EU: Refugee crisis: latest news from across Europe (1.12.15)
30 November 2015
- GREECE-TURKEY: PRESS RELEASE:
No More Lives Lost in the Aegan Sea! (pdf)
"The undersigned organizations call on the EU and the Greek Government:
• to develop sufficient and effective resettlement programmes for refugees from third countries to the territory of European countries
• to develop refugee relocation programmes from Greece to other EU countries under which there will be significant increase in both the number of refugees relocated and the eligible countries of origin
• to offer to Greece the financial and technical support needed
• to remove the fence from the Greek-Turkish border and in any case to take all the necessary steps to ensure safe access to the land Greek-Turkey border for people entitled to international protection
• to take all the necessary steps so that the people entitled to international protection entering Greek territory are enjoying appropriate reception conditions that respect foremost human dignity."
Signed by AITMA, ARSIS, Network for the Social Support of Immigrants and Refugees, Greek Helsinki Monitor, Greek Forum of Refugees, PRAKSIS, Initiative for Detainees' Rights.
- News (1.12.15)
EU:
Aktuality.sk: Slovakian Prime Minister urged to exclude Greece from Schengen area (Focus, link):
"Greece should leave the Schengen area, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico urged, cited by Aktuality.sk. “It is high time to do so,” he said in Brussels, where he participated in the extraordinary meeting of EU leaders and their Turkish counterpart. “We cannot tolerate one of the countries openly to refuse to fulfil its obligations under the protection of the Schengen borders. In such a situation, the Schengen area is useless,” Fico said.""
EU:
Asylum seeker reception: Dignified standards must be maintained across the EU (EurActiv, link):
"With unprecedented numbers of refugees arriving in Europe, we must do more to guarantee their safety and dignity, and help them to integrate into European society, writes Denis Haveaux."
Europe split over refugee deal as Germany leads breakaway coalition (The Guardian, link):
"Months of European efforts to come up with common policies on mass immigration unravelled on Sunday when Germany led a “coalition of the willing” of nine EU countries taking in most refugees from the Middle East, splitting the union formally on the issues of mandatory refugee-sharing and funding."
GERMANY:
CDU and CSU increase refugee pressure on Merkel and SPD (Deutsche Welle, link):
"The domestic policy spokesman for Germany's conservative parliamentary parties can imagine a scenario in which authorities turn back refugees at the border. The timing of his comments is presumably not coincidental."
GREECE:
Migrant wave unabated as EU makes deal with Turkey (ekathimerini, link)
"Thousands of migrants arrived on Greek islands on Monday, just a day after Turkey pledged to help curb an influx of people heading through its territory to Europe via Greece at a landmark European Union summit.
After a lull of a few days, the number of arrivals picked up again over the weekend with more than 5,000 people arriving on Lesvos alone in the past two days, fueling concern among authorities who remain ill-equipped to handle the influx."
ICELAND:
Will Iceland leave Schengen? (Iceland Monitor, link):
"The question whether Iceland should remain a member of the borderless Schengen Area has been at the heart of a growing debate in the country following the migrant crisis in Europe and the terrorist attacks in Paris, France. Both the President and Prime Minister of Iceland are among those who have in recent weeks aired doubts about the country's membership of the cooperation."
Turkey arrests 1,300 asylum seekers after £2bn EU border control deal (The Guardian, link):
"Turkey has stepped up a crackdown on people smuggling, arresting 1,300 asylum seekers in a single operation just hours after the country promised to curb the flow of refugees to Greece in exchange for financial aid from the EU."
UK:
Refugee who fled horrors of Syrian war faces being DEPORTED from his new home in Britain (Mirror, link):
"Yousef Hassan, 20, sought safety in the UK after leaving behind the deadly Syrian conflict - but now he could be sent to Italy"