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Between January and April 2017, 45,011 people entered Europe by sea- 90 per cent of them arrived in Italy. While the proportion of children among sea arrivals in the first four months of 2017 has decreased by ten per cent compared to the same period last year, the number of children on the Central Mediterranean Route, who arrive unaccompanied or separated, is on the rise with 5,500 newly registered UASC- one thousand more than the same period of time last year.

Between January and April 2017, UNICEF supported the identification of a total of 6,206 children at risk through outreach activities in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the provision of structured non-formal education for 2,344 children in Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as the capacity-building of 1,303 frontline workers across Europe.

April saw an important milestone for the protection of refugee and migrant children, with the adoption of a new policy guidance by the European Commission (12 April 2017), calling on Member States to prioritize funding for children, refrain from unnecessary and invasive age assessments and increase legal pathways for children to safely reach Europe. Yet, the situation on the ground in Greece, Italy, Germany and other European countries remain pressing and requires urgent action by stakeholders at all levels in translating these policies into tangible measures towards improved protection, care and support to refugee and migrant children and women.

SITUATION IN NUMBERS

45,011 # of arrivals in Europe through Italy, Greece and Spain in January-April 2017 (UNHCR, 10 May 2017)

1 in 4 Of all arrivals in January-April 2017 are children (UNHCR, 10 May 2017)

34,545 # of child asylum-seekers in Europe between January and March 2017 (Eurostat, 10 April 2017)

25,602 # of estimated stranded children in Greece, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia in April, 2017 (UNICEF, 5 May 2017)

5,693 # of children relocated from Greece and Italy under the EU relocation scheme by April 2017 (IOM, Italian MoI, 10 May 2017)

UNICEF Appeal 2017 US$ 43,452,000

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

Between January and April 2017, 45,011 people entered Europe by sea- 90 per cent of them arrived through the Central Mediterranean Route. While the proportion of children among all sea arrivals in the first four months of 2017 has decreased by ten per cent compared to the same period last year, the number of children on the Central Mediterranean Route, who arrive unaccompanied or separated (UASC), is on the rise with 5,5511 newly registered UASC- one thousand more than the same period of time last year.

According to recently released Eurostat data, of the 396,705 children, who claimed asylum in Europe in 2016, 63,300 (16 per cent) were unaccompanied or separated. 2 This is almost double to the number of UASC who arrived through the Mediterranean last year, suggesting many of these children may have undertaken different irregular routes. In fact, legal pathways to Europe remain very limited and those that are available to children in European countries at the forefront of the crisis, like Greece and Italy, remain slow and highly bureaucratic.

Since the launch of the EU Relocation Scheme in late 2015 only 5,693 children have been relocated (5,268 from Greece and 425 from Italy). Moreover, out of the 5,000 requests for family reunification (including 700 requests by UASC) in Greece in 2016, just 1,107 successful applicants reached their families in other parts of Europe by the end of the year.

There are over 71,000 refugees and migrants, including 25,602 children, currently stranded in the Balkans (20,300 of whom in Greece). The situation remains fluid with continuous irregular crossings from Turkey to Bulgaria and Greece, as well as onwards to the Western Balkans, and most recently to Romania. It is difficult to estimate how many children have continued their journey to Western and Northern Europe in 2017, yet in just three months almost 7,700 people (including an estimated 35 per cent children) were registered crossing the Hungarian-Serbian border.

Often confronted with the lack of perspective about what is ahead for them, refugee and migrant children and families psychological wellbeing is deteriorating, leading to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Convinced that they could find better protection and opportunities elsewhere in Europe, many refugees and migrants, including children, resort to smugglers, risking abuse and exploitation.

As highlighted in a recent study, there are growing reports of gender-based violence in Greece - primarily domestic violence, but also other forms of violence and exploitation including commercial sexual exploitation, which is increasingly affecting UASC. Moreover, facing uncertainty and lacking resources to reach preferred destinations, most children get trapped in this reality leading to significant physical, psychological and behavioral consequences.Similar concerns have been raised over an increased number of UASC dropping out from the system in Germany, the UK, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands. A number of child rights violations have also been reported in Hungary, where many children continued passing through during the course of 2016-2017.

Nevertheless, April saw an important milestone for the protection of refugee and migrant children, with the adoption of a new Communication on the Protection of Children in Migration by the European Commission (12 April 2017), which calls on Member States to prioritize EU and national funding for children, to refrain from unnecessary and invasive age assessments and to increase resettlement and other legal pathways for children to safely reach Europe. The commitment by the European Commission to invest in child protection training, guidance and tools is another positive development, which will help ensure that childrens best interests are properly assessed in all decisions that concern them. National governments also took some practical steps towards the improved protection of refugee and migrant children, with the increased quota for UASC benefiting from transfers from France, Greece and Italy to the UK under the Dubs programme (from 350 to 480 places available), as well as the regularization of the status of rejected asylum-seeking UASC in Sweden, under condition they are attending school.

Read more from the original source:
UNICEF Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe: Regional Humanitarian Situation Report #23, 16 May 2017 - ReliefWeb

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The European Commission announced there would be a formal investigation, saying that members of a so far unnamed organisation may have sexually exploiting migrants they worked with in Greece.

The Commission has also confirmed it will be investigating the organisation on charges of corruption and has suspended all its EU funding,Salzburger Nachrichten reports.

The EU commission has said the priority will be first taking care of the victims of the alleged abuse. The Greek government has also been informed of the situation. The EUs anti-fraud agency Olaf will also be involved in the investigation against the pro-migrant organisation.

Officials from the bloc stated it has a zero tolerance policy regarding any organisation that either misuses EU funds or violates basicfundamental human rights.

So far, the EU has yet to make a formal statement on the multiple arrests of members of the Italian mafia who were profiteering on the back of the migrant crisis. Despite no formal statement, a spokesman for the Commission has said there will be an investigation to check whether or not EU funds were also involved in the case.

Italian authorities arrested 68 individuals including a Catholic priest and charity organisers thought to have made millions of euros through fraud.

If the organisation in Greece turns out to have sexually exploited migrants, it will not be the first time pro-migrant activists have been sexually involved with the people they claim to be helping.

Before its destruction, the Calais Jungle migrant camp was reportedly rife with sexual exploitation. Open borders advocates, primarily from the UK, travelled to the camp to have sex with migrant men squatting there, according to a reportfrom September of last year.

That same month a woman from Briton, who volunteered at the Calais Jungle, announced that she was marrying a Syrian man she met in the camp though denied she had initially gone to the camp tofind a man.

The EU has also been critical of pro-migrant NGOs operating in the Mediterranean sea with the EU border agency Frontex saying NGOs encourage more migrants to make the perilous voyage.

An Italian prosecutor has been even more direct accusing the NGOs ofworking with people smugglers to bring more migrants to Europe.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJor email at ctomlinson@breitbart.com

Excerpt from:
Pro-Migrant Activists in Greece Under Investigation for Sexually Exploiting Migrants - Breitbart News

Author and Brexiteer Douglas Murray gave an explosive interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer this morning, suggesting the EU's migrant crisis can be traced back to German guilt about the Holocaust.

Murray spoke to Julia about his new bookThe Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam,and gave some forthright opinions on what he described as the "devastating" migrant crisis.

Murray, who publicly supported Brexit ahead of last year's referendum, saidEurope has become "a place for the world... but with no particular belief in itself."

He believes Germany is largely responsible for this problem, because the country has spread its post-Nazi guilt to the rest of the EU.

Murray told Julia: "In a city like this one, inLondon, if you say 'look at our guilt, look at what we did,' you almost immediately get to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

"This country fought against [Nazism] and destroyed that regime. But there's been a spreading around of German guilt and an absolving of the rest of the world of any blame."

Merkel, he says,was "willing to crash the entire continent for the sake of her own conscience" and suggested many migrants have no right to settle in the EU.

Listen to the full interview above

Originally posted here:
EU's migrant crisis is rooted in German Holocaust guilt, says pro-Brexit author Douglas Murray - talkRADIO (press release)

GETTY

In a letter to eurocrats the interior ministers of Germany and Italy have called for new EU-backed border posts to be set up on the frontier between Libya and Niger to vet would-be asylum seekers.

War-ravaged Libya, which is in a state of political chaos, is now the main gateway to Europe after a deal between Brussels and Turkey last year effectively closed that route off to economic migrants.

And EU officials have long spoken of it as the next major flashpoint in the migration crisis, saying the route must be closed down to prevent a rush of newcomers from central and sub-Saharan Africa.

European leaders have been unnerved by a recent surge in numbers of people making the perilous sea crossing to Italy which have put the continents new frontline member state under huge pressure.

And with the blocs much-vaunted relocation scheme in tatters, facing stiff political opposition and an ongoing court challenge from Hungary and Slovakia, the need for a new solution is urgent.

In their proposal to the EU Commission Berlins Thomas de Maizire and Romes Marco Minniti said new border controls were needed In Italy to prevent a new crisis Europe would struggle to contain.

They argued EU border posts would save lives by preventing hundreds of thousands of people once again risking their lives in Libya and on the Mediterranean Sea in the hands of smugglers.

The proposal appears to be an admission that the EUs current policy of patrolling the Mediterranean and intercepting smugglers boats, known as Operation Sophia, is not working.

Critics have said the rescue missions simply act as a taxi service for migrants who have to be brought ashore in Europe after being plucked from the sea and is encouraging criminals to place them in unseaworthy vessels.

Some in Italy have even accused charities running the operations of colluding with the smugglers by coordinating rescues, although NGOs deny this and eurocrats insist there is no evidence to support such claims.

The ministers pointed out that Italy, which is struggling in the economic doldrums, has already registered nearly 42,500 migrants this year, with 97 per cent having arrived by sea from Libya.

In response they called for the setting up of an EU Mission at the border between Libya and Niger as soon as possible, which would include technical and financial support for Libyan authorities fighting illegal migration.

UNICEF

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A migrant gestures from behind the bars of a cell at a detention centre in Libya

Libya struggled to control its 3,000 miles of southern borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger - largely made up of barren desert - even before the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then smugglers have capitalised on the post-uprising chaos to step up their lucrative business, with tens of thousands of people each year making the perilous crossing to Italy just some 300 kilometres away.

According to the Libyan government, between 7,000 and 8,000 migrants mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, are being held in Libyan detention centres after entering the country illegally.

Plans to shut off the Mediterranean migration route are being championed by Malta, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, which has proportionally taken in a huge number of people.

Eurocrats have proposed striking a similar deal with Libya as they did last year with Turkey, under which all economic migrants are sent back, whilst some EU leaders have even called for European detention camps in the country.

Excerpt from:
EU plans to move external border to AFRICA as Brussels moves to stop new migrant crisis - Express.co.uk

BERLIN A stunning election win for Angela Merkel's conservatives in Germany's most populous state is the strongest sign yet that voters have forgiven the chancellor for her open-door migrant policy and are set to hand her four more years in power.

Sunday's triumph in North Rhine-Westphalia marked the third regional election win this year for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), providing them with powerful momentum as they head into a federal election on Sept. 24.

The win reflected directly on the chancellor, who had placed herself at the center of campaigning in a state that has traditionally been a stronghold of her Social Democrat (SPD) rivals.

It dealt a huge blow to new SPD leader Martin Schulz, who in February and March had boosted the party's poll ratings and raised its hopes of ending Merkel's 12 years in power.

Images of smiling senior conservatives piling into CDU headquarters are a far cry from last year's headshaking, when poll ratings sagged and some allies even spoke of the end of the Merkel era.

"Merkel has risen from the ashes of 2016 when she was widely criticized for her open-arms policy on the refugees," said Josef Joffe, publisher of Die Zeit weekly.

He argued that she was benefiting from a slowing of the migrant influx to about 280,000 last year from almost 900,000 in 2015. That is due to neighboring countries closing borders, an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow, and some domestic action.

Acknowledging voters' fears, Merkel's grand coalition of conservatives and the SPD has tried to speed up the processing of asylum requests, stepped up deportations and banned the burqa full face veil for state employees at work.

"All seems forgiven. I have no doubt that her party will come out as the strongest in September, that she will gain a fourth term.... So four more years," Joffe told Reuters.

Bild daily wrote that voters had rewarded local politicians who had shown they backed Merkel, and provided "something to think about" for those in the CDU who had called for her head.

GLOBAL STANDING

As the migrant crisis has receded in voters' minds, and the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has descended into infighting, Merkel has regained her role as an anchor of stability, especially amid fears of rising populism.

Under her leadership, Europe's biggest economy is growing steadily and unemployment is at a record low. Television footage of U.S. President Donald Trump praising Germany's apprenticeship system, and talk of her budding friendship with his daughter Ivanka, remind cautious Germans of Merkel's global stature.

In office since 2005, she is routinely rated by Forbes as the world's most powerful woman, and wields unparalleled clout in the European Union at a time when it is trying to map out a new direction after Britain's vote to leave.

"Angela Merkel is a cart horse for her party, the likes of which the SPD clearly doesn't have," wrote the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine daily in an editorial.

An unexpectedly strong result for the conservatives' preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), in NRW means an alliance of the two may take power there.

That could boost the FDP's hopes of forming a coalition with Merkel at national level after September's election, as they did during her second term from 2009 to 2013. But despite the boost to sentiment, FDP leader Christian Lindner said his party would not compromise on substance to share power, either in NRW or nationally.

SPD DISASTER

Merkel's state election gains, especially in NRW, are at least in equal measure the SPD's losses: on Monday, Bild daily dubbed the much-feted "Schulz effect" the "Schulz curse".

Of the roughly 10-point gain in opinion polls that the party had initially seen under Schulz, about half has vanished, and it trails the conservatives by at least 7-8 points in most polls. Most analysts expect another grand coalition after the election, led by Merkel.

The SPD, which has tried to blame its loss on local factors like infrastructure problems and crime, slumped to its lowest level of support in NRW since 1947.

Many analysts say Schulz's focus on social justice, including plans to extend long-term unemployment benefit, is not enough. Politics professor Karl-Rudolf Korte from the University of Duisburg-Essen said the SPD needed a new start quickly if it was to have any chance of winning.

"They need to develop ideas for the future that ignite enthusiasm and mobilize voters, not just on social justice."

Schulz, who said the NRW result was a bitter personal setback, on Monday pinpointed investment, innovation, education and a strong Europe as areas to focus on.

But analysts say security is also a weakness for the SPD. The party was punished in NRW for its handling of the mass groping of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015. And the Tunisian man who rammed a truck into Berlin's Christmas market last year, killing 12 people, had links to NRW.

Compounding the SPD's problems, pollsters say, is voter concern about the prospect of a leftist coalition on the federal level between the SPD, Greens and radical Left party.

SPD leaders are banking on another bounce. Some commentators pointed to the 2005 federal election, called by SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder after losing NRW, where Merkel squandered a hefty poll lead to win by just a whisker.

"It will be a long, bumpy path," said Schulz to his dejected supporters on Monday.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

BERLIN/WASHINGTON Last month, in a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Angela Merkel, the U.S. president shared his views on Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan.

BAGHDAD Iraqi forces have reduced the area of Mosul controlled by Islamic State to 12 square km, military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told a news conference on Tuesday.

BANGKOK Thailand has no immediate plan to block access to Facebook , the telecoms regulator said on Tuesday, as it expects the social media giant to comply with court orders for the removal of content deemed to threaten national security.

The rest is here:
Forgiven for migrant crisis, Merkel in pole position for fourth term - Reuters