Belgian Minister Calls for Africa Push-Backs
Belgium’s migration minister has called for all Africans arriving in Europe by boat to be pushed back. Theo Francken said forced returns would break smuggling networks within two weeks.
“More legal routes, more resettlement, no problem. But it means we bring back the boats that leave illegally. It is one or the other,” he told Reuters.
“Do it for two weeks and it stops immediately. Nobody will pay thousands of euros to end up in Tunisia, Egypt or Morocco … The rumor will spread quickly that it [passage to Europe] has finished.”
Francken, an outspoken populist who has frequently clashed with rights groups and cabinet colleagues in Belgium, said Europe was a house whose front door “is totally open now.”
Some 50,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, most of them arriving in Italy. The central Mediterranean corridor has become the main route since flows decreased between Turkey and Greece following the closure of Balkan borders and a political deal between the European Union and Ankara.
The E.U. has attempted to forge a similar deal with authorities in Libya, but no single government has sufficient authority in the war-torn country.
“The numbers will only increase this year,” Francken said. “We will have more deaths and people drowning and many more people coming to Italy.”
Northern Triangle Refugees Face Harrowing Ordeals
Four out of 10 Central American migrants who reach Mexico and the United States are escaping forced recruitment by gangs. An estimated one-third of female refugees have been sexually assaulted along the migration route.
The findings from a report by Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF) paint a grim picture of life for people escaping the violence in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
“For millions of people from the (Northern Triangle) region, trauma, fear and horrific violence are dominant facets of daily life. Yet it is a reality that does not end with their forced flight to Mexico,” MSF said.
“Along the migration route … migrants and refugees are preyed upon by criminal organizations, sometimes with the tacit approval or complicity of national authorities, and subjected to violence and other abuses – abduction, theft, extortion, torture and rape.”
Germany Opens Portal to Persuade More Asylum Seekers to Leave
Germany has opened an online portal to assist asylum seekers who want to leave the country. Whereas nearly 55,000 of them left the country in 2016, only 11,000 have left so far this year.
The portal, operated in partnership with the United Nations migration agency IOM, offers details of financial incentives for departure and any reintegration programs back in home countries.
“For some, it’s the language, or they just don’t get on here,” IOM adviser Sanela Selimagic told Deutsche Welle, adding that the Returning From Germany site will explain asylum seekers’ options.
“It’s exactly what we need,” Selimagic said. “A lot of work and research is required for each case, but now it’s all in one place, both for the applicant and the adviser.”
Germany has some 30,000 failed asylum seekers who are meant to leave the country but the Berlin government is pressing for more migrants to leave before their status has been ruled upon.
“Those who have no prospect of staying in Germany must leave as swiftly as possible,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
Recommended Reads:
- Relief Web: A Global Broadband Plan for Refugees
- The Guardian: In Limbo in Melilla: The Young Refugees Trapped in Spain’s African Enclave
- Der Spiegel: Germany’s Ongoing Project to Welcome Its Refugees
- Maclean’s: In Athens, an Anarchists’ Hotel for Refugees