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BRUSSELS sparked fury this morning after using the fate of desperate Channel migrants as a Brexit bargaining chip - as a deal remained on the brink over a huge row over fish.

The EU is refusing to help stop small boat crossings until Britain caves on a slew of unreasonable trade talk demands, sparking a major backlash.

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The latest round of talks broke up today without any progress again, sparking a bitter war of words between negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost.

Sources said the bloc could use the crisis - which Britain has long been pushing the EU for action on - as part of the ongoing Brexit negotiations on a future trade deal.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith fumed: '"hile Brussels plays games, migrants die in the channel because of their pathetic politicking."

Privately Ministers accused Eurocrats of having "blood on their hands" as the latest round of talks ended in a bitter war of words and sniping.

Nearly 5,000 migrants have attempted to make the dangerous crossing to Britain from France this year alone - double that of the total last year.

Britain wants the bloc to help stop the tide of attempts by taking them back to French shores. It's unclear what will happen at the end of the transition period this year when Britain wants to reclaim full control of its border.

Despite the tragic death of a young man in the Channel this month, Brussels cheifs are set to drag their feet on reaching an agreement - and could bring the migrant crisis in as leverage.

A EU diplomatic source working on migration told Reuters: "The UK has interest in this. We can wait.

"The 27 are not that worried. Of that, 25 do not really care at all. France and Belgium can be to some extent preoccupied, but far less than the UK is."

A second diplomat said: If they dont get the overall deal - they dont have a migration deal either.

If they do go for a deal - they may get something on migration as well.

But other sources stressed that fish and EU rules were likely to be more of a sticking point for both warring sides.

The French fear they will end up "on the hook" for all returns from the UK if there's no agreement on asylum as part of the wider trade deal.

British negotiators want any pact to ensure we can carry on sending back migrants to all EU countries after Brexit.

But they don't want it to entirely replicate Brussels' controversial returns rules, which the Home Office says are open to abuse by "activist lawyers".

The EU's contentious Dublin Regulation says Member States can return asylum seekers to the country where they first entered the bloc

Brexit discussions hit the buffers this week as Brussels insisted yet again on Britain signing up to the bloc's rules on state aid - or a deal can't be done.

The UK accused Michel Barnier of "unnecessarily" blocking progress on a Brexit deal as trade talks broke up in acrimony.

Both sides issued gloomy statements following the latest discussions, and a tense dinner earlier this week.

Britain blamed the EU for standing firm - effectively blocking further progress.

Unless we agree to roll over and accept their laws, a deal may not be made at all, Mr Frost suggested.

Mr Frost said today: The EU is still insisting not only that we must accept continuity with EU state aid and fisheries policy, but also that this must be agreed before any further substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts."

He said this blocker makes it "unnecessarily difficult to make progress" and "there is a lot of detail to work through" with little time to get it done.

"Time is short for both sides," he added, vowing to work hard to reach a deal if it's possible.

And when the EU accepts Britain is seeking a free trade deal just like other countries around the world have, it will speed up talks.

A senior source close to the negotiations accused the EU of deliberately putting "obstacles" in the way of the talks.

They stressed that now was the time to move to text-based talks but Brussels were refusing to engage with the draft text they had put forward.

Michel Barnier said today he was "disappointed" by the lack of progress and lashed out at the UK for wasting time - declaring the talks are now "going backwards".

And EU rules are "non-negotiable" if Britain wants continued access to European markets, he said.

He thinks a deal is "unlikely" but Britain is more optimistic, saying its "still possible" but admitting it "will not be easy" to achieve.

The UK wants a deal wrapped up by September, but with talks on the rocks and both sides getting frustrated, it's not set to happen.

Privately British officials said they are "frustrated" with the "strange" approach taken by eurocrats.

No 10 is open to the possibility of scheduling extra rounds in the Autumn and will do "anything necessary" to get a deal over the line if one is close.

Sources said despite the fractious state of the talks and their different backgrounds the two chief negotiators get on well.

One said: "They've struck up quite a good relationship. All the meetings they have are courteous and friendly.

"Sometimes they say quite difficult things to each other, but they keep the process going."

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The next round of discussions comes on 7 September, where British officials have pinned their hope on pushing through the deadlock.

Britain will leave the transition period at the end of the year whatever happens, Boris Johnson has said.

If there's no EU deal, Britain will go onto World Trade Organisation terms with them instead - which could mean extra tarriffs.

Originally posted here:
Fury as EU use migrant crisis in Brexit talks as deal on the brink over huge fish row - The Sun

Many of the fugitives came to the UK illegally and claimed asylum before going on to set up their evil networks, a Sunday Express investigation found. At least 20 suspects, wanted for people smuggling across Continental borders, mainly into the UK, are awaiting extradition to the European nations. Others have recently been extradited for similar offences.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to dismantle networks bringing people illegally into the UK as the Channel migrants crisis grows with 11 boats carrying 164 people arriving on Wednesday.

A further 41 migrants were rescued from four boats and returned to France after they got into difficulty soon after leaving.

The dangers were exposed on Wednesday when Sudanese migrant Abdulfatah Hamdallah, 28, who attempted the crossing in a tiny dinghy, was found drowned on the French coast. Last October 39 Vietnamese people died in a locked refrigerated container which was brought across the channel on a freight ship.

As the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) seek to track down and disrupt the gangs, our probe shows many major players live in the UK.

Countries including France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia and Albania have all sought traffickers hiding in the UK this year.

On Thursday, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard the case of Afghan Narinder Singh Khatari, 48, from Hounslow, who was wanted by The Netherlands for facilitating unauthorised entry and residence.

His extradition proceedings were ended after the court heard he had died and a death certificate was filed. Hashem Saleh Bazlah appeared at the same court on Wednesday. The 32-year-old from Leamington Spa, had been arrested on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) and remanded in custody.

He is wanted in France for the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking and money laundering and the case was adjourned.

Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch, said: "This is shocking, and another sign of how lax immigration control has become. "I shudder to think of how many dangerous criminals have taken, and will take, advantage of our ever looser asylum system.

"My question to the Government is, when will you take back control, as you promised?" Freddy Nika, 47, was arrested in Edgware, north London, in December on another EAW issued by France.

The Albanian came to the UK in 1999, claiming to be a refugee from the Kosovan War, and was granted asylum.

He was convicted of people smuggling offences in his absence in France in June 2019 and sentenced to five years in jail. Westminster Magistrates were told the French court found he was the head of an Albanian crime gang that got migrants into France before smuggling them into the UK in lorries at 8,000 to 9,000 per person.

The court heard between February and April 2016, Nika was in charge of at least 11 illegal crossings and attempts.

He denied being involved in people smuggling and claimed someone must have stolen his identity. District judge Nina Tempia said he should be extradited and could apply for a retrial in France.

Vietnamese crime head Chan Khan is also being sent to France to serve eight years for trafficking nationals from his homeland.

He entered the UK illegally in 2012, but failed to get asylum. However, he was given temporary leave to remain until 2021. He was arrested in January in Bexhill, East Sussex, and was also wanted by the NCA.

The trafficking allegedly took place from 2015 until May 2017 in Paris, Dunkirk and Grande Synthe, in France, the UK and Vietnam. Khan denied being the wanted person, giving another name.

In a judgement ordering his extradition, judge Michael Snow wrote: "The requested person was found to be one of the main organisers of a Vietnamese illegal immigration network.

"He was heard to order the reprimand of a migrant, he was also heard to discuss guards of the migrant storage places."

Many others are hoping extradition requests will be refused. Iraqi Saman Taha Ahmed, 30, is wanted in Belgium for allegedly heading a network smuggling people into the UK in HGVs.

He is remanded in custody ahead of an extradition hearing. He was arrested with British girlfriend Jemma Killoran, 36, in Slough, Berks, and she is also fighting extradition and has been bailed.

NCA head of organised immigration crime operations, Steve Reynolds, said: "The criminal networks involved in people smuggling are ruthless, treating migrants as a commodity to be profited from and exploiting their desperation.

"We are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks."

A spokesman for the Home Office, led by Priti Patel, said: "We are targeting the abhorrent criminals, people smugglers and organised crime gangs facilitating migrants travelling through Europe into the UK.

"This year we have jailed 24 people smugglers.

"We are working to dissolve their networks, by disrupting their operations and seizing their illicit assets which includes almost 400,000 last month."

More:
The ruthless leaders of human trafficking gangs wanted across Europe but living in UK - Express

More than 200 people travelling on unsafe boats were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea over the past two days while Athens and Rome remained embroiled in rows surrounding their handling of migration across Europes southern frontier.

Rescuers on board a vessel operated by German non-profit organisation Sea Watch plucked more than 100 people from a boat struggling in rough weather in the early hours of Monday morning.

Many of those rescued were reported to be in poor health and are being treated by MSF personnel.

On Sunday, the same team rescued 97 people, including 28 unaccompanied children, from a single dinghy.

And a day earlier, rescuers from the Sea Watch 4 picked up seven men from a stricken boat north of Libya. There are now more than 200 people on board the ship.

The rescue missions came days after a separate boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized off Libya.

After reported deaths fell as European states introduced tough lockdowns to fight coronavirus, the number of fatalities recorded on the Mediterranean routes has begun to rise again.

Forty-five people drowned or were missing and presumed to have died, according to the UN refugee agency.

The incident is the deadliest shipwreck reported so far this year and accounts for more than half of the fatalities recorded on the route in August.

As the death toll in the Mediterranean continued to climb, governments in Greece and Italy remained caught up in rows over their handling of the ongoing migration crisis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Sunday said it was deeply concerned by credible reports that Greek authorities had towed migrant vessels back out to sea or left them adrift in so-called pushback incidents.

The UN body said it was "particularly concerned" about an increasing number of reports since March that some migrants who disembarked on Greek shores "have thereafter been towed back to sea".

The UNHCR said it had seen testimonies about "people being left adrift at sea for a long time, often on unseaworthy and overcrowded dinghies, waiting to be rescued".

Reports of migrants being informally returned to Turkey immediately after reaching Greek soil or territorial waters in recent months were a third area of concern for the UNHCR.

The UNHCR called for an investigation into the reports, without delay, "given the nature, content, frequency and consistency of these accounts" and urged Greece to refrain from "such practices".

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last week denied claims of illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers, accusing Turkey of peddling "misinformation" about his country's "tough but fair" border management.

A report in the New York Times on August 14 alleged that Greece was "abandoning" migrants at sea for the Turkish coastguard to rescue.

It said it had interviewed survivors from five such episodes, and cited additional evidence from independent watchdogs, two academic researchers and the Turkish coastguard.

Based on its research, the newspaper said more than 1,000 asylum-seekers had been "dropped at sea" since March.

In Italy, Sicilys right-leaning President Nello Musumeci won praise from former interior minister Matteo Salvini when he clashed with Rome and ordered the islands migrant centres closed on Sunday.

Mr Musumeci justified the order as a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Dozens of migrants housed in Sicilian centres have tested positive for the virus in the last few weeks, but interior ministry officials in Rome were quick to dismiss the decree as invalid.

Migrant arrivals on European shores have declined dramatically compared with last year, as this chart shows.

Migration has long been a major political issue in Italy. Sicily and its sister Island Lampedusa are often the first point of arrival for migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe.

"Between now and midnight, all migrants in Sicily's 'hot spots' and reception centres will have to be transferred to facilities outside the island," the decree read.

The document also bans any migrant from "entering, transiting and stopping over on the Sicilian region's territory (which includes Lampedusa) with vessels big and small, including those belonging to charities," it said.

Mayors on the island have voiced fears the presence of migrants will discourage tourism.

"Sicily cannot be invaded while Europe is looking away and the government resorts to no deportations," Mr Musumeci said on social media.

Sicily has no real means to transfer migrants off of the island and interior ministry officials say migration is legally a central government prerogative.

Mr Salvini, as interior minister until a year ago, clashed with EU officials and refused to allow ships, including those run by charities, to land migrants on Italian shores.

Updated: August 24, 2020 07:42 PM

Read the original post:
Europe at odds over spike in migrant rescues in the Mediterranean - The National

The face of a Syrian refugee who arrived in Britain thanks to a people smuggler and now works in the NHS has been beamed on to the White Cliffs of Dover.

Hassan Akkad, an NHS cleaner, recalled his own "terrifying" journey to the UK in an emotional plea for compassion for migrants crossing the English Channel.

In a video projected on to the cliffs, he said: "Hello everyone. Apologies for taking over the cliff but I have a few words that I would love to share with you.

"My name is Hassan and five years ago I was on the other side of this Channel trying to cross here. These cliffs were actually visible from our makeshift camp and they represented hope."

Like many migrants arriving on the Kent coast in recent weeks, Mr Akkad said that he had to put his trust in a people smuggler because safe and legal asylum routes are unavailable.

He continued: "Crossing the sea in a rubber dinghy is terrifying and devastating.

"Devastating because it makes you feel so helpless and insignificant. And I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

Nearly 5,000 migrants have successfully crossed to the UK in small boats this year, according to the PA news agency, but Mr Akkad said Britain was "not facing a migrant crisis".

He accused ministers of exploiting the issue for their own ends, saying: "I will say it again - they are using us to distract you from how badly they have managed during this pandemic."

"The past few months have proved that the people who made Britain their home didn't hesitate to roll up their sleeves and keep this country running during the worst public health crisis in modern history," he added.

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The projection on to the landmark was organised by Led By Donkeys, a group of activists famed for billboards displaying politicians' tweets.

It came as French prosecutors continued to investigate the death of a Sudanese migrant whose body was found on a beach in Calais earlier this week.

He has now been identified as Abdulfatah Hamdallah, who is understood to have decided to try to reach the UK using shovels for oars after having his asylum claim rejected in France.

The 28-year-old's body was discovered on Wednesday morning after a walker found his friend suffering from hypothermia in the middle of the night. A major search took place before his body was found at 8am.

Link:
Syrian refugee who crossed Channel and now works in NHS recalls 'terrifying' journey in message projected on to White Cliffs of Dover - Sky News

The Covid-19 crisis has raised the stakes worldwide, plunging the global economy into recession and creating unanticipated fiscal pressures for many countries already struggling with domestic problems, geopolitics and global trade wars.

Consequently, analysts have downgraded Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Romania and Turkey in Euromoneys risk survey.

Greece is the main exception, but lying 60th in the global rankings with a legacy of debt and another economic downturn to endure, it remains one of the riskier EU member states, worse off than Italy or Spain.

For some, such as Turkey, there are domestic risks to consider, which Euromoney has detailed previously.

The lira is on the backfoot again because of concerns about policymaking and institutional risks, two factors that have been consistently downgraded (among others) in the risk survey.

Meddling in the central banks independence is scaring investors, prompting both a current-account deficit, underpinned by increased lending, and portfolio outflows, with capital withdrawn, resulting in the central bank depleting its FX reserves to prop-up an ailing currency.

However, there are also three themes with cross-country indeed, region-wide implications putting southeastern Europe under the radar, and all three are interconnected.

Covid is clearly one. Economies are struggling, not least because of the lack of tourism.

In Romania, crashing 14 places in the global risk rankings this year, to 69th out of 174 countries, political risks are rising again ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for November, to be preceded by local elections in September.

The main opposition this week called a no-confidence vote that it is close to winning amid unwanted macro-fiscal strains and tensions created by the governments handling of the crisis.

Romania also has a migration crisis of its own, with around 3.5 to four million emigrants, accounting for around a quarter of the population. Many of them work seasonally in the agricultural and tourism sectors, and in healthcare in other parts of the EU.

Gheorghe Savoiu,University of Pitesti

Since April, return migration has brought back 1.3 million Romanians from abroad, of which around 350,000 will be looking for work, putting pressure on the labour market and unemployment rate, says Gheorghe Savoiu, a contributor to Euromoneys country risk survey and a professor at the University of Pitesti.

He also highlights the background political risks with the elections approaching and the fiscal deficit.

Real GDP is forecast to decline in Romania by more than 6% in real terms this year, the unemployment rate is seen scaling up to 9% and the fiscal deficit widening to 8% of GDP, causing a rise in public debt, according to the OECD.

The organization paints a bleaker picture under a double-hit scenario, factoring in a possible second wave of the virus.

There are similar downturns in other countries, with Bulgaria and Greece enduring an 8% real-terms decline in GDP. Greek debt (in gross terms, on a Maastricht basis) will rise again to 197% of GDP, and its unemployment rate to 20% by 2021. In Turkey, the unemployment rate is seen peaking at just over 15% this year.

With tourism and trade buckling, Cyprus and Malta are struggling, and analysts have downgraded in particular the GNP-economic outlook and employment/unemployment indicators for these countries in Euromoneys risk survey this year.

However, Covid is not the only source of anxiety. In a region troubled by doorstep instability, in Libya, Syria and now Lebanon, the Middle East and North African immigration crisis is also rearing again, driving a wedge between Turkey and Greece, on the one hand, and with other countries affected, too, by the flow of refugees, stretching all the way to France and the UK.

In late February, Turkey declared it would apply an open-border policy, no longer trying to stop migrants trying to reach Europe, creating tensions with Greece, says ECR survey contributor Monica Bertodatto, a public finance consultant.

-Monica Bertodatto

The migrant flows stopped when the Covid crisis erupted, with Greece suspending asylum applications and increasing border patrols, but the situation has reverted.

The first-entry countries are facing higher costs in terms of Covid-related sanitary controls and quarantines on top of regular healthcare and identification and screening of asylum applications, she says.

For small countries, like Cyprus or Malta, the risk of outbreaks of Covid due to sick migrants is an issue, as many test positive and the healthcare systems in such states are not sufficient to cope with such sanitary emergency.

However, immigrants rarely stay and are travelling vast distances to destination countries, which also shoulder the costs in terms of housing, language skills, workforce integration and social support.

The immigration crisis is complicated by the third factor: the gas exploration dispute driving a wedge between Greece and Turkey, which are Nato members and allies of the US.

The Turkish-Greek dispute over refugees has a complex backdrop, according to country risk expert and ECR survey contributor Owais Arshad.

While Athens has been recently criticised for its apparent deportation of thousands of asylum-seekers back into the Mediterranean, its dispute with Turkey is also arguably about the exact delineation of maritime economic zones and energy, he says.

Ankaras military might has helped secure the survival of Libyas UN-backed government. As a reward for its intervention, Tripoli has inked several agreements with Turkey delineating their maritime borders and agreeing to cooperate on energy exploration.

However, Arshad adds: Greece, Egypt, Libyas rebel factions, France and the Gulf states oppose these agreements and are eager to claim their own share of these prized resources.

The proxy war in Libya will continue to drive the population overseas, but Arshad sees the economic prizes taking priority over resolving the human crisis, with Greece doing little to assist Libyas government after Nato abandoned the country.

-Alexander Heneine

Another survey contributor and country risk analyst, Alexander Heneine, believes the depressed outlook for the Middle East will continue to present a distinct challenge for countries along the Mediterranean basin.

He says: As economies juggle between containing an acceleration of Covid cases and exercising financial limitation, existing social structures are increasingly prone to buckling under pressure.

The weaponization of immigration, as Heneine calls it, and the mounting economic and political disputes will expose countries to sovereign risks [and create a] more durable paradigm shift in managing the relationship between land and people.

The fact the Middle East is feeling the full force of the global recession and souring political relations, worsening already poor standards of living, threatens to reinforce the exodus towards southern and southeastern Europes major entry points, says Heneine.

On top of that, he notes the aggressive stance of Turkey towards Greece and Cyprus, and the EU more generally.

At face value, an altercation over the rights to offshore natural gas exploration embodies the geopolitical and even cultural tug of war that has truly intensified in recent months, says Heneine.

Economies across southern and southeastern Europe are railing from Covid-19 and its economic implications, but the region is also suffering from a lack of clarity on the part of the EU when it comes to immigration.

For Heneine, the answer is clear: the EU needs to have a conversation about immigration and it needs to control its borders more effectively.

The lack of consensus on this, and other issues, is the largest source of sovereign risk.

See the article here:
Immigration risk is troubling for the EU and southeastern Europe - Euromoney magazine