06-29-2017, 09:51 PM
*** 30-Jun-17 World View -- Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** France struggles with hundreds of migrants returning to Calais campground
****
![[Image: g170629b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g170629b.jpg)
Migrants from Africa arrive in Italy on a rescue ship
In October of last year, France finally demolished the refugee camp
known as "The Jungle." It was populated by about 7,000 migrants, who
came there hoping to reach Britain, where they could apply for asylum.
When the camp was demolished, they were given the choice of either
being deported back to their home countries, or of staying in some 300
temporary refugee centers across France, where they can apply for
asylum.
However, many of them left Calais on their own, and went to the
Grande-Synthe refugee camp in Dunkirk, which became known as "the New
Jungle." The camp had been built by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors
Without Borders), and included hundreds of wooden huts. The camp
opened in March 2016 as the first camp in France to meet international
humanitarian standards, where migrant families could live in
relatively dignified conditions in heated wooden cabins.
The Dunkirk camp had a capacity of 700, and was severely overcrowded,
eventually housing 1,600. Furthermore, many of the new arrivals from
The Jungle, who were mostly Afghans, didn't get along with the
original migrants, who were mostly Iraqi and Kurdish. There were
multiple fights between groups of migrants of different nationalities,
with some 600 migrants taking part in the fighting. In March of this
year, the Grande-Synthe refugee camp, including all the wooden huts,
burnt to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes. According to French
officials, multiple fires must have been set on purpose.
So now, three months later, it's June, the weather is great, and
hundreds of migrants are flooding back into Calais. Officials are
refusing to build a proposed reception center for asylum-seekers to
Calais, saying that it would only encourage more people to come.
According to France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, part of the
government of the new president Emmanuel Macron:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"We've seen this before, it starts with a few hundred
> people and ends with several thousand people who we can't manage.
> That's why we don't want a center here."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Humanitarian non-government organizations (NGOs) are trying to feed
the 400-600 migrants currently "living rough" in Calais, but complain
that they are being harassed by Calais police. So 11 NGOs sued the
local authorities, saying that they have "prevented" the distribution
of food to hundreds of migrants.
The court rejected the request to set up a new emergency center to
shelter migrants in Calais, but also ruled that the migrants should be
allowed to receive humanitarian add. Furthermore, judges ordered
officials, within 10 days, to establish several drinking fountains,
toilets and showers for migrants who are "exposed to inhuman and
degrading conditions” in the area. The judge said, "It is not
possible to leave these people, who are in a state of complete
destitution without any aid." AFP (23-June) and France 24 and The Local (France)
b>Related Articles[/b]
****
**** Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days
****
Italy has threatened to close all of its ports to ships of foreign
NGOs carrying migrants and refugees, after being overwhelmed by the
arrival of 12,000 migrants in four days on 22 ships. The UN Migration
Agency said 8,863 migrants were rescued trying to reach Italy from
Libya, and the EU’s border agency Frontex said its boats had recovered
an additional 2,700 people.
About 76,000 migrants have arrived since January, and some estimates
say that 220,000 people could land in Italy by the end of 2017.
The ships cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya and mostly contain
African refugees. In one Italian port in Reggio Calabria alone, 1,066
people disembarked from the Save the Children rescue ship Vos Hestia
on Thursday. Among them were 241 unaccompanied minors.
According to a European Council official:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"In recent years people smugglers have launched
> massive numbers at the same time. But this year we are witnessing
> levels never registered before in such short periods of time.
>
> Loss of life and continuing migratory flows of primarily economic
> migrants on the central Mediterranean route is a structural
> challenge and remains an issue of urgent and serious concern.
>
> The EU and its member states must restore control to avoid a
> worsening humanitarian crisis."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Italy agrees that the EU must restore control. Italy says that it is
unable to cope with this year's expected flood of refugees, and is
demanding help from the European Union, or else it will close all its
ports to ships carrying migrants. Since the rescue operations do not
take place in Italian waters, Italy is under no obligation under
international law to take the refugees in, according to some experts.
Analysts say that this would be a humanitarian catastrophe because the
ships would have to be diverted to other countries, for which they
have inadequate provisions.
One of the NGOs operating rescue boats said that it understood the
pressure that Italy was under, but:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"However, we also believe that closing the ports of
> safety to people seeking refuge from war, violence and poverty
> cannot be the solution. We would like to stress again that NGOs
> are not the cause, nor the solution to this humanitarian
> crisis. Without our presence at sea, even more people would
> die."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
The kind of help that Italy would like is that refugees arriving in
Italy should be distributed to other European countries, but there
isn't a snowflake's chance in hell that will happen. In 2015, the EU
agreed that 160,000 asylum seekers should be relocated from Greece and
Italy to other member states, in the name of burden-sharing. To date,
only about 22,500 of the 160,000 have actually been transferred.
Several central and eastern European EU members - including large
countries like Hungary and Poland - have absolutely refused to take in
any asylum-seekers.
However, some EU officials are offering Italy financial aid.
Italy's threat may be based in politics, in the wake of of a Sunday
local election rout for the ruling center-left Democratic Party, which
several commentators blamed on public discontent with rising
immigration and government proposals to grant citizenship to children
of foreign residents. The opposition Forza Italia party of former
premier Silvio Berlusconi - seen as one of the winners of the local
elections - said the government had responded to its urgings for a
tougher line on migration. Deutsche-Presse Agentur (dpa) and VOA and Guardian (London)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, France, Calais, The Jungle,
Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, Emmanuel Macron, Gerard Collomb,
Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, Doctors without Borders,
Italy, Reggio Calabria, Silvio Berlusconi
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- France struggles with hundreds of migrants returning to Calais campground
- Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days
****
**** France struggles with hundreds of migrants returning to Calais campground
****
Migrants from Africa arrive in Italy on a rescue ship
In October of last year, France finally demolished the refugee camp
known as "The Jungle." It was populated by about 7,000 migrants, who
came there hoping to reach Britain, where they could apply for asylum.
When the camp was demolished, they were given the choice of either
being deported back to their home countries, or of staying in some 300
temporary refugee centers across France, where they can apply for
asylum.
However, many of them left Calais on their own, and went to the
Grande-Synthe refugee camp in Dunkirk, which became known as "the New
Jungle." The camp had been built by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors
Without Borders), and included hundreds of wooden huts. The camp
opened in March 2016 as the first camp in France to meet international
humanitarian standards, where migrant families could live in
relatively dignified conditions in heated wooden cabins.
The Dunkirk camp had a capacity of 700, and was severely overcrowded,
eventually housing 1,600. Furthermore, many of the new arrivals from
The Jungle, who were mostly Afghans, didn't get along with the
original migrants, who were mostly Iraqi and Kurdish. There were
multiple fights between groups of migrants of different nationalities,
with some 600 migrants taking part in the fighting. In March of this
year, the Grande-Synthe refugee camp, including all the wooden huts,
burnt to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes. According to French
officials, multiple fires must have been set on purpose.
So now, three months later, it's June, the weather is great, and
hundreds of migrants are flooding back into Calais. Officials are
refusing to build a proposed reception center for asylum-seekers to
Calais, saying that it would only encourage more people to come.
According to France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, part of the
government of the new president Emmanuel Macron:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"We've seen this before, it starts with a few hundred
> people and ends with several thousand people who we can't manage.
> That's why we don't want a center here."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Humanitarian non-government organizations (NGOs) are trying to feed
the 400-600 migrants currently "living rough" in Calais, but complain
that they are being harassed by Calais police. So 11 NGOs sued the
local authorities, saying that they have "prevented" the distribution
of food to hundreds of migrants.
The court rejected the request to set up a new emergency center to
shelter migrants in Calais, but also ruled that the migrants should be
allowed to receive humanitarian add. Furthermore, judges ordered
officials, within 10 days, to establish several drinking fountains,
toilets and showers for migrants who are "exposed to inhuman and
degrading conditions” in the area. The judge said, "It is not
possible to leave these people, who are in a state of complete
destitution without any aid." AFP (23-June) and France 24 and The Local (France)
b>Related Articles[/b]
- Migrant camp in northern France housing 1,600 people burnt to the ground (12-Apr-2017)
- Thousands of refugees hide from French police as Calais 'Jungle' refugee camp is demolished (28-Oct-2016)
- France to demolish 'The Jungle' migrant camp in Calais (22-Oct-2016)
****
**** Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days
****
Italy has threatened to close all of its ports to ships of foreign
NGOs carrying migrants and refugees, after being overwhelmed by the
arrival of 12,000 migrants in four days on 22 ships. The UN Migration
Agency said 8,863 migrants were rescued trying to reach Italy from
Libya, and the EU’s border agency Frontex said its boats had recovered
an additional 2,700 people.
About 76,000 migrants have arrived since January, and some estimates
say that 220,000 people could land in Italy by the end of 2017.
The ships cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya and mostly contain
African refugees. In one Italian port in Reggio Calabria alone, 1,066
people disembarked from the Save the Children rescue ship Vos Hestia
on Thursday. Among them were 241 unaccompanied minors.
According to a European Council official:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"In recent years people smugglers have launched
> massive numbers at the same time. But this year we are witnessing
> levels never registered before in such short periods of time.
>
> Loss of life and continuing migratory flows of primarily economic
> migrants on the central Mediterranean route is a structural
> challenge and remains an issue of urgent and serious concern.
>
> The EU and its member states must restore control to avoid a
> worsening humanitarian crisis."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
Italy agrees that the EU must restore control. Italy says that it is
unable to cope with this year's expected flood of refugees, and is
demanding help from the European Union, or else it will close all its
ports to ships carrying migrants. Since the rescue operations do not
take place in Italian waters, Italy is under no obligation under
international law to take the refugees in, according to some experts.
Analysts say that this would be a humanitarian catastrophe because the
ships would have to be diverted to other countries, for which they
have inadequate provisions.
One of the NGOs operating rescue boats said that it understood the
pressure that Italy was under, but:
> [indent]<QUOTE>"However, we also believe that closing the ports of
> safety to people seeking refuge from war, violence and poverty
> cannot be the solution. We would like to stress again that NGOs
> are not the cause, nor the solution to this humanitarian
> crisis. Without our presence at sea, even more people would
> die."<END QUOTE>[/indent]
The kind of help that Italy would like is that refugees arriving in
Italy should be distributed to other European countries, but there
isn't a snowflake's chance in hell that will happen. In 2015, the EU
agreed that 160,000 asylum seekers should be relocated from Greece and
Italy to other member states, in the name of burden-sharing. To date,
only about 22,500 of the 160,000 have actually been transferred.
Several central and eastern European EU members - including large
countries like Hungary and Poland - have absolutely refused to take in
any asylum-seekers.
However, some EU officials are offering Italy financial aid.
Italy's threat may be based in politics, in the wake of of a Sunday
local election rout for the ruling center-left Democratic Party, which
several commentators blamed on public discontent with rising
immigration and government proposals to grant citizenship to children
of foreign residents. The opposition Forza Italia party of former
premier Silvio Berlusconi - seen as one of the winners of the local
elections - said the government had responded to its urgings for a
tougher line on migration. Deutsche-Presse Agentur (dpa) and VOA and Guardian (London)
Related Articles
- Italy struggles with the 'mini-Calais' refugee camp in Ventimiglia (22-Oct-2016)
- Austria votes to close border with Italy to slow refugees (28-Apr-2016)
- EU migrant crisis moves to Italy as Austria begins closing border (13-Apr-2016)
- France, Italy have bitter feud over migrants as quota system collapses (16-Jun-2015)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, France, Calais, The Jungle,
Grande-Synthe, Dunkirk, Emmanuel Macron, Gerard Collomb,
Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, Doctors without Borders,
Italy, Reggio Calabria, Silvio Berlusconi
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
