Europe's migration crisis
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Germany to receive more than 800,000 refugees this year: state premierMore than 800,000 refugees will come to Germany this year, the state premier of Germany's biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, said on Tuesday."I think it's clear to all of us that the number won't stay at 800,000," Hannelore Kraft said, adding that this government forecast was three weeks old. She also pointed to an influx of 20,000 over the weekend.
"So that the number will need to be revised upwards," she said.
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German right-wing opposition party wants borders shut to asylum seekersThe right-wing opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said on Monday Germany should shut its borders to asylum-seekers who want to enter via safe third countries, as well as reinstate border controls to stem a record influx of refugees.
Germany, Europe's biggest and richest economy with relatively liberal asylum laws and generous benefits, expects around 800,000 asylum seekers to arrive this year - equivalent to around one percent of its population and by far the most of any EU state affected by the migrant wave this year.
The AfD, which is hovering between 3 and 4.5 percent in opinion polls, issued a proposed programme that stipulates: "The right to apply for asylum in Germany should be revoked."
To "bring the asylum chaos under control", the AfD proposal said asylum seekers would have to apply in German embassies in their countries of origin or to EU or U.N. institutions. If war or other circumstances made that impossible, they would have to go to a German embassy in a neighbouring country.
Newly elected leader Frauke Petry (L) and Alexander Gauland stand on the podium of the party congress of the eurosceptic party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) at the party congress in Essen, western Germany, July 4, 2015. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay -
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Syrian refugees in Uruguay say they want to move elsewhere
ReutersFive families of Syrian refugees granted asylum in Uruguay last year protested outside the president's offices on Monday, demanding they be allowed to leave the South American country in search of -
Hundreds of Americans sign petition offering to house Syrian refugeesHundreds of Americans offered on Monday to take Syrian refugees into their homes, saying in an online petition that the United States needed to let in more migrants fleeing civil war.
Almost 1,300 people had signed the petition on the progressive MoveOn.org website calling on the United States to lift its limit on Syrian refugees as Europe struggled to cope with record numbers of asylum seekers.
The United Nations says 4 million people have fled the fighting since the start of the civil war in 2011. The United States has admitted about 1,500 refugees, and the White House said it was weighing responses to the crisis, including resettlement.
One petition signer, the Reverend Everett Shattuck, 59, a Church of the Brethren minister from Mill Creek, Indiana, said opening his home to refugees was part of the U.S. tradition of welcoming immigrants.
"Plus, we have to share some responsibility for that (war) because of our regime changes in the Middle East. Most of those refugees are a result of that," Shattuck said, alluding to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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The U.S. could and should be doing more. The silence of the White House on this is unacceptable."
- Michelle Brané of the Women's Refugee Commission -
EU eyes new migrant quotas; reluctant countries can buy out
ReutersThe European Union executive is preparing for a new clash over refugees with national governments, especially in eastern Europe, after officials gave details on Monday of how many it would ask each of -
Obama administration weighing range of responses to refugee crisis: spokesman
WASHINGTON
The Obama administration is considering a range of approaches in response to the global refugee crisis including with regard to refugee resettlement, a White House spokesman said on Monday.
"We are also in regular contact with countries in the Middle East and Europe who have been greatly impacted by the increased refugee flows," spokesman Peter Boogaard said in an emailed statement.
As Europe grapples with a flood of refugees from the Syrian war, some refugee and immigrant critics have complained the United States has been slow to respond.
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The gray streets of rainy Wakefield in northern England are not considered a paradise by many, but for one adopted son of Yorkshire they represent everything he dreamed about when he was growing up in Iraq.Arkan Esmail left Iraqi Kurdistan as a teenager in early 2002, set on making it to Britain. He was drawn by the language, the promise of security and the glory days of David Beckham's soccer career.A year later he reached his goal, one of close to 1,000 Iraqi Kurds granted asylum in Britain following the closure that year of the notorious Sangatte refugee camp in Calais, France, where thousands more refugees today live in ramshackle shelters in the hope of following in his footsteps.I don't want to go anywhere, the UK is my home. I've got a job and I'm happy where I am," he said, in a broad Yorkshire accent."You are safer here. Nothing can touch you".
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Struggling Germany urges neighbors to do more to ease refugee crisis
ReutersGermany told its European partners they must take in more refugees on Monday as it struggles to cope with record numbers of asylum seekers and as police in Hungary used pepper spray on migrants who -
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How will the migrant crisis reshape Europe's politics? http://t.co/mnz3FNLXDu @swahapattanaik http://t.co/xbNHwBS5CM
3:16 PM - 08 Sep 2015Delete- Reply
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Merkel says Europe needs joint asylum system, refugee quotas
ReutersGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Europe needed to implement a joint system for dealing with asylum seekers and agree to binding quotas on how to distribute refugees across the continent. -
Austria pledges to improve conditions for asylum seekersAustria will improve its accommodation for asylum seekers as winter approaches and increase capacity at refugee-processing centers in anticipation of tens of thousands of new arrivals, Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Tuesday.
Even before Austria and Germany threw open their borders last weekend to a wave of migrants, the Austrian government pledged to improve conditions at its centers for asylum seekers.
A report by Amnesty International last month said conditions at one center in Traiskirchen, south of Vienna, were "unacceptable" and found that as many as 2,000 people there had only blankets for shelter.
Faymann told a news conference after a cabinet meeting that asylum seekers would be housed in better conditions.
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Road to Europe
Migrants run to board a train near Gevgelija, Macedonia, September 7, 2015. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
A migrant catches up with a train which has already left the station near Gevgelija, Macedonia, September 7, 2015. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
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Migrants enter a camp for registration procedure after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija, Macedonia, September 6, 2015. Several thousand migrants in Macedonia boarded trains on Sunday to travel north after spending a night in a provisional camp. Macedonia has organised trains twice a day to the north border where migrants cross into Serbia to make their way to Hungary. Since June, Macedonian authorities have said that more than 60,000 migrants have entered the country, and around 1,500 entered just in one day, mainly refugees from Syria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
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Germany can't be a leader in the migrant crisis because German "leadership" is loaded: http://t.co/XPsGEX7mo7 http://t.co/Q3qKSeSV25
4:44 PM - 08 Sep 2015- Reply
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French mayor 'disgusted' by Cameron's migrant response http://t.co/ffSd0J5rqz #migrantcrisis http://t.co/rYChORxXJx
5:33 PM - 08 Sep 2015- Reply
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Strains will intensify as migrant numbers rise. The latest Frontex figures are nearly three times higher than for the same period last year. And the potential numbers are much higher. There are more than 4 million refugees in countries neighbouring Syria, some of whom are moving on as their conditions worsen."
- Swaha Pattanaik, Reuters Breakingviews columnist
REUTERS GRAPHICS -
From Kurdistan to Wakefield - and home sweet home
ReutersThe gray streets of rainy Wakefield in northern England are not considered a paradise by many, but for one adopted son of Yorkshire they represent everything he dreamed about -
Europe needs 'guaranteed relocation system' for Syrian refugees
Europe must offer guaranteed relocation for Syrian refugees, as record numbers flee to Macedonia and Greece due to misery in their homeland and surrounding countries, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
A record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia on Monday, while some 30,000 are on Greek islands, including 20,000 on Lesbos, it said.
"Discussions in Europe this week are taking on even greater urgency because it obviously cannot be a German solution to a European problem," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news briefing in Geneva.
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France says taking all refugees would be victory for Islamic State
France warned on Tuesday that it would be a mistake for Europe to take in all refugees persecuted by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, and called for a plan of action to ensure the Middle East's diversity remained despite the mounting crisis.
About 60 countries, including ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, met in Paris on Tuesday to cement measures aimed at easing the return of refugees, encouraging regional governments to bring minorities into the political fold and ensure no impunity for crimes against humanity.
It's very difficult, but if all these refugees come to Europe or elsewhere, then Daesh has won the game."
- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio, referring to the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
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Syrian refugees reach Greek mainland, fleeing chaos of Lesbos: http://t.co/2YnXaSCmjM http://t.co/GUuokK2oeY
11:54 AM - 08 Sep 2015- Reply
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Polish PM says EU summit on migrants may take place earlier than plannedPolish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said the European Council which is to deal with Europe's migrant crisis is likely to take place earlier than planned.
"These negotiations will start on Monday, when our ministers of the interior are present in Brussels and just after that there will be the summit," Kopacz told public television TVP Info late on Tuesday.
"Most likely the summit will be moved to an earlier date from what I know after talks with my European Union colleagues".
The next European Council is scheduled for the middle of October.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kopacz said Poland could accept more migrants than the 2,000 declared, but under certain conditions, while newly elected President Andrzej Duda said he was against any migrant quotas.
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Refugees face frosty reception in Europe's ex-Communist eastWhen setting the table for Christmas dinner, Slovaks traditionally put one extra plate on the table for an unexpected guest in need. This hospitality, however, has not been extended to migrants seeking refuge in central Europe from war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million with a strong Roman Catholic tradition, is a largely homogenous society with next to no experience as a destination for immigrants.
The leftist government, facing an election in March, says it wants to keep it that way, a challenge to the nascent plan by European leaders for each of the bloc’s 28 members to take in a quota of asylum seekers in answer to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
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Juncker to set out EU refugee plan, challenging leaders
ReutersEuropean Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will lay out plans for handling Europe's refugee crisis on Wednesday that may provoke new wrangling among EU states and between national leaders and the EU executive. -
Hungarian TV journalist fired for tripping up fleeing migrants
ReutersA camerawoman for a private television channel in Hungary was fired late on Tuesday after videos of her kicking and tripping up migrants fleeing police, including a man carrying a child, spread in the media and on the internet. -
As Europe opens its doors, Japan considers clamping down harder on asylum seekers
ReutersAs the worst refugee crisis since World War Two forces Europe to break down hurdles and accept hundreds of thousands of migrants, Japan, which took in just 11 asylum seekers last year, is looking to clamp down even further. -
A migrant walks on a road after leaving a collection point in the village of Roszke, Hungary September 9, 2015. Hungary has closed its M5 highway after groups of migrants broke through a police cordon at Roszke on the border with Serbia on Wednesday and set off on foot towards the motorway, police said on their website.
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A Danish policeman plays with a migrant girl at the E45 freeway north of Padborg September 9, 2015. Migrants, mainly from Syria and Iraq and hoping to get to Sweden by walking on the freeway, arrived this morning in Padborg on a train from Germany and were placed at a school from where they fled. The police closed the freeway due to security reasons. REUTERS/Claus Fisker/Scanpix Denmark
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Czech PM says Europe doesn't need new migration plans, should work on agreed measuresEurope needs to implement measures already agreed to deal with its migration crisis rather than draft new plans, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Wednesday after the European Commission presented new proposals.
"It is necessary to move from negotiating tables to action and to work hard on those measures that we have approved with other EU leaders and agreed on in the past months," Sobotka said in a statement.
He said he welcomed that the Commission's plan put more focus on long-term measures to deal with the flood of refugees reaching its borders, rather than just mandatory quotas that the Czech Republic opposes.
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Hungary closes highway after migrants break police cordonHungary has closed its M5 highway after groups of migrants broke through a police cordon at Roszke on the border with Serbia on Wednesday and set off on foot towards the motorway, police said on their website.
It said the entry point on the M5 highway, which leads from the south to Budapest, had also been closed.
State news agency MTI reported that as many as 200 to 250 migrants left a collection point for migrants near the border in Roszke after police could no longer contain a group of mainly young males pushing against their cordon.
Police were trying to round up migrants at an intersection along the highway, MTI said.
Local news website Index said some 400 migrants broke free from the collection point and half of them set out on the motorway, the other half on a secondary road towards the city of Szeged.
Hong Kong protests flare ahead of Xi meeting with city leader
HONG KONG Hong Kong police fired tear gas in late night street clashes with anti-government protesters, ahead of a potentially pivotal meeting between Hong Kong's leader and China's president in Beijing on Monday.