|
2019-08-31 Europe
|
|
Mass Arrivals of Migrants into Spain's Ceuta, Greek Lesbos Island
|
[AnNahar] More than 150 migrants colonists forced their way into Spain's overseas territory of Ceuta on Friday, hours after 540 people alighted in Greece as pressure on southern Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an states continues despite an overall drop in arrivals.
The mass arrivals come after several charity ships that rescued migrants colonists off the coast of Libya were denied access to Italian ports by outgoing hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini.
Continued from Page 1
On Friday, another such vessel belonging to charity Mediterranea Saving Humans warned of an impending health emergency on board as it was stuck at sea after being banned from entering Italian waters.
According to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 46,500 people had crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year to August 28 and another 909 died in the attempt.
This marks a drop from the same period last year when over 68,000 people crossed and 1,562 died.
But southern European nations still bear the brunt of these arrivals.
On Thursday, Spain's acting deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo said Europe should step in more.
"The countries that don't have maritime borders also need to assume shared responsibility," she told politicians.
- CLIMBING THE FENCE -
In Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta early on Friday, taking advantage of misty weather, 155 migrants colonists stormed the barbed wire border that separates it from Morocco. Some of them clambered over while others broke through a door in the fence.
"They are all from sub-Saharan Africa, the majority from Guinea," a front man for the central government's office in Ceuta told AFP.
Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish enclave, represent the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
's only lander borders with Africa.
All in all, though, the number of migrants colonists arriving in both cities this year has dropped to just over 18 percent to 3,427 compared with 2018, according to the latest interior ministry figures.
This is the first time in a year that migrants colonists have managed to storm the barbed wire fence in Ceuta as a group, the front man said.
Once on Spanish territory, they are usually taken to a migrant reception center where they can ask for asylum.
But Madrid has been known to send migrants colonists back to Morocco.
In August last year, Spain sent back 116 migrants colonists who had forced their way into Ceuta in a mass expulsion condemned by human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
activists.
It is as yet unclear what will happen in this case.
- 'UNPRECEDENTED RISE' -
In Greece, meanwhile, around 540 migrants colonists arrived Thursday evening on the island of Lesbos on board 13 boats from nearby The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
, including 240 children.
They were transferred to the cramped Moria migrant camp where there are "nearly 11,000 people for a capacity of just 3,000," medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.
A Greek diplomatic source, who refused to be named, said Athens had informed the European Union about this "unprecedented rise" in the number of migrants colonists.
Greece has overtaken Spain this year to become the main entry point for migrants colonists seeking to get to Europe.
At least 23,200 people have arrived by sea so far this year, according to the IOM.
- 'URGENT REQUEST' -
Over near Italia, Mediterranea Saving Humans said it had 34 migrants colonists on board its ship after 64 vulnerable people it had rescued, including women and kiddies, were disembarked on Thursday.
It said it had sent a "new urgent request" for a safe port after being refused access to Italian waters.
This comes at a period of political limbo in Italia, as the premier designate rushes to form a new left-leaning coalition which could alter Salvini's hardline stance on immigrants colonists.
Sixteen boats carrying about 650 people reached Lesbos on Thursday, 13 of those in under an hour, according to police and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
"It surprised us. We haven't seen this type of simultaneous arrivals in this number since 2016," said Boris Cheshirkov, spokesman for UNHCR in Greece.
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias summoned the Turkish ambassador on Friday to "express Greece's deep discontent" with the rise in flows from Turkey, diplomatic sources said. The ambassador said Turkey was "committed" to the EU-Turkey deal and that its policy had not changed, the sources said.
More than 25,000 people are in the camps, also the highest number in three years. Each of them operate at two or three times their capacity.
|
Posted by trailing wife 2019-08-31 08:25||
||
Front Page|| [16 views ]
Top
File under: Human Trafficking
|
|
06:00 Frank G
05:55 Besoeker
05:53 NN2N1
05:50 Bobby
05:45 Besoeker
05:44 NN2N1
05:44 Skidmark
05:42 Skidmark
05:41 Besoeker
05:38 Skidmark
05:32 Besoeker
05:26 Besoeker
05:25 Skidmark
05:24 SteveS
05:23 Skidmark
05:15 SteveS
05:12 Besoeker
05:10 Besoeker
04:48 SteveS
04:23 Grom the Reflective
04:13 Elmerert Hupens2660
04:05 Grom the Reflective
03:59 Grom the Reflective
03:17 Grom the Reflective
|
