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CAIRO // Religious fundamentalism will continue to flourish if poverty, disease and the needs of refugees are not addressed, the audience at the International Peace Conference in Cairo was told.

The gathering, co-organised by Al Azhar and the UAE-based Muslim Council of Elders, came three weeks after bombings on Coptic churches in Egypt killed at least 45 people.

Its purpose was to call upon followers of different faiths to trust each other and work together to denounce extremism and promote peace. The conference drew political and spiritual figures from around the world.

The overriding message of the two-day event, which began on Thursday, was that offering citizenship to refugees and tackling wealth inequality was essential in thwarting the appeal of extremism.

Dr Mostafa Hegazi, a former adviser to the interim Egyptian president, Adly Mansour, said that povertys ramifications were not only felt financially but also had profound effects on peoples rationality.

"It leads to a poverty of thought, imagination and capacity," said Dr Hegazi, who is also the founder of an Egyptian think tank focused on issues of justice.

The link between violent extremism and extreme poverty is well established and inclined individuals to become racist and nations to resort to war, he said.

"Isnt it high time we tackled this serious institutional problem," he said.

"People are not machines that are forced to produce. Its time we educate people before they become cogs in the employment machine."

Rev Olav Fykse, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said that extending citizenship to those in need would serve to provide people with the protection and rights that all people deserved, regardless of their backgrounds.

"Different people should have the same basis of security for their lives and their childrens lives," he said.

"We need something solid and clear as a platform of our lives together."

Basic human needs such as food, water, security, health, education and freedom to believe were all needed to ensure harmonious communities, he said.

Bishop Bola, who was representing Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, called for further inclusion in communities.

"The colonial mentality worldwide has to end, such as is happening in Palestine," the bishop said.

The Coptic bishop appealed to countries to come to the aid of the oppressed and to narrow the gap between the rich and poor nations.

"I call on nations to address poverty because it is a fertile ground for violent environments," the bishop said.

The conference concluded yesterday with Pope Franciss visit to Al Azhar, the global seat of Sunni Muslim learning, the first visit there by a Roman Catholic pope.

tsubaihi@thenational.ae

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Tackle religious extremism by addressing migrant crisis, Egypt conference hears - The National

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The year 2016 has seen a new record in Italian immigration, with over 172,000 mostly African migrants arriving over the first eleven months of the year. Of these, the largest number (21 percent) are from Nigeria, lured into making the dangerous journey by a vigorous promotion campaign promising benefits and opportunities, as well as a free shuttle service provided by the Italian Coast Guard and a number of NGOs.

While most of the African migrants arriving in Italy are young men, a much higher percentage of the Nigerians are women. Currently, one out of every two prostitutes in Italy is Nigerian.

Arinze Orakwe, an official of the Nigerian anti-trafficking organization NAPTIP, fighting against the traffickers is an uphill battle, in part because of public opinion and propaganda about life in Europe. Everyone thinks that the streets of Europe are paved with gold, he said.

The human traffickers organizing the exodus from Africa into Italy include bands of Nigerian mafia gangs who force unsuspecting migrants into working for them as street beggars or prostitutes once they arrive in Italy.

One 24-year-old Nigerian woman named Gloria Erobaga recounted the harrowing experience of forced prostitution on Italian streets, after she had been promised honest work by the mafia traffickers who arranged her passage to Italy.

They would continually check up on us to collect our money and they killed the girls who didnt pay, she said. I know of Nigerian women in Italy who were killed, cut up and thrown into black garbage bags, like trash, she added.

According to reports in the Italian media, Nigerian traffickers are exploiting Europes migrant crisis to take girls to Libya and then across the Mediterranean into Italy. In the past two years more than 12,000 girls and young women have arrived in Italysix times as many as in the preceding two years. Of these, four out of five have wound up in prostitution.

Before organizing their journey through Libyan contacts, traffickers have the girls sign a contract to finance their trip, imposing debts of up to $30,000, which can only be paid back after years of working.

Many of the young women are taken to a priest of Voodoo, who conducts rituals called juju that supposedly bind them spiritually to their traffickers and insure the payment of the debt. These rites instill terror in their victims, convinced that they or their loved ones could fall ill or die if they were to disobey the traffickers, go to the police or fail to pay their debts.

Once in Italy, the women are placed together in common dwellings and given a madam to coordinate their work as prostitutes.

Fabio Sorgoni, an official with a charity that helps prostitutes in Italy, said Italian men are attracted by the youth and low price of the women and often dont realize they are sex slaves.

Appealing to men who pay Nigerians for sex, Sorgoni said: If you go to a prostitute, try to understand if they are a minor and whether they are doing this work of their own free will.

Meanwhile, African immigrants continue to stream into Italy by the hundreds and thousands every day. They are usually picked up several miles off the coast of Libya by waiting rescue vessels of the Italian Coast Guard or a number of organizations that assist migrants, who then take them across the Strait of Sicily to Italian ports.

What many well-meaning NGOs and pro-immigration groups dont realize, is that by assisting migrants in their passage from North Africa to Italy, they are also abetting organized crime and condemning thousands of women to forced prostitution.

Anna, a woman forced into prostitution after being told by traffickers she would pick fruit in Italy, wishes she had never made it here.

My message to girls back in Nigeria is, Dont come, she said.

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More than 40,000 people have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East, largely landing in either Greece or Italy, already this year, while 1,089 have died trying. Auditors concluded that the EU must do more to quickly process and care for those that do survive the journey.

Since May 2015, the EU has implemented a so-called hotspot approach to help countries on the frontline of the refugee and migrant crisis cope with the extraordinary numbers of people arriving on their shores.

This saw centres set up to quickly register and move on migrants from the main points of arrival and over 1.5bn in EU funding pledged to Greece and Italy, although less than half of this has been delivered so far.

But auditors found that, despite considerable EU support, it took too long for the centres to be set up, and they remain unable to either handle or properly care for the number of people arriving at them.

They identified issues of overcrowding, a failure to provide basic necessities like water and an inability to care for high numbers of children arriving alone

Hans Gustaf Wessberg, one of the two members of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report, said the issue needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

At the time of the audit in July 2016, auditors found the hotspots in Italy could accommodate 1,600 people, which auditors said was clearly not enough to cover arrivals of 2,000 or more per day.

Italian authorities have conceded that, for the first seven months of 2016, some 70% of migrants arrived in Italy outside of the hotspot facilities. Two more centres, and a separate strategy in line with the hotspot approach but not requiring physical facilities, have been planned but are yet to be put in place.

Meanwhile in Greece, since March last year, an agreement between the EU and Turkey has meant migrants can no longer leave the Greek islands to lodge their asylum applications. This must instead be done at the hotspot centres, where previously migrants would spend only a few days.

Now migrants typically stay at the hotspot centres for months. Auditors said centres are seriously overcrowded as a result: all five hotspots can accommodate a total of 7,450 people, but the migrant population on the countrys islands had hit 16,250 by early November last year.

Auditors also noted that NGOs and others had criticised the quality of food and lack of blankets, medical care and water. Privacy, they continued, was also in short supply, with no separate areas for men, women, families or minors.

As of September 2016, around 2,500 children were living alone on Greeces islands, with none being cared for in accordance with international standards, auditors added.

Many unaccompanied minors have been held for long periods at the hotspots in inappropriate conditions, despite the law requiring they be prioritised, the report noted.

European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said the EUs executive pointed out that the report also highlighted that the hotspot approach had helped improve the management of migration flows in very challenging and constantly changing circumstances.

But, she continued, the commission also welcomes its conclusion that there is still more to be done something the commission itself has been stressing for some time.

She said the commission stands ready to provide additional support to Greece and Italy, which are ultimately responsible for their own border control and asylum processing, in line with the reports recommendations.

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Italy migrant crisis: Charities 'colluding' with smugglers BBC News An Italian prosecutor says he has evidence some of the charities saving migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are colluding with people-smugglers. Carmelo Zuccaro told La Stampa (in Italian) phone calls were being made from Libya to rescue vessels. Italy has 'proof' of collusion in migrant crisisGulf Times Italy and Migrant Crisis: NGOs colluding with Smugglers and Arab slavery of black Africans in LibyaModern Tokyo Times Refugee death toll passes 1000 in record 2017 as charities attacked for conducting Mediterranean rescuesThe Independent The Local Italy -Jordan Times -Prothom Alo (English) all 68 news articles »

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Italy migrant crisis: Charities 'colluding' with smugglers - BBC News

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Warsaws right-wing Government is looking into the possibility of setting up camps to detain migrants and refugees at its borders following a similar move by its southern neighbour.

Hungarys hardline president Viktor Orban has attracted intense criticism over his decision to set up such camps, with charities and aid groups have described as inhumane and illegal.

A number of senior EU figures have also openly criticised Hungary, whose relationship with the bloc has become strained over the issue of migration, with Jean-Claude Juncker famously calling Mr Orban a dictator.

And Poland has recently been locked in its own vicious battle with Brussels over the re-election of EU Council president Donald Tusk and threats by Western countries like France to withdraw its funding.

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Now Warsaw risks opening up a fresh flashpoint with eurocrats by significantly hardening its stance on immigration, despite having received just 25,000 asylum applications in 2015-16.

Under its plans people arriving in Poland would be placed into camps made up of shipping containers, and surrounded by barbed wire, until their asylum applications were processed.

Ministers say the proposal will only come into force if a second migration crisis occurs, such as in the event of Turkey reneging on its current migrant deal with the bloc.

Interior minister Mariusz Baszczak said: The thing is to be ready for such a situation in the form of places in which those waiting for deportation would be kept who may try to break the law.

Thats all it entails. Besides, there are similar container camps in France and in Germany.

You cant open too many battle fronts at once, and the Commission has already too many with Poland

German expert Raphael Bossong

He added that the plan would allow border guards to lock up asylum seekers for up to a month while their applications are processed, something which will prevent efforts to illegally move to Western Europe.

The move is likely to go down well with ordinary voters - 74 per cent of Poles are anti-migration according to a recent poll - but will provoke dismay amongst human rights groups.

Marta Grczyska, from the Helsinki Foundation, told Politico the planned policy was concerning and could cause a systematic violation of rights of asylum seekers.

The EU has previously been highly critical of Hungarys migration policies but softened its stance slightly last month after Budapest insisted it would press ahead with the plan to open camps on its border regardless.

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Aid workers help migrants up the shore after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece

Brussels migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos said that instead of trying to ban the move the bloc would work with Hungarian officials to ensure human rights and living standards were maintained within the camps.

And analysts have predicted that the EU may feel compelled to allow the latest move by Poland to pass, given that it is already fighting the country on several other fronts.

Raphael Bossong from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said: You cant open too many battle fronts at once, and the Commission has already too many with Poland.

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