Turkey to become migrant chokehold

waltky · Nov 29, 2015

Turkey to be choke-hold for migrant flow...

EU Offers Turkey 3 Billion Euros to Stem Migrant Flow
NOV. 29, 2015 Under heavy pressure from Germany to get a grip on Europes migrant crisis after months of dithering, European Union leaders met in Brussels on Sunday with Turkeys prime minister to complete a deal that German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes will slow the chaotic flood of asylum seekers into the 28-nation bloc.

The meeting, the seventh gathering of European leaders since the spring regarding the highly divisive question of migration, took place days after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane and added a new element of uncertainty to a crisis that has overwhelmed Europes slow decision-making process. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, according to diplomats, will be promised 3 billion euros in European aid and other inducements in exchange for Turkish action to stop migrants, most of them from the Middle East and Afghanistan, from reaching Greece and other countries on Europes outer fringe. Mr. Davutoglu is standing in for Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Brussels meeting.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels before the meeting, Ms. Merkel said Europe had many reasons to work closely with Turkey but that the essential part of the negotiations was the need to replace illegal migration with legal migration. Her statement reflected a hope that the unruly flow of asylum-seekers a mix of refugees fleeing war and economic migrants seeking a better life can be brought under control before it reaches Europe. Europe wants Turkeys help in identifying genuine refugees, notably Syrians, who would be allowed entry in an orderly fashion, and in halting people fleeing poverty who do not have an obvious right to protection under international law.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the body representing European leaders, set out Europes objective in blunt terms: Our main goal is to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, he said, describing Turkey as a key partner on issues including counterterrorism and the civil war in Syria. But he stressed that Europe itself needed to do more to secure its external borders and that it could not outsource this obligation to any third country, like Turkey. Failing to protect the Continents outer borders, he warned, would mean that one of Europes most important achievements, the 26-nation visa-free zone known as Schengen, will become history.

Later, as the meeting got underway, Mr. Tusk told the summit that 1.5 million migrants had entered the European Union this year. It is unclear how secure any agreement reached with Turkey would be. Leaders first endorsed a so-called action plan with Turkey more than a month ago, but it was delayed by haggling over details. The Europeans still have not agreed on how to raise the 3 billion euros earmarked for Turkey, and putting the agreement into effect will ultimately depend on the Turkish president, Mr. Erdogan.

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Declaring 'new beginning,' EU, Turkey seal migrant deal
29 Nov.`15 - Turkey will help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU in a deal struck on Sunday that the Turkish prime minister called a "new beginning" for the uneasy neighbors. Leaders of the 28 European Union states met Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels on Sunday evening to give their collective political blessing to an agreement hammered out by diplomats over the past few weeks.

A key element is 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in EU aid for the 2.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, intended to raise living standards and so persuade more to stay put rather than attempt often perilous crossings to the Greek islands and the EU. "The EU is committed to provide an initial 3 billion euro of additional resources," the EU and Turkish leaders said in a joint statement. "The need for and nature of this funding will be reviewed in the light of the developing situation."

The final wording was a compromise between the EU, which offered 3 billion euros over two years, and Turkey, which had pushed for the same amount annually. Now the money, as French President Francois Hollande said, will paid out bit by bit, giving a possibility of a total more or less than 3 billion. Also on offer to Ankara, which has driven a hard bargain but wants to revive relations with its European neighbors as it faces trouble in the Middle East and from Russia, is a "re-energized" negotiating process on Turkish membership of the EU -- even if few on either side expect it to join soon.

And many Turks could also benefit from visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen zone within a year if Turkey meets conditions on tightening its borders in the east to Asian migrants and moves other benchmarks on reducing departures to Europe. "Today is a historic day in our accession process to the EU," Davutoglu told reporters on arrival. "I am grateful to all European leaders for this new beginning."

DESPERATION
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waltky · Nov 29, 2015

Mebbe the real reason for closing the border...

War with Isis: President Obama demands that Turkey close stretch of border with Syria
29 Nov.`15 - Ankara is accused of tolerance of if not complicity with the terrorists, who use border as a crossing point for Isis recruits and oil sales

The US is demanding that Turkey close a 60-mile stretch of its border with Syria which is the sole remaining crossing point for Isis militants, including some of those involved in the massacre in Paris and other terrorist plots. The complete closure of the 550-mile-long border would be a serious blow to Isis, which has brought tens of thousands of Islamist volunteers across the frontier over the past three years.

In the wake of the Isis attacks in Paris, Washington is making clear to Ankara that it will no longer accept Turkish claims that it is unable to cordon off the remaining short section of the border still used by Isis. The game has changed. Enough is enough. The border needs to be sealed, a senior official in President Barack Obamas administration told The Wall Street Journal, describing the tough message that Washington has sent to the Turkish government. This is an international threat, and its coming out of Syria and its coming through Turkish territory.

The US estimates some 30,000 Turkish troops would be needed to close the border between Jarabulus on the Euphrates and the town of Kilis, further west in Turkey, according to the paper. US intelligence agencies say that the stretch of frontier most commonly used by Isis is between Jarabulus, where the official border crossing has been closed, and the town of Cobanbey.

It has become of crucial importance ever since the Syrian Kurdish forces known as the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) captured the border crossing at Tal Abyad, 60 miles north of Isiss capital of Raqqa in June. Turkey had kept that border crossing open while Isis was in control on the southern side, but immediately closed it when the YPG seized the crossing point. The Turkish authorities are refusing to allow even the bodies of YPG fighters, who are Turkish citizens and were killed fighting Isis, to be taken back across the border into Turkey.

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waltky · Jun 11, 2016

Mebbe if each o' the G-20 put up a billion...

Migrant crisis will cost £20bn: Experts reveal shock price the EU has to pay
Sat, Jun 11, 2016 - THE European Union migrant crisis is shaking confidence in the bloc and will cost member countries up to £20billion this year alone, a respected economic think tank warned yesterday.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said many legacies of the 2008 financial crash remained unresolved and confidence in the European project had yet to recover. Meanwhile the large influx of refugees and migrants sparked by the ongoing Syrian crisis was now threatening the EUs progress and prosperity. As well as provoking political tensions, it was leading to pressure to reintroduce border controls in the previously passport-free Schengen zone of countries which was a setback for European integration.

The EU migrant crisis is shaking confidence in the bloc and will cost member countries up to £20bn

The ensuing hindrance to free movement of goods and workers would to some extent undo the benefits of the single market and shake confidence in the EU more generally, said its report. Meanwhile the long-term impact of the surge of asylum-seekers into Europe was uncertain and would depend on how many got jobs and how quickly they integrated into society. The financial burden, including the direct cost of supporting the newcomers on arrival would be as much as £20billion, or 0.2 per cent of the EUs total economic output in 2016. Some countries such as Sweden which have taken a lot of migrants will be forced to spend as much as 0.9 per cent of their output on the issue.

The long-term impact of the surge of asylum-seekers into Europe was uncertain

The report added that the outcome of Britains EU referendum could have important implications for economic performance in the UK and the rest of Europe an apparent toning down of the OECDs previous warnings that Brexit would deal a major negative shock. The report came ahead of warnings to be given later today by leading Leave campaigners about the risks of a Remain vote, including ever higher immigration levels. UK Independence Party MEP and migration and financial affairs spokesman Steven Woolfe is expected to tell a Grassroots Out rally: A vote to Remain is not a vote for the status quo but a vote for what the EU will be in 10 years time.

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waltky · Aug 11, 2016

The refugee crisis in Europe is still there...

Out of sight, out of mind? Europe's migrant crisis still simmers
Thursday 11th August, 2016: A year after hundreds of thousands of refugees snaked their way across southeastern Europe and onto global television screens, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of poignant visibility.

Europe's migrant crisis is at the very least numerically worse than it was last year. More people are arriving and more are dying. But the twist is that, compared with last year, a lot of it is out of sight. Take the border between Greece and Macedonia. Summer crops have replaced the city of tents at the border outpost of Idomeni, even if some locals are convinced there is an unseen population hiding in the surrounding forests, waiting for smugglers to assist them on their onward journey. The tiny Greek village was a focal point of the migrant flow north towards Germany and other wealthy countries, with thousands of refugees squatting for months waiting for sealed borders with Macedonia to open Elsewhere in the Balkans, a Reuters photographer, revisiting the people-packed locations where he and his colleagues captured last year's diaspora, found empty roads, unencumbered railway tracks and bucolic countryside.

The comparison is stark. To see the pictures, click: http://reut.rs/2aLGrXM More than one million people fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan made their way to Europe last year, with the majority of them crossing the precarious sea corridor separating Greece and Turkey, the temporary home for more than 2 million refugees displaced from Syria. They came carrying their worldly belongings in plastic bags and hauling babies on weary shoulders, a visual exodus of the kind not seen in Europe since the end of World War Two. Many have since reached their destination in northern Europe, but with the borders closed and the European Union now attempting to contain the numbers, thousands are stuck at holding centres in Greece and Italy. They are not so nearly visible there - nor are the ones still coming.

VISIBILITY DOWN, ARRIVALS UP

According to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), arrivals are up 17 percent on last year, stoked mainly by a spike at the start of the year through Greece. Deaths among those trying to get to Europe, mainly due to drowning, are up more than 15 percent. "This is not a blip," said David Miliband, a former British foreign minister who now heads the International Rescue Committee, an aid group set up by Albert Einstein - himself a refugee - to rescue Europeans before the outbreak of World War Two. "The forces that are driving more and more people from their homes - weak states, big tumults within the Islamic world, a divided international system .. None of these things are likely to abate soon." Some of the mantle of accepting huge migrant flows that was carried by Greece last year and the beginning of this one has been taken up by Italy. This follows a resurgence of migrant flows from northern Africa. More than 140,000 asylum seekers are now housed in Italian shelters, a seven-fold increase on 2013, with the migrant crisis in its third year.

In Greece, where arrivals plunged in the wake of an accord between Turkey and the EU to stem the flow in March, an estimated 57,000 migrants were still stuck in the country by Aug.8. Campaigners say the accord has lulled policymakers into a false sense of accomplishment by allowing them to believe that Europe's migration problem has been solved. "By outsourcing the responsibility to Turkey and to Greece, European governments are basically saying 'we have solved the crisis because we dont see it, and we can't smell it and we can't hear it," said Gauri van Gulik, deputy Europe director at Amnesty International. "The crisis is as big as ever, and as yet unsolved by governments," she told Reuters. IOM data says that 258,186 people arrived in Europe by the end of July, compared with 219,854 over the same period in 2015. There were 3,176 fatalities by Aug. 7, outpacing the 2,754 who died in the first eight months of last year, a slightly longer period. "Its absolutely incredible because if you think about the panic this caused last year and the incentive there was to really get some policy changes in place, nothing has happened," Van Gulik said.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/out-of-sight-out-of-mind/3031250.html
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As migrants pile up at Swiss-Italian border, Amnesty warns children at risk
Thursday 11th August, 2016: Amnesty International warned of a buildup of migrants on Italy's border with Switzerland and demanded clarification from Swiss authorities over reports by children that they had been sent back when trying to join their parents there.

Switzerland said the buildup was due to an influx of African migrants seeking passage to north European countries such as Germany. Any individual requesting asylum would be granted the opportunity. Several hundred migrants have been sleeping near the train station in Como, Italy, since July after a Swiss clampdown on crossings. "We're concerned about reports from minors who by their own accounts were sent back to Italy at the Swiss border and were prevented from joining family members in Switzerland," Amnesty International Switzerland said in a statement on Tuesday. "If a minor has family members in Switzerland who could care for her or him, ultimately Switzerland should process that asylum request," the agency added.

Some two-thirds of the nearly 7,500 migrants who reached Switzerland via the southern canton of Ticino have been turned back since early July, a steep rise from the one in seven denied entry earlier this year. That proportion was still rising in recent weeks. Swiss authorities said this was due to an influx of people - mainly from Eritrea, Gambia and Ethiopia - wishing to transit Switzerland from Italy to Germany or other northern European countries, which requires a valid permit.

But any individual requesting asylum in Switzerland - or communicating a desire to do so to border guards - would be granted the opportunity, customs and migration authorities said. That practice hadn't changed in recent weeks, they said. Martin Reichlin of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said he would expect any child arriving at the border and attempting to join relatives in Switzerland to be delivered to the care of his organisation.

Authorities have a responsibility to inform minors of their rights, Amnesty said, and a systematic return of children would be incompatible with the U.N Convention on the Rights of the Child. "Recognising the precarious circumstances for refugees in northern Italy, it's unacceptable to turn away especially vulnerable people," Amnesty said. Migrants turned back at the French and Swiss borders are beginning to pile up in Milan, the city's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said on Tuesday. More than 3,000 migrants in transit to other European countries were stranded in Italy's financial capital.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/as-migrants-pile-up-at-sw/3031582.html
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waltky · Oct 28, 2016

African Migrants Stuck on France-Italy Border...

Stuck on France-Italy Border, African Migrants Ponder Next Move
October 24, 2016 — Migrants have continued to arrive on Italy’s shores by the thousands this year. Most of them are Africans who hope to continue on to other European countries. But emergency border checks in place since last year mean many of them are stuck.

Groups of migrants are walking along the edges of the wet highway. They come from Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia and other African countries. Most of them made the long land journey to Libya before finally boarding an overcrowded boat to cross the Mediterranean. Cars whip quickly around the curvy mountain roads as rain fails on a chilly day in Ventimiglia, Italy. We are at the country’s border with France.

A man from Eritrea walks along the road after leaving a Red Cross Caritas camp set up for migrants in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia, Italy

In search of better life

The migrants VOA spoke to requested not to be named. “I’m from Sudan. I have 24 years old. The government in Sudan is not good. Me, I came here to save myself,” he said. He is hoping to get to France, where he says he has family. But for now, he and five other Sudanese men are walking through the rain looking for the nearby men’s migrant camp run by the Red Cross and the NGO Caritas.

Migrants Arrive in Sicily

Aiming for France

A local Catholic church, St. Anthony’s, houses around 100 migrant women and children in its basement. Abdul Rahman works as a volunteer translator at the church. “The people go out and come, trying for France. They go to France, they’re trying and police send them back,” he said. The European Union has struggled to meet the needs of the over one million migrants and refugees who have arrived since the start of 2015.

Groups of migrants from all over Africa chat, play football at the MIlan Central Station, Italy

More than 140,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean into Italy so far this year. EU law says new arrivals should register in their first port of entry. But many of the Africans VOA spoke to said they did not file in Italy because they want to continue on to other European countries. And now they are stuck. The border between Italy and France used to be relatively open, but now there are often passport checks. The emergency border checks are due to expire in mid-November, though some EU countries are in favor of extending them further.

'Is this human rights?'
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Nearly 11,000 People Rescued in Mediterranean in Past Two Days
October 05, 2016 - Nearly 11,000 people, including children traveling alone, were rescued at sea in the past two days, while 50 people were found dead, according to Italy’s coast guard.

More than 4,600 migrants were saved Tuesday and more than 6,000 were rescued Monday in the Mediterranean Sea off North Africa. The migrants were rescued Tuesday from 33 boats, including 27 rubber dinghies and one wooden boat, the Italian coast guard said. Italian authorities also said three women had given birth Monday on a coast guard vessel that was bringing some 1,000 refugees to Sicily, most of them Eritrean and Nigerian, who were rescued north of Sabratha, Libya.

Migrants are crowded on to the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya

At its nearest tip, Libya is 290 kilometers from the Italian island of Lampedusa. The mothers and their three children, two baby boys and one baby girl were all reported to be in good health. The coast guard said new rescue operations were underway on Wednesday, but considerably fewer than on the previous two days. The vast majority of refugees come from Africa, including Nigeria, Eritrea, Guinea, Gambia, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Somalia.

A rescue boat is filled with migrants taken from a vessel in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya

Even with the closure of the so-called Balkan route in March, used by nearly one million migrants last year to cross to European Union countries, hundreds of people have daily have attempted to reach the European Union.
More than half of refugees registered with UNHCR come from just three countries An estimated 6,000 migrants are stranded in Serbia after Hungary introduced strict limits for asylum-seekers this summer.

About 142,000 migrants have reached Italy this year and around 3,100 have died making the perilous trip through the Mediterranean Sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. An estimated 154,000 arrived in Italy in 2015 and 2,892 died.

http://www.voanews.com/a/nearly-11000-people-rescued-in-mediterranean/3537780.html
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Turkey to become migrant chokehold

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