The attitude of a number of eastern European countries towards the migrant crisis facing the EU was “scandalous”, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said yesterday.
He pointed in particular to an anti-migrant barrier in Hungary.
“When I see a certain number of European countries, particularly in the east, who do not accept quotas , I find it scandalous,” he said.
He referred to a razor-wire barrier along Hungary’s border with non-EU member Serbia, aimed at keeping out migrants, which Fabius said “did not respect Europe’s common values”.
Hungarian police said yesterday they have made a fifth arrest over the deaths of 71 migrants found in an abandoned truck in Austria last week.
Police said they are investigating a “Bulgarian national, a male, on suspicion of committing the crime of people smuggling”.
The arrest was made late on Saturday.
As Europe grapples with its biggest wave of migration since World War 2, the Netherlands said it was also going to toughen its asylum policy by cutting off food and shelter for people who failed to qualify as refugees.
Failed asylum seekers would be limited to “a few weeks” of shelter after being turned down, if they did not agree to return home.
They would then either be deported or sent away to fend for themselves.
From November, the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which competes for votes with the popular, anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders, wants to close 30 regional “bed, bath and bread” shelters where asylum seekers have been able until now to get help on the basis of need.
Under the plan, six national centres applying the stricter guidelines would provide only to people who agree to leave.
On Friday, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination added to outside criticism of the Dutch policy, saying basic needs of migrants should be provided unconditionally.
“As long as they are in the Netherlands, they have to enjoy minimum standards of living,” Ion Diaconu, who helped write the UN report, said.
But Rutte responded it would be “crazy” to offer permanent shelter to people who refused to leave.
Local governments operating with national funding, are challenging the move in the courts, fearing it will lead to a surge in homelessness if they are obliged to close shelters in November.
Some mayors have refused, saying they will seek alternative funding.
A complaint was lodged with the 47-nation Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights forum, which admonished the Netherlands last year for placing asylum seekers in administrative detention and leaving many “irregular immigrants” in legal limbo and destitution.
“Throwing people out on the street leads to deaths. The use of drugs and human trafficking become inevitable,” said Geesje Werkman at Kerk in Actie, a church group that jointly filed the complaint to the council.
If implemented, the new measure would cement the position of the Netherlands – which took in hundreds of thousands of migrants from Morocco and Turkey in the 60s and 70s before tightening policy over the past decade – as one of the toughest destinations in Europe for migrants.
The country of 17 million people has become less accommodating amid a public backlash over Muslim immigration and increasing stresses on the social welfare system.
It is home to an estimated 10000 to 20000 illegal or irregular migrants.
Among its European peers, only Britain and Finland have similarly strict policies.
Denmark and Sweden, which also have strong anti-immigration parties, continue to provide support to rejected asylum seekers.
Somali asylum seeker Rahima, 39, who said she fled Mogadishu in 2009 to escape a forced marriage under the Islamist militants of al Shabaab, is one of those who fears the impact of the new rules.
Rahima applied for asylum in the Netherlands, but the Dutch authorities do not believe she is from Mogadishu. If the new policy is carried out, she worries about deportation.
“I’ll go back to Somalia and al-Shabaab will kill me, then they’ll have their proof,” she said.
The surge in desperate people seeking refuge from conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has thrown the European Union into crisis, stirring social tensions and testing the resources and solidarity of the 28-nation bloc. — Reuters-AFP
Attitude to migrant crisis ‘scandalous’
He pointed in particular to an anti-migrant barrier in Hungary.
“When I see a certain number of European countries, particularly in the east, who do not accept quotas , I find it scandalous,” he said.
He referred to a razor-wire barrier along Hungary’s border with non-EU member Serbia, aimed at keeping out migrants, which Fabius said “did not respect Europe’s common values”.
Hungarian police said yesterday they have made a fifth arrest over the deaths of 71 migrants found in an abandoned truck in Austria last week.
Police said they are investigating a “Bulgarian national, a male, on suspicion of committing the crime of people smuggling”.
The arrest was made late on Saturday.
As Europe grapples with its biggest wave of migration since World War 2, the Netherlands said it was also going to toughen its asylum policy by cutting off food and shelter for people who failed to qualify as refugees.
Failed asylum seekers would be limited to “a few weeks” of shelter after being turned down, if they did not agree to return home.
They would then either be deported or sent away to fend for themselves.
From November, the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which competes for votes with the popular, anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders, wants to close 30 regional “bed, bath and bread” shelters where asylum seekers have been able until now to get help on the basis of need.
Under the plan, six national centres applying the stricter guidelines would provide only to people who agree to leave.
On Friday, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination added to outside criticism of the Dutch policy, saying basic needs of migrants should be provided unconditionally.
“As long as they are in the Netherlands, they have to enjoy minimum standards of living,” Ion Diaconu, who helped write the UN report, said.
But Rutte responded it would be “crazy” to offer permanent shelter to people who refused to leave.
Local governments operating with national funding, are challenging the move in the courts, fearing it will lead to a surge in homelessness if they are obliged to close shelters in November.
Some mayors have refused, saying they will seek alternative funding.
A complaint was lodged with the 47-nation Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights forum, which admonished the Netherlands last year for placing asylum seekers in administrative detention and leaving many “irregular immigrants” in legal limbo and destitution.
“Throwing people out on the street leads to deaths. The use of drugs and human trafficking become inevitable,” said Geesje Werkman at Kerk in Actie, a church group that jointly filed the complaint to the council.
If implemented, the new measure would cement the position of the Netherlands – which took in hundreds of thousands of migrants from Morocco and Turkey in the 60s and 70s before tightening policy over the past decade – as one of the toughest destinations in Europe for migrants.
The country of 17 million people has become less accommodating amid a public backlash over Muslim immigration and increasing stresses on the social welfare system.
It is home to an estimated 10000 to 20000 illegal or irregular migrants.
Among its European peers, only Britain and Finland have similarly strict policies.
Denmark and Sweden, which also have strong anti-immigration parties, continue to provide support to rejected asylum seekers.
Somali asylum seeker Rahima, 39, who said she fled Mogadishu in 2009 to escape a forced marriage under the Islamist militants of al Shabaab, is one of those who fears the impact of the new rules.
Rahima applied for asylum in the Netherlands, but the Dutch authorities do not believe she is from Mogadishu. If the new policy is carried out, she worries about deportation.
“I’ll go back to Somalia and al-Shabaab will kill me, then they’ll have their proof,” she said.
The surge in desperate people seeking refuge from conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has thrown the European Union into crisis, stirring social tensions and testing the resources and solidarity of the 28-nation bloc. — Reuters-AFP
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