Ten Attacks a Day on Refugees in Germany
Preliminary data from the German interior ministry showed that there were 3,533 attacks on refugees and refugee hostels in the country last year.
That’s around 10 people a day, the opposition Left Party spokesperson Ulla Jelpke told Funke Media Group, calling on the government to put right-wing violence at the top of the domestic policy agenda.
Some 560 people were injured, including 43 children, in the attacks. At least 217 refugee organizations and volunteers were attacked, according to the data.
Around three-quarters took place outside of refugee housing, while 988 were attacks on refugee facilities, a slight decline from 2015, Deutsche-Welle reported.
U.K. Government Says Gay Afghans Can Be Sent Back
The British government’s new guidance for handling asylum applications from Afghanistan argues that gay Afghans can be safely returned to Kabul.
The guidance bases its argument on a lack of recent prosecutions for homosexuality in Afghanistan, as well as Taliban militants not controlling the capital.
“While space for being openly gay is limited, subject to individual factors, a practising gay man who, on return to Kabul, would not attract or seek to cause public outrage, would not face a real risk of persecution,” the January 2017 document says, according to the Guardian. “In the absence of other risk factors, it may be a safe and viable option for a gay man to relocate to Kabul, though individual factors will have to be taken into account.”
The guidance was accompanied by an attachment from the U.K. Home Office’s Afghanistan unit expressing concerns about this conclusion.
The document was also criticized by human rights and LGBT rights groups. “The Home Office’s approach seems to be to tell asylum seekers, ‘Pretend you’re straight, move to Kabul and best of luck,’” Human Rights Watch senior researcher Heather Barr told the Guardian.
Nearly 10,000 Refugees Have Received Asylum in Greece
Greece has granted asylum to nearly 10,000 people, including over 2,000 children, since 2013 according to data from the Greek asylum service.
The figures include over 8,000 given refugee status and more than 1,000 granted subsidiary protection.
Last year, 51,091 people applied for asylum in Greece. Around 2,500 were given asylum. The recognition rate dropped from 47.4 percent a year earlier, to 29.1 percent.
The countries of origin with the highest recognition rates were Syria, Yemen and Palestine, with 99.6 percent of Syrian applicants recognized as refugees, according to the data.
Recommended Reads:
- Reuters: Memories of Balkans War Compel Many to Help New Wave of Refugees
- The New Yorker: Europe’s Child Refugee Crisis
- The Intercept: Her Father Championed Jewish Refugees. She Finances the Anti-Muslim Refugee Movement
- The New York Times: For Syrian Refugees, There Is No Going Home