Update November 30th: We want a better country! (here).
They apparently aren’t looking for Greece to give them asylum there, they must want to move on to a more desirable European country (Germany? the UK?) and theinvasion of Europecontinues.
About 500 Syrian refugees including women and children have staged their sixth day of a hunger strike in front of Greece’s Parliament House in Athens.
The hunger-strikers, who reached Greece from Turkey in inflatable boats, called on the Greek government to observe their rights as refugees and held placards reading: “We escaped from death in Syria to vagrancy in Greece.”
Khalsa, a 40-year-old woman who had been Greece for almost two months, told Anadolu Agency on Monday: “We are seeking asylum and some decent treatment. My four children and and husband are still in Syria.” [I simply don’t believe this unless her children are grown—ed]
She said she had lost all contact with her family since she had arrived in Athens.
Refaat, another Syrian refugee who had been in Greece for four months, said: “We faced problems on our way here, but the Greek authorities treated us well in order for us to arrive safely.”
But he said the government needed to listen to them and take into consideration their rights as refugees.
“We want the Greek government to give us passports in order for us to be able to leave,” he said
Our Syrian refugee alerts are overflowing as usual, so I thought perhaps I should occasionally report the hottest issues. Here are a few stories today:
President Jose Mujica greeted the refugees in person after their two-day journey. The Uruguayan resettlement plan is unprecedented in Latin America. http://omnifeed.com/article/www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-29561681
First, the possible fall of Kobani to ISIS is sending the biggest tidal wave of refugees toward Turkey (which will surely further destabilize that country).
From Syria Deeply entitled: ‘180,000 Refugees from Kobani Mark the Biggest Displacement in the Biggest Refugee Crisis, Ever’
Since the ISIS advance on Kobani, the Turkish government and aid agencies have been struggling to respond to the influx of more than 180,000 Syrian refugees into southern Turkey
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani was “about to fall to ISIS.” Since the advance on Kobani, the Turkish government and aid agencies have been struggling to respond to the influx of more than 180,000 Syrian refugees into southern Turkey. The sudden, massive flow of refugees fleeing ISIS is the largest displacement in the Syrian conflict.
Humanitarian groups project that there will be 3.59 million Syrian refugees by December 2014, with annual budget requirements of US$3.74 billion (56% of which remains unfunded). For UNHCR, the Syria operation is now the largest in its 64-year history.
Just a reminder for new readers, the US State Department says we are going to take thousands of refugees from Turkey, here.
The UNHCR wants foreign aid for Greece so it can cope with Syrian and Somali migrants arriving by the thousands
UNHCR officials in Greece called for the European Union countries to support Greece as many refugees are in that country.
Joorjoos Tasabobulos is UNHCR official in Greece. He said the number of fleeing refugees coming to the Greek islands of Agenee K/bari, Agen and Dodeshense is on the increase. He said in the first eight months of this year, 22,089 refugees of which 65% are Syrians have arrived there whereas other refugees included Somalis, Eritreans and Afghans.
Elsewhere refugees numbering 140,000 from Somalia, Eritrea, Syria and Sudan arrived in Italy but Italy lacks resources to manage them.
See our series on the ‘invasion of Europe’ by clickinghere.
Uruguay takes Syrian refugees.
You would think this was the most important item in the Syrian refugee news today based on the number of stories the news has generated.
A small number of Syrian refugees have arrived in Uruguay from Lebanon.
Forty-two refugees, belonging to five families, were greeted on arrival by the Uruguayan President, Jose Mujica.
They will spend two months in accommodation near the capital Montevideo where they will learn Spanish and attend classes on local customs.***
Other Latin American countries have taken Syrians in but Uruguay is the first to assume all resettlement costs.
Officials say the two-year resettlement programme will cost Uruguay around $3m (£1.9m).
They say the adults have already been guaranteed jobs and the children have places in local school. A second group is due to arrive next year.
*** Note this huge difference in how these refugees will be assimilated—in a center for a few months to learn the language and customs! In the US they are just deposited in cities and urged to be on their own, to be “self-sufficient” in three months.
Click here for all Syrian refugee posts archived at RRW.
Up to 350 Afghan asylum-seekers and their supporters set up a camp in Belgium’s western town of Mons, urging local authorities to arrange a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister to demand residency papers.
The Prime Minister was not at home, and the asylum demanders were offered, but turned down a warm room.
While the Prime Minister has at least promised to study their cases, his Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration and for Social Integration, Maggie De Block, informed that the Afghans’ requests would be processed as for any other illegal immigrants.
The numbers are growing.
In 2012, there were 332 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU27, the European Union of 27 Member States. Afghanistan, with 8 percent of the total number of applicants, remained the first main country of citizenship of these applicants, according to Eurostat.
Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Belgium register 70 percent of all applicants. In 2012, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (77 500 applicants, or 23 percent of total applicants), followed by France (18 percent), Sweden (13 percent), the United Kingdom (8 percent) and Belgium (8 percent).
BERLIN – Germany has seen a spike in far-right protests against refugees this year as the number of people seeking asylum in the country rose by two thirds.
Government figures show 18 “noteworthy” extremist gatherings outside buildings housing refugees this year, compared with three in 2012.
Nearly 100,000 people applied for asylum in Germany between January and November, up from 60,000 in 2012.
[….]
Almost half the protests this year were organized by the far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD.
Germany’s 16 states have asked the country’s highest court to ban the party.
Ha! Germany, banning opposition parties? Isn’t that what happened once before in history? No lessons learned about fascism and silencing speech?
Police chief says they must make life tough for illegal migrants entering Greece.
As Syria’s refugee crisis mounts, host countries in Europe and the Middle East have grown uneasy over new arrivals. But even by these standards, candid comments by Greece’s top police official reveal a particularly hostile welcome for thousands of refugees on Europe’s southern border.
Oopsy!
Last week, the Chief of the Greek Police suggested that irregular immigrants’ lives should “be made unbearable,” according to a leaked audio recording from a meeting of police officials publicized by the Greek magazine, Hot Doc.
“If (authorities) told me I could go to a country… and would be detained for three months and then would be free to steal and rob, to do whatever you want… that is great,” a man identified as the police chief says on the tape. Describing the police response, he continued: “We aimed for increased periods of detention… we increased it to 18 months… for what purpose? We must make their lives unbearable.”
Here is one thing I don’t get about this—these illegal migrants (would-be asylum seekers) are traveling through Turkey to get to Europe. Turkey is a “safe country,” why aren’t they asking for asylum there and why isn’t the UNHCR demanding that they apply in Turkey, even if it means more UN camps in Turkey. It makes one wonder if the UN and Turkey are in cahoots to help speed up the invasion of Europe.
THESSALONIKI, Greece – Police in northern Greece say 19 Somali migrants have been found hidden under the roof of a fake tour bus headed to Italy, and 23 Greeks alleged to be posing as tourists were arrested.
The 12 women and seven men were found crammed in the 35 centimeter- (13.7 inch-) high compartment after police stopped and searched the bus Tuesday outside Thessaloniki city.
Giorgos Pantelakos, head of Thessaloniki police’s human trafficking division, said the Somalis each paid 3,000 euros ($4,100) for the trip, while the seated passengers each received 100 euros ($135) to act as vacationers.
So where are the destitute Somalis getting $4,000 a pop to make the trip?
Ho hum! What else is new! From Australia to Europe they are burning down detention facilities and demanding to be let in to Western countries.
The Reuters photo is from a previous (2012) detention center riot in Greece.
The latest from Greece, from AFP at TheRaw Story (in the European press, “Asian” is code for “Muslim”):
Riot police were dispatched on Saturday to put down a riot at Greece’s main migrant detention camp where detainees hurled stones at officers and set fire to their living quarters, authorities said.
Television footage showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where some 1,200 mainly Asian migrants are kept under police guard.
“We have 10 police officers injured by stones and other objects thrown at them,” a police spokesman told AFP.
Fleeing their Islamic hell-holes!
Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for migrants and refugees fleeing war-torn or impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
The photo is from this 2012 story about another detention center uprising. But, check out the shirtless guy—does he look more like a starving “refugee” or an Islamic soldier fit for war? Compare him to the photos at Bare Naked Islam of the “refugees” arriving in Australia, here. They must all be working out in Allah’s Afghan gym.
