Archive for the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Category

Turkey rejects ‘additional refugee burden’ from Afghanistan | | AW – The Arab Weekly

ISTANBUL--Turkey cannot take the burden of a new migrant wave from Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday after talks with his German counterpart, as concerns about a new migrant wave remain after the Talibans taking of power.

The events in Afghanistan have fuelled worries in the European Union of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, when nearly a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond crossed to Greece from Turkey before travelling north to wealthier states.

To stem the flow of refugees, the EU reached an agreement with Turkey in 2016 for it to host Syrians fleeing the war in their country in return for billions of euros for refugee projects.

Cavusoglu said on Sunday that Europe, as well as regional countries, would also be affected if migration from Afghanistan turns into a crisis and that lessons should be learned from the Syrian refugee crisis.

As Turkey, we have sufficiently carried out our moral and humanitarian responsibilities regarding migration, Cavusoglu said, speaking in a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

It is out of the question for us to take an additional refugee burden, Cavusoglu said.

Turkey currently hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the worlds largest refugee population, in addition to around 300,000 Afghans. It has been reinforcing measures along its eastern border to prevent crossings in anticipation of a new migrant wave from Afghanistan.

Maas said Germany was grateful to Turkey for its offer to continue to help run Kabul airport after NATOs withdrawal and said Germany was ready to support that financially and technically.

It is in our own interests to ensure that the collapse in Afghanistan does not destabilise the entire region, he said in a statement.

Maas is on a trip to Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Qatar to show Germanys support for the countries most likely to suffer the fallout of the crisis in Afghanistan.

Turkeys neighbour Greece has completed a 40 kilometre fence and surveillance system to keep out migrants who still manage to enter Turkey and try to reach the European Union.

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Turkey rejects 'additional refugee burden' from Afghanistan | | AW - The Arab Weekly

Explained: Why Greece has built a 40-km long wall on its border with Turkey – The Indian Express

Fearing a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, Greece has completed building a 40-km long wall and installed a hi-tech surveillance system on its border with Turkey to avoid the influx of Afghan migrants following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The development comes amid apprehensions about heavy migration of Afghan citizens into Greece via Turkey, and then further into Europe.

What is happening?

Greece built the wall stating that the country cannot let Afghan nationals penetrate their borders and enter the country. Greek Citizens Protections Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said Our borders will remain safe and inviolable.

About the Afghanistan crisis, Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi, in a statement, said the EU nations should collectively act towards supporting the countries in the region which will be affected by the migration wave.

Mitarachi added that there was a need to send the right messages in order to avoid a new migration crisis which Europe is unable to shoulder. Our country will not be a gateway to Europe for illegal Afghan migrants, he said as reported by The Guardian.

The completion of the wall on the Greece-Turkey border comes after a discussion on the Afghanistan crisis between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

Erdoan, hoping for a smooth transition in Afghanistan, in a statement he issued on Telegram on August 20, said, I pointed out that if a transitional period cannot be established in Afghanistan, the pressure on migration, which has already reached high levels, will increase even more and this situation will pose a serious challenge for everyone.

Erdoan added that he believed that the EU should help the Afghan citizens in Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries like Iran. I emphasized that cooperation on migration should be promoted based on mutual understanding and interests.

Afghan nationals enter Turkey from Iran and then via land or sea enter Greece to eventually get into Europe.

Mitsotakis said that it was important, especially in terms of refugee flows, for the EU to support the countries that were close to Afghanistan and ensure that there are no additional refugee flows to Europe. I have spoken with President Erdogan and I believe we have a common interest in ensuring that migration flows are reduced as close as possible to Afghanistan.

While Greek ministers like Mitarachi have suggested that the EU should help Turkey in dealing with Afghan migrants, they have also stated that another migration crisis like the one in 2015 cannot be afforded. The EU is not ready and does not have the capacity to handle another major migration crisis, he had told Reuters.

What was the 2015 migrant crisis faced by Greece?

The European Union faced a huge inflow of migrants from neighbouring countries, especially the middle-east, during the 2015 Syrian war.

More than 1.3 million people fled to Europe, seeking asylum in the EU, Norway and Switzerland, Pew Research stated.

Most of these people arrived in Greece and Italy, according to UNHCR. UNHCRs data on December 29, 2015 showed 1,000,573 people had reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly to Greece and Italy. Of these, 3,735 were missing, believed drowned, Over 75 per cent of those arriving in Europe had fled conflict and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq.

The report stated, In addition to the sea crossings, 34,000 crossed from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land.

Afghans accounted for 20 per cent of these migrants.

The data shows that while 800,000 refugees had entered Greece from Turkey via sea, which was 80 per cent of migrants arriving in Europe by the sea in 2015, only 150,000 a drop from 2014 had entered Italy.

In 2016, Greece and Turkey reached an arrangement to halt the inflow of migrants into Greece via Turkey in return for financial support for Turkey. Thereafter, according to The Guardian, any migrants who hadnt applied for asylum or whose applications were rejected were sent back to Turkey.

Last year, Turkey had opened its borders for migrants to move towards Greece, stating that it had reached its capacity.

What next?

The EU and Greece have been in talks to help each other in the possibility of massive migration from Afghanistan.

Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis met the First Vice President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola. A statement from the Prime Ministers office said: Referring to the new challenges related to the situation in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister stressed that what was attempted in the past, namely the mass influx of migrants and refugees, will be prevented.

Standing with Greece, Metsola said that during the Afghan migrant crisis, if there is any in the future, Europe will continue to stand by Greece and with the front-line Member States bearing a European responsibility.

According to the New York Times, by July-end, 330,000 Afghans had been displaced in 2021. The number of Afghans illegally crossing the borders had gone up by up to 40 per cent since May this year. The report added, at least 30,000 Afghans were migrating out of the country every week.

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Explained: Why Greece has built a 40-km long wall on its border with Turkey - The Indian Express

The EU tries to avoid a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis – Market Research Telecast

The time to articulate a European response to the multidimensional crisis that opens in Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul is running out. With the deadline that the United States gave for the withdrawal of troops around the corner, on August 31, and with the resurgent Taliban regime pressing for the calendar to be respected, this Tuesday the Interior Ministers will meet in Brussels and Justice of the European Union to try to find a common position in the face of the foreseeable humanitarian debacle, and the consequent migratory wave that European capitals fear so much, due to its similarities with the 2015 crisis: then Syria was bleeding and they crossed the European borders more of a million people seeking asylum.

The extraordinary meeting of the Council of the EU, convened by the Slovenian presidency, which this semester leads the Union, seeks to unite the usual cacophony of 27 voices in the community bloc when it comes to border and migrant issues, and also articulate mechanisms that will prevent a repeat of the 2015 scenario, states the announcement of the call.

The member states come to the appointment with fresh memories. The images of tens of thousands of families traversing fences and barbed wire into the heart of Germany, boarding crowded trains, sleeping anywhere to save their lives are still very much present. Building on the lessons learned, the EU and its Member States are determined to act together to prevent a recurrence of the large-scale uncontrolled illegal migratory movements they faced in the past, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response, said the draft joint declaration of the EU Council meeting, to which MRT has had access.

The document, which must still be approved by the ministers during the face-to-face meeting, reflects how the EU intends to prevent the problem from reaching its borders and overflowing them, for which support should be strengthened for the countries in the immediate vicinity of Afghanistan to ensure that those in need receive adequate protection primarily in the region. Although the draft recognizes the need to provide that shelter to those who need it, in line with EU legislation and with our international obligations, it calls for strengthening support for neighboring and transit countries, which host a large number of migrants and refugees , so that they are the ones who provide that protection. On the other hand, it calls for the European Asylum Support Office to intensify its external operations for the development of asylum capacity, and suggests mechanisms such as voluntary resettlement for vulnerable people.

The EU, as reflected in the note, is also concerned about the threat to security posed by the new geopolitical theater, which is why it invites all efforts to ensure that the Taliban regime cease ties and practices with international terrorism , preventing the country from once again becoming a sanctuary of violent fanaticism. The EU even reserves the ability to respond to events on the ground that may affect its security, and invites Europol to provide a risk analysis of the situation. The timely implementation of security checks on people who are evacuated from Afghanistan remains crucial, adds the text, which underlines the European determination to protect external borders and prevent unauthorized entry into EU territory. .

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The draft also gives priority to continuing the evacuation of European and Afghan citizens from the country, and ensures that specific solutions will be sought for specific cases of people in danger. The EU, according to the document, will continue to align with the international community, in particular with the UN and its agencies, to stabilize the region and ensure that humanitarian aid reaches vulnerable populations, in particular women and children, in Afghanistan and neighboring countries , pledging to increase financial support to relevant international organizations .

We have to give international protection to those who are under immediate threat, such as womens rights and fundamental rights activists, authors and journalists, values the Interior Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, through statements sent to EL COUNTRY by mobile message. Johansson is in the United States, where he plans to discuss the Afghan situation with the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Secretary General of the UN, Antnio Guterres, among others, before returning to Brussels to hold the meeting with the Ministers of Justice and the Interior. We have to prevent significant numbers of people from embarking on dangerous smuggling routes into the EU and instead ensure that we protect women and girls through resettlement, Commissioner Johansson proposes.

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The EU tries to avoid a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis - Market Research Telecast

Poland to build anti-refugee wall on Belarus border – EUobserver

Poland has become the latest European country to start building an anti-refugee wall, with a new fence on its border with Belarus.

The 2.5-metre high wall would be modelled on one built by Hungary on its border with Serbia in 2015, Polish defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak said.

"We are dealing with an attack on Poland. It is an attempt to trigger a migration crisis," he told press at a briefing near the Belarus frontier on Monday (23 August).

"It is [also] necessary to increase the number of soldiers [on the border] ... We will soon double the number of soldiers to 2,000," he added.

"We will not allow the creation of a route for the transfer of migrants via Poland to the European Union," he said.

The minister shared photos of a 100-km razor-wire barrier, which Poland already erected in recent weeks.

Some 2,100 people from the Middle East and Africa tried to enter Poland via Belarus in the past few months in what Blaszczak called "a dirty game of [Belarus president Alexander] Lukashenko and the Kremlin" to hit back at EU sanctions.

"These are not refugees, they are economic migrants brought in by the Belarusian government," deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz also said on Monday.

Some people were pushed over the border by armed Belarusian police who fired in the air behind them, according to Polish NGO Minority Rights Group.

Others were pushed back by Polish soldiers, who should have let them file asylum claims, while another 30-or-so people have been stuck in no man's land without food or shelter.

"People were asking the [Polish] border guards for protection and the border guards were pushing them back," Piotr Bystrianin from the Ocalenie Foundation, another Polish NGO, told the Reuters news agency.

"That means they were in contact and that means they should give them the possibility to apply for protection ... It's very simple," he said.

"We have been very concerned by ... people being stranded for days," Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, also said.

But for its part, the Polish government had little time for moral niceties.

"The statements and behaviour of a significant number of Polish politicians, journalists, and NGO activists show that a scenario in which a foreign country carrying out such an attack against Poland will receive support from allies in our country is very real," Polish deputy foreign minister Pawe Jaboski said.

Belarus has also been pushing refugees into Lithuania and Latvia, with more than 4,000 people recently crossing into Lithuania.

"Using immigrants to destabilise neighbouring countries constitutes a clear breach of international law and qualifies as a hybrid attack against ... Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and thus against the entire European Union," the Baltic states and Poland said in a joint statement on Monday.

Lithuania is building a 3-metre high, 508-km wall on its Belarus border in a 152m project for which it wants EU money.

The wall would be completed by September 2022, Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Monday.

"The physical barrier is vital for us to repel this hybrid attack," she said.

The latest upsurge in wall-building began with Greece, which said last week it had completed a 40-km fence on its border with Turkey to keep out potential Afghan refugees.

And Turkey has started building a 3-metre high concrete barrier on its 241-km border with Iran for the same reason.

"The Afghan crisis is creating new facts in the geopolitical sphere and at the same time it is creating possibilities for migrant flows," Greece's citizens' protection minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said.

Turkey would not become Europe's "refugee warehouse", Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan said.

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Poland to build anti-refugee wall on Belarus border - EUobserver

Migrant deaths in high desert of West Texas take emotional toll on crews tasked with recovering remains – Border Report

'We have zero state or federal assistance to help pay for this burden,' Hudspeth County administrator says

by: Sandra Sanchez

Deputies with the Hudspeth County Sheriffs office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials help to carry the remains of a mid-30-year-old migrant woman from El Salvador who was located 20 miles north of the Rio Grande on Saturday in remote West Texas mountainous terrain. (Photo by Joanna MacKenzie/Hudspeth County)

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) Rescue crews found the body of a migrant woman from El Salvador during the weekend in a remote desert area in Hudspeth County, the second migrant body found in a week and 13th so far this year, the director of county emergency services told Border Report.

The woman was in her mid-30s and it was a recent death, said Joanna MacKenzie, the Hudspeth County Emergency Management Coordinator and County Administrator.

The retrieval caps an unprecedented year of migrant deaths for the remote West Texas county with a population of under 5,000, limited resources and limited body bags, she said.

The remains of a woman from El Salvador were found near a tree Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021, where backpacks and other remnants were left in remote West Texas in Hudspeth County. (Joanna MacKenzie/Hudspeth County Photos)

MacKenzie was among a group of first responders who hiked over three hours Saturday in what she called high desert mountains in rough terrain to locate the body. It was 20 miles from the Rio Grande on a trail frequently used by coyotes who lead migrants through dangerous and remote terrain to pick up locations near Interstate 10 in West Texas, about 100 miles east of El Paso.

Backpacks, clothing, plastic bottles left behind by travelers riddle the ranch, MacKenzie said. It took over three hours just to reach her body. It is No. 13 year to date.

The discovery of the Salvadoran woman by Hudspeth County Sheriffs deputies and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials came after a CBP officer on horseback found the skeletal remains of another migrant Wednesday in remote terrain in Hudspeth County, MacKenzie said.

And MacKenzie said they fear more bodies will be discovered as the triple-digit heat from a few weeks ago has been replaced by cooler 80-degree temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

It is a year of crisis, her county declared as it backed Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts heightened border security plans in early summer. But she says they have yet to get financial relief.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday extended the disaster declaration, which now includes 43 Texas counties that locally declared a disaster and agreed topartner with the state to arrest and detain people for crimes related to the border crisis. Hudspeth County is included in the renewed disaster declaration.

She also worries that a recent Supreme Court decision forcing the Biden administration to re-implement the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protection Protocols program known as Remain in Mexico could push more migrants to try to make the dangerous crossing north through Hudspeth County.

We anticipate another uptick with improved weather and hunting season where hunters find remains out and about, MacKenzie said.

Further hurting this community is the fact that we have zero state or federal assistance to help pay for this burden, she said. Not to mention the mental and emotional burden of bagging the body of someone who was healthy and young, or the ranchers on constant patrol on their own land.

Adding to the emotional turmoil, this weekend MacKenzie said the county could not find enough body bags to be used for the migrant remains. The only bags we could get were paper thin. Literally had a body fall out, she said.

She said they finally procured body bags with handles so that groups of first responders could carry the bodies since the bodies are most often hiked out and not just put on a gurney, she said.

Photos taken by MacKenzie and supplied to Border Report show crews hiking through prickly pear and other cacti in rocky mountainous terrain to extricate the bodies.

She said it costs the county about $3,000 per recovered body in first responder and overtime costs and other related expenses. She said that the county had a budget of $12,000 but the county has already spent almost $40,000 on migrant remains so far this year.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at Ssanchez@borderreport.com.

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Migrant deaths in high desert of West Texas take emotional toll on crews tasked with recovering remains - Border Report