REFUGEES: Quo vadis, Europe?

                  (Satis Shroff)

QUO VADIS EUROPA?
Lack of Cooperation & Coordination in Europe

(Satis Shroff)
 
The federal government of Germny will reduce its payments to the asylum seekers by changing its asylum law in a 128-page law proposal, and which will be ready before the refugee-summit of the  German states and Länder on September 24,2015. According to the Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, the asylum seekers should receive a travel-ticket or a flight-ticket plus food for the return-trip. This would hold or all refugees, who have come Hungary, Austria, Croatia or Italy and have been registered there.
Pro Asyl has criticized that the government makes refugees, who were allowed to enter Germany, without shelter and deprives them from acquiring social benefits.’ On the other hand, refugees who are obliged to leave the country, because their asylum applications have been refused by the authorities shouldn’t be given privileges necessary for a journey back home. Individual cases will be taken into consideration if they can be solidly supported with plausible arguments. Asylum seekers who had given false names, addresses in their bio-data, as well as false nationalities or try to hinder the expulsion will bring disadvantages to themselves.
Those who cannot be deported due to good reasons (education, pregnancy) should receive what we called ‘Duldung (in German) according to paragraph 60a.’ Furthermore, the asylum seekers will receive no money but consumer good or tickets for food-shops, so that the incentive won’t become as lucrative as money. The pocket money that was paid to asylum seekers in the past for apartments, clothes and food has been scrapped. But the Social Ministry, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs) have agreed to do so ‘as far as possible.’
The law packet also mentions that Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo will be declared secure countries for their respective citizens and, as such, the people from these c and reason to apply for asylum in the west.
Asylum seekers have challenged the court decision to send them to a country where they don’t want to go for instance Hungary, which in turn doesn’t want the Arabian and North African or Muslim refugees.
The Dublin-rules have been watered down and don’t hold against the recent ceaseless waves  of refugees from Syria, North Africa, Lebanon and other countries. The Dublin-rules allow each country to choose its own measures against the refugee. A refugee can ask to travel to his country of choice only in exceptional cases, but he or she has to finance the train-journey or flight-ticket himself or herself, and has to make sure that he or she arrives in the destination and seeks contact with the migration authorities in due time.
Switzerland wishes to support a distribution of refugees with solidarity among the EU nations, and would accept the quota set by the EU, even though the Swiss are not members of the EU.
In the meantime, even Croatia has closed its border and the hapless refugees are being sent from one Balkan border to the other because there’s no cooperation and co-ordination between the transit-countries of the Balkan. If a refugee doesn’t apply for asylum then he will be sent back to another safe third country, for instance Serbia.
 Serbia sent the refugees in trains and busses to Hungary, which again doesn’t want them, and has started to build a barbed-wire zone along its border to Croatia. And yet the humans somehow cross the borders and manage to cross one border after another. These are traumatic experiences that will be engraved in the minds of the small children, mothers and father , as well as brothers and neighbors. Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier has met the Turkish President. Turkey has taken 2 million Syrian refugees, which is an enormous number in comparison to the 28 EU nations. Steinmeier  said: ‘It’s important to give the refugees the possibility of repatriation.’ His aim is to help reduce the number of refugees who make their way to Europe.  
The refugees from Syria are expected to the learn the German language fast, complete their education, whether vocational training or university course and to start working  with the aim to integrate themselves in the German society. 
Key-words: EU-states, barbed wire states, dublin-rules, pushed around, refuge, refugees,schengen system, syrian refugees

THE REFUGEE ISSUE: WHAT'S UP IN EUROPE'S BORDERS? (SATIS SHROFF)

The Refugee Issue: What’s Up in Europe’s Borders? (Satis Shroff)
 
 
The Europeans are not united regarding the distribution of refugees. An agreement was reached only on the 160,000 refugees. They will be sent to different states within the EU, according to Germany’s Thomas de Maiziere (CDU). 
The Middle East  European and Baltic states were against setting a fixed quota for the distribution of refugees. Another summit of the heads of governments and states will soon take place because of the freedom of travel in Europe after the Schengen System is endangered.
Germany made it clear that it does not want to take such a big number of refugee. Due to the border checks there’ll be chaos in the European borders. Chancellor Merkel rang Jean-Claude Junker (EU-Commission) and informed him about Germany’s decision to close the border to Austria in accordance with the Schengen system. Brussels was shortly thereafter informed about the decision, which was intended as an eye-opener aimed towards Hungary, Poland, Czech and Slovakia after their refusal to accept the refugee quota. The message was: if the East Europeans don’t show solidarity in this matter, then they’ll be risking the free movement of their own citizens in Europe, including the working possibilities of East Europeans throughout western Europe. In this context, Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn warned this would unleash a domino-effect. There was agreement only on the distribution of 160,000 refugees.
The closure of the borders is an emergency act deployed on Europe’s outer borders and will be reinforced by the European border agency Frontex. If, and when, borders of the EU states are closed by a certain country, without a unilateral agreement, it could lead to a loss of sovereignty within the country’s own border, which in turn can be precarious after 20 years of Schengen Agreement. Suddenly, Austrians, Slovakians, Germans, Dutch and Czechs governments want to control their borders. Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) said he was expecting a million refugees, which is more than the number proposed at the beginning of the flow of people from war-torn Syria and North Africa.
More than 11,400 refugees arrived till last Sunday in Nickelsdorf (Austria) and another 4000 are expected. Over the weekend 10,000 refugees entered Hungary from Serbia Due to the closing of the Hungarian border an increment of 20 % refugees are expected in Serbia via Macedonia. On Friday night alone 7,600 people crossed the Greek border to Macedonia along the 170 km border, from where they were transferred in buses and trains. The schools have started in Germany and the summer holidays are over, so the ferries are being chartered by the Greek government from the Grecian islands to transport the refugees to Athens and Saloniki, from there towards the north. Even though 258,000 people crossed the Aegis to Greece, only 7,500 people have actually applied for asylum. Turkey, it might be noted, has 1,9 million  registered ;  ¾ of them are Syrian war-refugees. Syrian refugees who had earlier fled to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt have made their way to Turkey and from there to the west.
Brussels has praised Berlin’s role in the refugee issue and warned Hungary and Slovakia. Has the open border issue reached a dead-end?
 The European ministers will be meeting again on October 8, 2015. 
Labels: austria, croatia, czechs, eu-borders, europe, germany, hungary, macedonia,poland, refugees, schengen system, syria

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIGRATION: THE SKY'S IS NOT REALLY THE LIMIT (SATIS SHROFF)

Migration: THE SKY’S NOT REALLY THE LIMIT (Satis Shroff)
 
‘We’re expecting 40,000 refugees from our southern neighbours,’ said the German Foreign Minister Steinmeier.
Nice neighbours,eh?
Minister  Steinmeier was in Prague recently: ‘I suggested a quota system for my East European colleagues---to no avail.’
What about CSU and CDU?
They’re both on the warpath: a course of confrontation.
Berlin, Vienna and Budapest had agreed to allow refugees to enter Germany by train.
This is the biggest challenge in the history of the EU and it is expected that the European nations will show solidarity.
Steinmeier: Even though the German people helped tremendously, we have finally reached a stage when even we have to say that we’ve reached the migration capacity.
In the meantime, more and more refugees are coming along the Balkan route.
In Serbia 5540 refugees were registered on Thursday, a new daily record.
Hungary’s Viktor Orban warned in no uncertain terms that in future all refugees trespassing its border will be arrested and no longer be escorted and welcomed. Ironically, the world has seen how brutal ad inhuman the Hungarian authorities were towards the refugees. This time even the military are assisting the police, and the railroad track from Budapest to Vienna is closed with razor-sharp barbed-wire. Budapest means business.
Even the German CDU and CSU at loggerheads. Horst Seehofer (CSU) has sharply attacked Angela Merkel (CDU). His argument was: ‘It was a mistake that’ll keep us busy for a long time.’
He told ‘Der Spiegel,’ the country’s most influential mag: ‘ Germany will be soon in an emergency situation in which the influx of refugees run out of control.
Chancellor Merkel retorted with: ‘The Asylum Law for persecuted people knows no upper limits.’
 She has taken the role of Mother Theresa or a Schützpatronin of the war-refugees, despite the ridicule and critic from the her own CDU, as well as CSU.  On the other hand, she has received praise from the opposition for her courageous step in helping the war-refugees, despite inner strife.
Some people call Bavaria the ‘Lampedusa of Germany’ because of the enormous number of refugees flooding the Munich railway station.
Frau Merkel’s Bavarian colleague Horst Seehofer also said to ‘Spiegel’ that he  sees no possibility of putting the cork back into the bottle. The genii (refugee) has escaped from the bottle and refuses to return.
At the moment, the gymnastic halls, military camps and all available tents are being used by the refugees who’re already here.  The German population is showing a sensational welcome-culture, knowing well that  their parents and grandparents were partly also once refugees and came seeking refuge from war-torn Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other areas of the Soviet Union as refugees or Prisoner of War from internment camps. Now they have established various vereins (associations) in which they agitate to preserve their culture and even former territories like the Schlesians. But Europe has changed after the World War II and wants peace with its former enemies and have united to form the European Union with 28 member-countries. Now 500 million Europeans have to be cool and show warm-heartedness towards the war-refugees from Muslim countries, who have to be granted refuge, given homes and have to be integrated into European societies from Greece to Scandinavia, and they and their children will have a future in multicultural Europe, unlike their war-ravaged home countries.
Fortress Europe has discovered its boundaries again. Hungarian borders are being closed with barbed-wire, manned by police and military to stop unarmed refugees who are declared as ‘dangerous and uncontrollable.’ Austria and Denmark have backed out from such measures. Like the Austrian Chancellor said in a ‘Spiegel’ interview, while commenting about Viktor Orban’s newest border feats by touching on the theme of the deportation of Jews by the Nazis: ‘Putting refugees in trains and letting them believe they’re going somewhere else. This brings memories of the dark times of our continent. In Hungary hundreds of refugees were told that their train would head for the Austrian border. Instead of that the train came to a halt and the refugees were brought to a Hungarian refugee camp. This was the incident which resulted in dramatic turmoil. The Hungarians have strengthened their border. Austria, on the other hand, remains adamant with its ‘Right of Asylum’ policy in comparison to other countries in the EU. Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann said: ‘If an EU country doesn’t implement the quota-rule that will soon be passed by the EU Council, then this country has to be punished.
 However, it’s not clear how and in which form the punishment (negative sanction) will be implemented. Will it lead to a loss of EU-membership or just a yellow card as in soccer. We shall have to wait and drink tea, as we say in Germany.
‘How’s the situation in Freiburg,’ you might ask. This Schwarzwald town has recently been described as ‘a Gaelic hamlet, where Sundays are holy and shops are closed,’ by Philipp Frese. 2000 refugees have come to Freiburg. Another 500 have found a temporary home in Haslach’s BEA, where they’ll be registered. In the coming weeks 900 are expected. The city of Freiburg is planning metal-containers for 350 people.
The archbishop of Freiburg Stephen Burger followed the pope’s words and said: ‘As Christians we are measured by how we meet peace. It’s our duty to help them. In our community a lot of people have opened their houses and hearts for the refugees. To this end the church will make 450 rooms available for refugees in Freiburg.’
In the first 18 months the communities will receive 13,600 euros per refugee per annum from Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg). In the end the war-refugees will have another status and become ‘normal citizens’ and they will have to look after themselves. In case they don’t get jobs, they’ll receive jobless-money II from the state.
Among the refugees, there are also young people whose lives are not endangered in their home countries, and who have come to Europe due to economic reasons. Such people are not allowed to stay in Germany or in any of the 27 other EU countries. They’ll be registered and sent back by the police to their respective home countries. Every asylum-seeker’s case will be examined by the asylum-authorities to find out whether the person is a real refugee or not. Due to the increased number of incoming refugees from the Hungarian border, it takes time to go through each case. The reaction of the German population is mixed. Whereas most of them give them clothes, food and drinks, some even offer them apartments; others don’t want them and set the houses meant for the asylum-seekers on fire and run away.
On Saturday 13,015 refugees arrived by train from Austria. 14,000 came on Sunday (today). On Monday, September 14, 2015 is the showdown between the 28 states of the EU. Germany dramatically halted all train traffic with Austria. The reason is that the country’s communities are overwhelmed by the onrush of refugees.
 Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: ‘ This step has become necessary.’
He also said that asylum seekers must understand that they cannot choose the states they are seeking protection. The train traffic connexion between Austria and Germny’s Bavaria was stopped at 5pm. According to de Maiziere: ‘Only EU citizens and others with valid documents will be allowed to pass Germany’s borders.’
So much for Chancellor Merkel’s cool outburst: ‘The sky is the limit when it comes to asylum law. The Schengen system has been temporarily stopped by Germany’s government. Even the autobahn from Austria to Germany will be controlled by the police and Bundesgrenzschutz. The measure is to give a respite to Germany’s federal states which have been inundated and are looking after the refugees.
Labels: 18 climbers dead, 28 EU countries, asylum-seekers, austria, austrian-germany train, autobahn, germany's burden, refugees

DESTINATION SWEDEN (SATIS SHROFF)

Commentary:  Destination Sweden (Satis Shroff)
                                        Waldmensch (c)Thomas Rees
 
Come Monday and Jean-Claude Junker wants to talk with the Ministers of Internal Affairs of 28 European states, and debate how to make them share the 120,000 refugees. A concept to distribute 40,000 people is already there.
 German Chancellor Merkel’s government desires to distribute the refugees throughout Europe, to ease the pressure off Hungary, Greece and Italy where most of the asylum-seekers are located. Whether the people from Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, who have bigger chances of being accepted as asylum-seekers, also wish to be scattered as planned by Brussels is another question.
The welcome-culture on the part of the German people and leaders was inspiring and worth emulating but the refugees had another country in mind, namely Sweden; and the road to Sweden was via Germany and Denmark. The train-route from Germany to Denmark was stopped. Even the autobahn E24 in Jütland was closed in both directions, because a lot of refugees walked along the autobahn to Sweden. Translators used by the Danish police didn’t were of no avail. The Danish, nevertheless, picked up dehydrated children from a train to help them, which was a decent gesture.
Around 800 refugees came from Germany to Rödby, and at least 200 ran away when the Danish police tried to register them with fingerprints. The refugees fled because they didn’t want to be registered in Rödby (Denmark) but in Malmö (Sweden) for if they’d let themselves be registered in Denmark, why, they’d have been obliged to be interned in the same country according to the Dublin Accord.
Denmark has since then been sending the refugees to Germany—instead of letting them join their relatives and friends in Sweden. Denmark’s stance was: if you don’t want to apply for asylum then you’re illegally trespassing our territory. The rightist Danish government has declared in the global media: ‘War refugees are not welcome in Denmark.’ The social welfare has been reduced to 50%.
The march of hope that began in Budapest and ended in Germany, which has played a central role by opening its doors to the refugees in their odyssey through Europe. In Austria 71 people suffocated to death in a driverless fridge-truck. They’d come from the Greek isle of Kos where they were offered no shelter and food. The journey of suffering began again when they crossed Athens and Saloniki, reached Macedonia, Serbia and eventually Hungary.  Here was humanity underway but they weren’t welcome in Fortress Europe.
In the end, it was the refugees themselves who gained power with a marathon, non-violent Gandhian march, despite police repression in different states along the way to their cherished destination: Sweden.
For prosperous Germany, the 800,000 asylum-seekers are not a problem but a chance. Chancellor Merkel said: ‘The new arrivals should learn German fast and start working just as fast. People who come due to economic reasons can’t remain in Germany. A country which has welcomed so many people is obliged to make its own rules and regulations clear, and will not tolerate everything.
Frau Merkel wants to consequently follow up attacks and hatred against foreigners. According to her this will be the reality of the 21st century and emphasized that Germany want to play the role of a world power but to set an example in the comity of nations. ‘If we face the challenge courageously, straight forward and creatively then we can only win’ was the tenet.
Ever heard of German Angst? It seems to be a thing of the past. Refugees are being greeted with gaudy balloons and hearty applause in German railway stations. Jean-Claude Juncker’s timely admonition in Strasbourg (France) that we shouldn’t forget Europe’s recent history should make Europeans think instead of indulging in stereotyping foreigners and refusing refugees from other parts of the world. He meant the stream of refugees of the 20th century during which two World Wars had to be experienced, in addition to the Soviet occupation, as well as the former warring states of Yugoslavia. All this precipitated countless emigrations from Europe to others safer countries throughout the world.
 It might be mentioned that the homes of asylum-seekers have been burning mysteriously of late, not only in the former East German cities but also in the west. The German newspapers are full of angst that the country’s standard of living might begin to rock as more and more refugees, especially Muslims, apply for asylum. The German chamber of industry and commerce is, however, delighted that so many qualified young migrants are coming to work and learn and thereby help the country to be even richer economically. Whereas the USA, Australia and New Zealand have clear immigration rules and regulations is concerned, the European bureaucrats in Brussels are divided and are having difficulties in reaching a compromise and effective general European migration and asylum laws.
The German federal government wants to invest another 6 billion euros to deal with the increasing number of refugees. In the meantime, the Länder are demanding more financial assistance from the federal government. The finance minister Schäuble is expecting a sizeable billion surplus which he intend to use for next year.
Whereas in Saxony’d Heidenau a brown mob attacked a house which was meant for the asylum-seekers and a similar house was put on fire in Rottenburg (near Tübingen), in Bavaria’s capital Munich Germans welcome refugees coming by train from Hungary and Austria with enthusiasm. Active welcome culture has developed in Bavaria nd Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg), even though Hungary and other former East Bloc states don’t share the German enthusiasm. Germany, however, says the refugee problem can be solved only with the help of Europe. It is hoped that the 28 states of the EU will work together to find appropriate solutions and not against each other. It’s time Frau Merkel took the lead as the economically strongest country in Europe.
 Poland, which has welcomed Ukranian war refugees recently, wants to show cooperation towards the EU.
A day after the blockade of the train and flood of refugees on their way to Sweden, the Danish police allowed them to leave for Sweden. But the ferry to Sweden didn’t take the trains filled with refugees. Like the Swedish PM Stefan Löfven (population 9,6 million) said at a media conference: ‘Europe’s crisis is not a refugee-crisis but a crisis of responsibility. 22 states of the EU have only a 1/5 of the refugees, whereas Germany and Sweden have taken a half of all the Syrian refugees, which is definitely a lop sided balance.
Whereas France has decided to give shelter to 24,000 refugees in the next two years, 55% of the French population do not want more refugees in the country.
In the past 297 cases of the church granting refugees asylum in its premises have been documented in Germany. The pope Franziskus demanded that every church, cloister and parish should give shelter to refugees so that they can’t be sent back to their respective countries from where they fled. In the EU there are 130,000 catholic communities. If a four-member refugee family was taken by each catholic community then half a million refugees would find a home, was the pope’s argumentation. But there’s resistance against this line of thought. The Hungarian archbishop of Esztergom says: ‘It is forbidden. If we did that we would be human-smugglers.’ It seems that the church is the hinderance and its lack of civil courage for the catholic church has settled down in prosperous comfort. Why bother about refugees, eh?
Commentary: THE TRAIN TO SWEDEN (Satis Shroff)
Commentary:  The Train to Sweden (Satis Shroff)
 
Come Monday and Jean-Claude Junker wants to talk with the Ministers of Internal Affairs of 28 European states, and debate how to make them share the 120,000 refugees. A concept to distribute 40,000 people is already there.
 German Chancellor Merkel’s government desires to distribute the refugees throughout Europe, to ease the pressure off Hungary, Greece and Italy where most of the asylum-seekers are located. Whether the people from Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, who have bigger chances of being accepted as asylum-seekers, also wish to be scattered as planned by Brussels is another question.
The welcome-culture on the part of the German people and leaders was inspiring and worth emulating but the refugees had another country in mind, namely Sweden; and the road to Sweden was via Germany and Denmark. The train-route from Germany to Denmark was stopped. Even the autobahn E24 in Jütland was closed in both directions, because a lot of refugees walked along the autobahn to Sweden. Translators used by the Danish police didn’t were of no avail. The Danish, nevertheless, picked up dehydrated children from a train to help them, which was a decent gesture.
Around 800 refugees came from Germany to Rödby, and at least 200 ran away when the Danish police tried to register them with fingerprints. The refugees fled because they didn’t want to be registered in Rödby (Denmark) but in Malmö (Sweden) for if they’d let themselves be registered in Denmark, why, they’d have been obliged to be interned in the same country according to the Dublin Accord.
Denmark has since then been sending the refugees to Germany—instead of letting them join their relatives and friends in Sweden. Denmark’s stance was: if you don’t want to apply for asylum then you’re illegally trespassing our territory. The rightist Danish government has declared in the global media: ‘War refugees are not welcome in Denmark.’ The social welfare has been reduced to 50%.
The march of hope that began in Budapest and ended in Germany, which has played a central role by opening its doors to the refugees in their odyssey through Europe. In Austria 71 people suffocated to death in a driverless fridge-truck. They’d come from the Greek isle of Kos where they were offered no shelter and food. The journey of suffering began again when they crossed Athens and Saloniki, reached Macedonia, Serbia and eventually Hungary.  Here was humanity underway but they weren’t welcome in Fortress Europe.
In the end, it was the refugees themselves who gained power with a marathon Gandhian march, despite police repression in different states along the way to their cherished destination: Sweden.
For prosperous Germany, the 800,000 asylum-seekers are not a problem but a chance. Chancellor Merkel said: ‘The new arrivals should learn German fast and start working just as fast. People who come due to economic reasons can’t remain in Germany. A country which has welcomed so many people is obliged to make its own rules and regulations clear, and will not tolerate everything.
Frau Merkel wants to consequently follow up attacks and hatred against foreigners. According to her this will be the reality of the 21st century and emphasized that Germany want to play the role of a world power but to set an example in the comity of nations. ‘If we face the challenge courageously, straight forward and creatively then we can only win’ was the tenet.
Ever heard of German Angst? It seems to be a thing of the past. Refugees are being greeted with gaudy balloons and hearty applause in German railway stations. Jean-Claude Juncker’s timely admonition in Strasbourg (France) that we shouldn’t forget Europe’s recent history should make Europeans think instead of indulging in stereotyping foreigners and refusing refugees from other parts of the world. He meant the stream of refugees of the 20th century during which two World Wars had to be experienced, in addition to the Soviet occupation, as well as the former warring states of Yugoslavia. All this precipitated countless emigrations from Europe to others safer countries throughout the world.
 It might be mentioned that the homes of asylum-seekers have been burning mysteriously of late, not only in the former East German cities but also in the west. The German newspapers are full of angst that the country’s standard of living might begin to rock as more and more refugees, especially Muslims, apply for asylum. The German chamber of industry and commerce is, however, delighted that so many qualified young migrants are coming to work and learn and thereby help the country to be even richer economically. Whereas the USA, Australia and New Zealand have clear immigration rules and regulations is concerned, the European bureaucrats in Brussels are divided and are having difficulties in reaching a compromise and effective general European migration and asylum laws.
The German federal government wants to invest another 6 billion euros to deal with the increasing number of refugees. In the meantime, the Länder are demanding more financial assistance from the federal government. The finance minister Schäuble is expecting a sizeable billion surplus which he intend to use for next year.
Whereas in Saxony’s Heidenau a brown mob attacked a house which was meant for the asylum-seekers and a similar house was put on fire in Rottenburg (near Tübingen), in Bavaria’s capital Munich Germans welcome refugees coming by train from Hungard and Austria with enthusiasm. Active welcome culture has developed in Bavaria nd Freiburg (Baden-Württemberg), even though Hungary and other former East Bloc states don’t share the German enthusiasm. Germany, however, says the refugee problem can be solved only with the help of Europe. It is hoped that the 28 states of the EU will work together to find appropriate solutions and not against each other. It’s time Frau Merkel took the lead as the economically strongest country in Europe.
 Poland, which has welcomed Ukranian war refugees recently, wants to show cooperation towards the EU.
A day after the blockade of the train and flood of refugees on their way to Sweden, the Danish police allowed them to leave for Sweden. But the ferry to Sweden didn’t take the trains filled with refugees.