Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe 2.9.16
Topic
01 September 2016
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French interior minister says Calais camp will be removed (again)
"France is to gradually dismantle the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has vowed.
Cazeneuve told the regional newspaper the Nord Littoral he would press ahead with the closure of the camp “with the greatest determination”, dismantling the site in stages, clearing the former wasteland where record numbers of refugees and migrants are sleeping rough in dire sanitary conditions as many hope to reach Britain."
EU: One year after the death of Alan Kurdi
One year after three-year-old refugee Alan Kurdi drowned in the Aegean Sea, his father "has urged Europe to keep its doors open to migrants," while his grandfather has made a "plea for world leaders to end the war in Syria." Amnesty International's general secretary said on the anniversary of the child's death: "The outpouring of sympathy for Alan Kurdi seen last year must be extended to the countless other refugee children who are in dire need of help," with the organisation noting the "dismal failure of world leaders to tackle the refugee crisis."
BULGARIA: Battle in Refugee Camp Leaves Bulgarian Town Nervous (Balkan Insight, link):
"Following the brawl in Harmanli, the government decided to allow the State Agency for the Refugees to set up refugee camps of a closed kind, or transform existing open camps into closed facilities if they assess that it is necessary.
The decision has drawn criticism from human rights activists, who argue that existing Bulgarian laws should simply be applied to individuals that break them.
Harmanli, the largest refugee camp in Bulgaria, hosts around 1,500 asylum seekers mainly from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
While the camp held just over 150 asylum seekers only few weeks ago, the number of refugees stuck in Bulgarian refugee camps has steadily grown since Serbia tightened controls over its border with Bulgaria in July, sending army units to join border patrols."
14,000 migrants saved in Med in five days (The Local, link):
"The Italian coastguard said that 1,725 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast on Thursday, bringing the total number saved since Sunday to at least 14,000.
Those plucked from the Mediterranean Thursday were on 16 small boats, mostly dangerous inflatables, and were rescued by Italian naval vessels, ships from the EU's "Sophia" anti-trafficking mission, NGO boats and two passing merchant ships, the coastguard said."
Migrant crisis: Bavaria asylum claimants told where to live (BBC News, link):
"Migrants in the German state of Bavaria will no longer be able to choose where to live, as instead they will be told which town will become their new home.
The new ruling applies to anyone whose application for asylum has been accepted in Bavaria, but who is still dependent on the state for housing.
Once the claimants have found a job and can support themselves financially, they are then free to move.
The aim is to help refugees integrate into German society."
Asylum seekers in Germany and Austria are already obliged to remain within their state of residence while their claim is processed, under the Residenzpflicht requirement. See: Mass protests across Germany for the rights of asylum-seekers and migrants (23 October 2012, pdf)
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