Europe's migration crisis
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Hundreds of migrants protest at Budapest station, want to go to Germany
ReutersHundreds of migrants protested in front of Budapest's Keleti Railway Terminus for a second straight day on Wednesday, shouting "Freedom, freedom!" and demanding to be let onto trains bound -
Migrant train leaves BudapestHundreds of migrants left Budapest aboard a packed train bound for a town on the Austrian border after two days of chaos.
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Chaos on tracks as Hungary stops migrant train http://t.co/2jiK4UnVF08:27 PM - 03 Sep 2015
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I left on a 2nd train from #Budapest w/refugees but the train has stopped at another station lots of police around http://t.co/WSGTCKVPVG
12:11 PM - 03 Sep 2015- Reply
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Announcement at #Budapest train station "all trains to Western Europe are cancelled" but hundreds are still waiting here10:37 AM - 03 Sep 2015- Reply
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An image of a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts swept across social media on Wednesday after at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.The picture showed a little boy wearing a bright red t-shirt and shorts lying face-down in the surf on a beach near the resort town of Bodrum. In a second image, a grim-faced policeman carries the body away.Turkish media identified the boy as 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose 5-year-old brother died on the same boat. Media reports said he was from the north Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border, scene of heavy fighting between Islamic State insurgents and Kurdish regional forces a few months ago.The hashtag "KiyiyaVuranInsanlik" - "humanity washed ashore" - became the top trending topic on Twitter. In the first few hours after the accident, the image had been retweeted thousands of times.
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For many refugees, journey to Europe begins on Facebook
Would-be migrants hoping to flee war in the Middle East are using Facebook as their compass for finding the people smugglers they hope will get them to a better life in Europe.
The U.S.-based website and other social media that were once used to help mobilize the "Arab Spring" uprisings now host information services for those escaping the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the region.
There refugees can find much of what they need to know, right down to the prices, fees, bribes they will have to pay on a journey fraught with dangers ranging from drowning at sea to suffocating in a truck.
On top of this, messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Viber help them en route to contact smugglers, friends and families alike while Internet mapping ensures they don't get lost.
In Facebook groups set up in Arabic, users post phone numbers of contacts they say can take refugees from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands or even further into Europe, a continent struggling to cope with the migration crisis.
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We use our smart phones primarily, to have a GPS signal so we don't get lost.
We use social media, including WhatsApp, Viber or Facebook to communicate with people we know. If they are already in western Europe, they send information back to us to help us navigate the route.
That includes contact information for smugglers sometimes, as well as things to watch out for."
- A Syrian refugee, who gave his name as Ahmad at a Budapest railway station, where he was camping last week with hundreds more refugees.
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German police say five people hurt in fire at refugee shelter
ReutersGerman police said on Friday five people were injured when a fire broke out at a refugee shelter in the town of Heppenheim in the West German state of Hesse.There was no immediate indication of how -
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EU faces a defining moment with refugee crisis: UNHCR's Guterres
GENEVA | BY TOM MILES
The European Union's response to the refugee crisis will be a "defining moment" for the bloc, the head of the U.N. refugee agency Antonio Guterres said on Friday, warning that a divided EU would benefit only smugglers and traffickers.
The EU needs to help more migrants enter legally and provide about 200,000 relocation places, according to a preliminary estimate, as well as supporting countries under pressure such as Greece, Hungary and Italy, he said in a statement.
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Poland says EU may face millions of new migrants if it ignores causes
The scale of the migration is enormous, so we can't focus - I'm talking about the whole of Europe - on allocating illegal migrants without fighting the causes (of their arrival).
"We have to think of how to stop the illegal migration. Otherwise (we may have) soon have 3-4 million economic refugees."
- Poland foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna, to private Radio Zet
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Asylum seekers wait outside the foreign office in Brussels, Belgium September 3, 2015. Europe has seen a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa trying to escape poverty and violence at home and the issue has shot to international prominence as thousands try to make their way to Britain from the French port of Calais. Some 2,300 people requested asylum in Belgium in June alone, up by a third from May, official figures show. The Belgian government has offered housing for 2,500 extra applicants. REUTERS/Yves Herman
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Migrants scuffle with Hungary police; dead toddler's image shocks Europe
BICSKE, HUNGARY/MUGLA, TURKEY | BY MARTON DUNAI AND ECE TOKSABAY
Migrants forced from a train in Hungary scuffled with helmeted riot police and some clung to railway tracks on Thursday, as politicians across Europe struggled to respond to public opinion appalled by images of a drowned 3-year-old boy.
France and Germany said European countries must be required to accept their shares of refugees, proposing what would potentially be the biggest change to the continent's asylum rules since World War Two.
Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s has strained the European Union's asylum system to breaking point, dividing its 28 nations and feeding the rise of right-wing populists.
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"Politicians across the continent acknowledged the impact on Thursday of images of a 3-year-old boy in a red T-shirt and tiny sneakers face down in the surf of a Turkish beach, which gave a haunting human face to the tragedy of thousands dead at sea.
"He had a name: Aylan Kurdi. Urgent action required - A Europe-wide mobilization is urgent," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Twitter.
The boy's 5-year-old brother Galip and 35-year-old mother Rehan were also among 12 people who died when two boats carrying 23 capsized while trying to reach a Greek island."
Il avait un nom : Aylan Kurdi
Urgence d'agir
Urgence d'une mobilisation européenne http://t.co/d2wkTGAdhX
9:32 AM - 03 Sep 2015- Reply
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"The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this.
We want the world’s attention on us, so that they can prevent the same from happening to others. Let this be the last."
- Abdullah Kurdi, father of the two Syrian toddles who drowned when the family's boat capsized trying to reach a Greek island
Abdullah Kurdi, father of three-year old Aylan Kurdi, waits at a morgue in Mugla, Turkey, September 3, 2015. REUTERS/Kenan GurbuzDeleteEdit Image -
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A dinghy overcrowded with Syrian refugees drifts in the Aegean sea between Turkey and Greece after its motor broke down off the Greek island of Kos, August 11, 2015. United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on Greece to take control of the "total chaos" on Mediterranean islands, where thousands of migrants have landed. About 124,000 have arrived this year by sea, many via Turkey, according to Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
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Bayern to donate funds, set up migrants' training camp: http://t.co/36AHwXqZdP http://t.co/g8yANRoapM
3:50 PM - 03 Sep 2015- Reply
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Photo slideshow: The selfie at journey's end
A Syrian refugee woman talks a 'selfie' picture as she walks on the beach after arriving on the Greek island of Kos with her family on a dinghy boat, after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, early May 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
Syrian refugees from Kobani pose for a "selfie", moments after arriving on a dinghy on the island of Lesbos, Greece August 23, 2015. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
A refugee takes a selfie with German President Joachim Gauck (C) as he and his partner Daniela Schadt visit an asylum seekers accommodation facility in Berlin, Germany, August 26, 2015. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos
Migrants take a 'selfie' picture following their arrival onboard the Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship at port of Piraeus near Athens, Greece, August 26, 2015. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Syrian refugees take "selfies" moments after arriving on an overcrowded dinghy at a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean sea from Turkey, August 9, 2015. REUTERS/ Yannis Behrakis
Syrian refugees take "selfies" moments after arriving on an overcrowded dinghy at a beach on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean sea from Turkey, August 9, 2015. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis1 of 6
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FATALITIES
The tide of migrants and refugees risking the often deadly sea crossing to reach Europe from Africa is on the rise this year and the International Organization for Migration estimates about 2,300 have drowned. About 800 perished in a single shipwreck in April.
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Support for Merkel drops over handling of refugee crisis
ReutersGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has dropped abruptly over her handling of Europe's refugee crisis, a poll for ARD television network showed.Merkel, who was criticized for being slow to -
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A newly arrived refugee holds a number that has been allocated to him by the authority in order to get accommodation in front of the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs where he waits with other migrants to apply for asylum in Berlin, August 10, 2015. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos
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I managed to squeeze my way through the train packed with people to a place where I could just stand on one foot. Viktor, 22, an economic migrant from Sierra Leone, asked: “Is the air conditioning going to start working?”
A few seconds of silence and everybody around started laughing. That train had no air conditioning…"- Ognen Teofliovski,, Reuters photographer
Migrants pose for a photograph as they travel on a train through Macedonia July 31,2015. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski -
As the train stopped in a place called Tabanovce, close to the border with Serbia, Mahmud gathered his family and luggage, rushing to keep up with the group they were travelling with.
“How long does it take to Hungary?” he asked me.
A toothbrush lies on a railway track at Gevgelija train station near the Greek border with Macedonia July 30, 2015. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski
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