The refugee crisis in Europe

It is almost impossible to do justice to the unfolding tragedy of thousands of refugees trying to escape from war in their countries while Europe closes the door to them.

All I can do is to provide a collection of coverage from different sources.

Western media hypocritically plays the humanitarian card while perpetuating the lie that these people are trying to escape from Assad's government and refuse to acknowledge that it was the “humanitarian wars” waged by NATO against each one of these countries (and enthusiastically supported by the media) that has caused this crisis along with the support given by western governments to terrorist groups, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Now there are even calls in the US for an alliance with al-Qaeda against ISIS (sic)!

Putin and Russia has been corrected in their assessment from the very beginning of the “Arab Spring” and it is hard to see how the response could be other than “we told you so”.

Now Europe is reaping the consequences of their actions and each and every reaction will be to make the situation even worse than it already is.

Please watch the discussion below from “Crosstalk”. Quite apart from being a flight from unjust wars this is also a flight from drought and the effects of abrupt climate change.

Hungary to take thousands of refugees to Austrian border by bus

Prime minister’s chief of staff says buses will collect people from Budapest’s main railway station – and also the estimated 1,200 who are walking to the border

the Guardiajn,

26 November, 2014

Hungary will transport thousands of refugees by bus to the Austrian border, a spokesman for prime minister Viktor Orban said on Friday night.

The buses will be sent to pick up the thousands of migrants at Budapest’s main railway terminus and the approximately 1,200 who are walking along the main westward motorway towards Austria, chief of staff János Lázár told a news conference.

“This does not automatically mean that they can leave the country,” he said. “We are waiting for the Austrian government’s response.”

Lazar’s announcement came as the estimated 1,200 people – young and old, some in wheelchairs or on crutches, others barefoot, some with children in buggies, others with toddlers on their shoulders – set off to walk the 105 miles from Budapest’s main railway station to Austria, as Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second world war deepened.

Snaking through the city in a line nearly half a mile long, the column was one of at least three groups of desperate, mainly Syrian refugees and migrants blocked by Hungarian authorities from travelling by train to Austria and Germany, who decided on Friday to take their fate in their hands and attempt the journey by foot.

Marching through grand boulevards and down a motorway in the blazing midday sun, dodging traffic but with no respite from the heat and very little water, many of the crowd who had spent days camping in the concourse beneath the capital’s Keleti station heard of the march only as the main group left and were left with no time to gather supplies or even possessions.

“There was one toilet for each thousand people,” said Moaz, aconfectioner from Syria, travelling with seven members of his family. “It was such a bad situation in the station that I would rather just end up in the forest.” Reen, a young mother, asked simply: “What else can we do?”

Thousands of refugees who have been stuck for days at Budapest’s Keleti train station begin marching out of the city

Beside her hobbled 22-year-old Mahmoud from Damascus, struggling on a pair of crutches because of his injured legs. He was lifted up and carried on the backs and shoulders of his friends every time he fell behind.

Thirty miles north-west of Budapest, up to 350 of 500 refugees stranded for more than 24 hours on a train at the town of Bicske were also on the move, breaking through a police cordon to begin the long walk westwards.

Taken by surprise, riot police were able to stop only a few of those people on board from fleeing, Associated Press reported. A Pakistani man reportedly died when he fell and hit his head on the tracks during the breakout.

After being told by Hungarian Railways that all international traffic to western Europe had been suspended “for security reasons”, the frustrated passengers, many holding tickets for Berlin or Vienna, boarded the train on Thursday, believing it was heading to a town close to the Austrian border, from where they could eventually reach Germany – the preferred destination for most, since it recently eased restrictions on accepting Syrian refugees.

But the carriages were halted less than half an hour after leaving the capital by security forces, who tried to move the refugees to a nearby processing camp. For much of Friday, they refused to budge, turning away offers of water, fruits and sweets and shouting “No food! No food!” in protest.

“The situation is so bad,” said Adnan Shanan, 35, from Latakia in Syria, who said he was fleeing war in his homeland. “We have many sick people on the train. We have pregnant women, no food, no water. We don’t need to stay here one more day. We need to move on to Munich, to anywhere else. We can’t stay here. We can’t wait until tomorrow.”

Passport, lifejacket, lemons: what Syrian refugees pack for the crossing to

A group of 64 migrants broke out of the camp at Bicske on Friday, while Hungary’s main border crossing with Serbia was closed temporarily after about 300 of the 2,300 people in the nearby Röszke holding centre escaped through a fence. “In the interest of preventing accidents, the Röszke motorway border crossing has been closed to incoming traffic and traffic is being redirected,” police said.

In Budapest, parliament passed a series of laws effectively sealing Hungary’s southern border to migrants – about 140,000 of whom have crossed it so far this year – and creating “transit zones” to hold asylum seekers until their asylum requests are approved and deported if not.

New laws will make it a criminal offence to cross or damage Hungary’s controversial new razor-wire fence along its 108-mile border with Serbia and make illegal border crossings punishable by up to three years in prison.

Hungary’s hardline prime minister, Viktor Orbán, again vowed on Friday that he would not let Europeans become “a minority in our own continent”, reiterating on Hungarian state radio that his rightwing government was determined to do all in its power to stem the flow of migrants and refugees.

“Today we are talking about tens of thousands, but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end,” he said.

“We have to make it clear that we can’t allow everyone in, because if we allow everyone in, Europe is finished. If you are rich and attractive to others, you also have to be strong because if not, they will take away what you have worked for and you will be poor, too.”

Hungary has sharply criticised Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year, for saying it would accept requests from Syrians regardless of where they entered the European Union, contrary to EU rules.

Many hundreds more people, perhaps as many as 2,000, remained stranded at Keleti, with conditions rapidly worsening in the late summer heat. Tempers briefly flared when a group of Hungarian rightwing extremists threw firecrackers into the crowd.

Some families have pitched tents and painted signs demanding to be allowed to continue their journeys, while children played football nearby.

Abdel Aziz, from Syria, said: “People are starting to be more nervous and angry. They are losing money day by day so the situation will become more complicated and we’ll see some more problems.”

Those who set off on the march to Austria, though, were convinced it was their best option. As the column streamed through downtown Budapest past shocked, bemused and horrified Hungarians, one shopper wept silently, mascara streaming down her face, as children struggled by.

An elderly woman silently pressed a blanket into the hands of a passing Syrian mother and a young woman distributed bank notes until she had none left. Not everyone was so sympathetic though. A driver screamed at a group crossing on a red light. “Can’t you see you have to wait,” he said, as they raced after relatives ahead.

A spasm of fear ran through the group each time they heard the wail of police sirens, worried that the authorities were coming to detain them. In fact, the police appeared to have given up on the refugees in the cruellest possible way, barring them from trains and busses – but letting them leave the country on foot.

“This way to Austria,” said one policewoman at a motorway junction where traffic was picking up after the main column passed, directing the struggling men, women and families onto a concrete flyover. None of the passing vehicles had room for anyone from the column.

“Just one kilometre, please,” Amal, a teacher from Damascus pleaded with a Hungarian couple driving a small van slowly down the motorway behind the column.

Her six-year-old son, Sohaib, and eight-year-old daughter, Bisan, could not walk fast enough, and she was worried about losing the protection of the group, or losing her way entirely. “We are human, too,” Amal pleaded, but the driver refused, saying Hungarian police would arrest them.

Putin: People flee from Syria because of ISIS, not Assad regime

Central European PMs reject EU proposal for refugee quota system

RT,

4 September, 2015

The EU states should take sovereign decisions in finding solutions to the migrant crisis, Polish Prime Minster Ewa Kopacz said after an emergency summit of Central European leaders on the spiking refugee influx in in Prague.

Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on EU refugee crisis

"I think our tackling of the immigration problem has to be reasonable and also countries have to make sovereign decisions on the level of their exposure as well as engagement," Kopacz told reporters after meeting her counterparts from the so-called Visegrád Four – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland – at a summit in Prague on Friday.

The group decided to oppose plans for quotas for refugees seeking asylum in the EU. The three states voiced solidarity with Hungary and expressed readiness to provide it with assistance.

"As an expression of their solidarity, the Prime Ministers stand ready to provide Hungary with further assistance," the PMs said in a statement.

The Czech and Slovak interior ministers proposed to create a train corridor from Hungary to Germany if the latter agrees to accept and not turn back refugees, who are already registered in the EU.

"If there is some public pledge from Germany that it will accept and not return Syrian refugees who are registered in some European country, we are ready to open a corridor if there is an agreement between Hungary and Germany," Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said after meeting his Slovak counterpart Robert Kalinak in Prague.

Kopacz added that the scenarios for solving the migrant issue could be raised at the EU Council in October or September.

Hungary PM says refugees ‘German problem,’ slams EU inability to control situationhttp://t.co/9UpNVTeH0bpic.twitter.com/ApkTFn95go

— RT (@RT_com) September 3, 2015

Dan Glazebrook, independent political analyst, told RT that central European states have been following Britain’s policy of rejecting the EU quota plan.

“The outer countries of the EU are of course the countries where the migrants first arrive. I don’t think that these countries would necessarily have felt so brazen completely rejecting the EU plan had it not been for [British PM David] Cameron’s outright rejection of such a system from the get go in the first place. And this has been the consistent role Britain has played in this crisis – it has been scuppering and acting as a lead for those kind of more racist policies within the EU.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio on Friday that if the European Union does not protect its borders, tens of millions refugees may end up arriving in Europe.  

"The reality is that Europe is threatened by a mass inflow of people, many tens of millions of people could come to Europe," he said. "Now we talk about hundreds of thousands, but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this," he said.

"All of a sudden we will see that we are in minority in our own continent," he said, urging Europe "to show strength in protecting our borders."

On Thursday, emotions ran high when Hungarian police allowed hundreds of refugees inside Budapest's main railway station, but then the authorities canceled all trains to Western Europe, causing chaos. Police declared Bicske railway station an 'operation zone', ordering all media to leave.

Officers earlier stopped the first train bound for the town of Sopron near the Austrian border, ordering refugees off at Bicske, where Hungary has a migrant reception center. The refugees reportedly banged on the train windows, shouting"No camp, no camp."

Police detained asylum seekers who lay on the rail tracks in protest against being sent to the reception camp. Those who were told to get off the train, forced their way back on, Reuters reported.

Hungarian policemen detain migrants on the tracks as they wanted to run away at the railway station in the town of Bicske, Hungary, September 3, 2015. © Laszlo Balogh / Reuters

Viktor Orban has promised that by mid-September, Budapest should have a package of regulations in place, including a physical barrier, designed to tackle the growing number of refugees. He said Hungarians are “full of fear” because Europe is unable to “control the situation.” Following talks with the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, Orban noted the current refugee crisis was not an EU problem, but actually "a German problem."

EU's Mogherini ‘fed up’ with emotional uproar over drowned refugee kids’ photoshttp://t.co/mYCzFGhA6Spic.twitter.com/S1rTzDQqil

— RT (@RT_com) September 4, 2015

Europe's refugee crisis has already been dubbed the worst since WWII, with a record number of 107,500 asylum seekers crossing the EU's borders in July. Europe appeared to be totally unprepared to deal with record high numbers of refugees.

“Eastern European countries are homogenous and not cosmopolitan as Western countries, so they get scared when so many people of different race and religion are coming in. No one knows where all this is going to,” Tony Robinson, co-director of the Pressenza international press agency, told RT.

Robinson added that Orban and other leaders are driven by fear.

“No chance they will agree to binding quotas. People are dissatisfied and fearful as no one has a coherent response to the problem. People in Budapest are outraged by what they see. Europe has never seen such a larger influx of migrants. The ultimate root of the problem is that the EU and NATO have been largely involved in conflicts in the Mid-East. Until the politicians start to tackle this root cause the situation will only get worse. The migrant debate is one of the key points driving Europe apart,” he said.

Migrants are seen at a makeshift camp in an underground station in front of the Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary, September 3, 2015. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

It took European leaders years to realize that the growing influx of refugees, many of them fleeing the war in Syria, won't be stopped until the fighting itself is ended.

While Angela Merkel has stated that it's important to fight the 'root causes' of the problem, David Cameron insisted the best solution to the crisis was to bring peace and stability to the Middle East. “We have taken a number of genuine asylum seekers from Syrian refugee camps and we keep that under review, but we think the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world. I don’t think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees,” he said this week during a visit to Northamptonshire.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has urged world leaders to engineer an end to the Syrian civil war.

“The situation in Syria is the cause of a large part of the problems we are currently having in Europe," Rajoy told COPE radio. "Settling the situation in Syria is of capital importance."

CrossTalk: Western-made Refugee Crisis

The real and imagined migrant crisis engulfing Europe: What accounts for the EU’s near indifference to the plight of refugees clamoring to enter European countries? Could it be that these people are from countries NATO members have attacked, and turned into failed states or havens for terrorists? These refugees never wanted to leave home in the first place. CrossTalking with Sukant Chandan, Anders Lustgarten, and Tim Finch

'I'm so scared of the water... I don't want to go': How migrant mother who drowned with her two tiny sons off Turkish coast told her family she was terrified of boarding the doomed boat to Greece'

• Tima Kurdi reveals her sister-in-law did not want to journey to Kos
• Rehan Kurdi had confided she was scared of water and couldn't swim
• Mother and her two boys, Aylan, 3, and Galip, 5, drowned on the journey
• Ms Kurdi revealed gave her brothers family the money for the crossing 
  
  
  
  The grieving aunt of the tragic Syrian boys whose drowning triggered a global outcry has revealed the children's' mother had not wanted to make the crossing to Kos and was unable to swim.
  
  
  Tima Kurdi, a sister of Abdullah Kurdi, gave a moving press conference from Vancouver, where she works as a hairdresser and had hoped to be joined by the family after sponsoring them for residency.
  
  
  Ms Kurdi said her brother Abdullah, his wife Rehan and their two boys, three-year-old Aylan and five-year-old Galip only embarked on the perilous boat journey only after their bid to move to Canada was rejected.
  
  
  Speaking at a packed press conference in the city, she said: 'His wife told me on the phone a week ago, I am so scared of the water.
  
  
  'I don't know how to swim, if something happens…I don't want to go. But I guess they decided they wanted to do it all together. Those two kids – they didn't see a good life at all', she said, sobbing and clad in black.
  
  
  Paying tribute to her sister-in-law, Tima said Rehan 'was also too young to die'.
  
  
  She has now begged her brother not to return to war torn Kobane in Syria to bury his wife and two children.
  
  
  'I'm really, really scared. I'm worried about him and I've told him not to go back to Kobane,' said Ms Kurdi.