a controversial wall along the motorway leading to the ferry terminal. A crane was deployed to the site to lift four-meter-high cement panels to prevent the refugees from blocking traffic and jumping onto trucks. This action, along with the increased police presence and the uncertainty about the days to come, ignited the clash in which police used water canons and other means of oppression in the attempt to “pacify” desperate camps residents."
Greece: At least two dead in front of Oreokastro camp, in a tragedy that ignited righteous anger and riots
"We are deeply saddened by the tragedy that happened in front of Oreokastro camp tonight. According to numerous witnesses on site, a refugee family was walking across the road in front of the camp when a car hit them, leaving two people dead and one in critical condition. First reports, including the info from Team Humanity, say the mother and the son died on the spot, while the daughter was rushed to the hospital in Thessaloniki. According to Greek press, three victims were residents at the Fessas camp in Oreokastro. They were hit by the 76-year-old driver outside camp, who was held by the police. Associated Press identified the victims as the 35-year-old Kurdish Syrian woman and her 10-year-old son. The extent of the injuries of the third child is still unconfirmed, but it seems to be out of the life-threatening danger."
EU: The Foreign Affairs Council (link) on 17 October recorded that:
"Ministers took stock of recent developments related to the external aspects of migration. The High Representative reported on the first results of the partnership framework approach and on the work on country specific compacts with the five priority countries, namely Mali, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria and Ethiopia, with the aim to better manage migration together."
Comment: Or rather working together to ensure refugees do go or not continue northwards towards the Med.
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