Brussels 07.09.2021 This week Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has reiterated that he does not want to see a surge of Afghan migrants and praised Greece for reinforcing the external border of the European Union.
Chancellor Kurz made the remarks on Monday, September 6, during a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade.
“If there are waves of migration from Afghanistan, migrants must be cared for in neighbouring countries. That is why we are in contact with the countries of that region,” Kurz said, according to Euronews.
Le chancelier autrichien Sebastian Kurz : « Les migrants afghans doivent être pris en charge dans les pays voisins de l'Afghanistan. Il ne faut pas qu'ils se dirigent vers l'Europe » – https://t.co/SJRJgYbKAupic.twitter.com/AfKU75eqTk
— Fdesouche.com est une revue de presse (@F_Desouche) September 5, 2021
Adding: “They must not go to Europe.”
President Vučić agreed with the Austrian chancellor’s sentiments, stating: “Those who leave Afghanistan have a clear goal: Western Europe and the United States. Not many of them want to stay in the Western Balkans. We will show solidarity with everyone, but we will not be the place where they can camp.”
Chancellor Kurz also praised the Greek government for its stance on fortifying the European Union external border, saying: “Today, at the external borders of the EU, these phenomena are better dealt with, and the approach is different than it was in 2015 when with European funds, i.e. European taxpayers’ money, migrants were promoted through Greece to other countries in Europe. ”
“This has changed. Greece is now making a significant contribution, making great efforts, to guard the EU’s external borders,” he said.
Île-de-France: un camp de 500 migrants, notamment Afghans, s'installe devant la préfecture…
Ces Afghans, à peine arrivés en France, se laissent déjà manipuler par les associations gauchistes, ça commence bien 😡https://t.co/Kj4juQquev
While Sebastian Kurz has come out against taking in large numbers of Afghan migrants, at home, his Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and their stance on the issue has conflicted with their Green Party coalition partners.
The debate takes place while about 500 homeless people, mainly migrants including Afghans and families with children, set up tents on Wednesday September 1 in Paris, under the windows of the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region, in order to ask the state “Dignified and lasting hosting solutions”.
➡550 migrants afghans accueillis dans les Hauts-de-Seine, hébergés dans des hôtels. ➡En même temps un sans domicile fixe est condamné à de la prison pour non-port du masque. Hotel*** Mercure (à Strasbourg) pour les migrants, la prison pour les français. 2 poids 2 mesures… pic.twitter.com/9zDuD92QrK
550 Afghan migrants welcomed in Hauts-de-Seine, accommodated in hotels.
At the same time, a homeless person is sentenced to prison for not wearing a mask.
“Hotel *** Mercure (in Strasbourg) for migrants, prison for the French” write indignant users of social networks.
Brussels 19.08.2021 Vatican News ‘Western Bishops’ Conferences are speaking out on the situation in Afghanistan, urging their governments to welcome those fleeing the country, and praying for peace through dialogue.
Several Bishops’ Conferences are speaking out on the situation in Afghanistan, urging their governments to welcome those fleeing the country.https://t.co/zcHTRfOZ0H
In view of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the Taliban ascended power, Bishops in Western nations are calling on their governments to help people fleeing the country – especially those who risked their lives to assist the military mission that began 20 years ago. The address has been issued after the Taliban declared the general amnesty, underlining that they have “forgiven all those who fought” against them.
From the United States, Bishop Mario Dorsonville and Bishop David Malloy, chairs respectively of the USCCB’s Committees on Migration and on International Justice and Peace, issued a statement calling on the US government “to act with the utmost urgency, considering all avenues to preserve life.” They note that Catholic organizations and partners have been assisting the government in welcoming Afghan refugees and their families, and add that they “will continue to work as long as necessary until those who are in harm’s way are brought to safety.”
Afghan MP Farzana Kochai says she will stay in Afghanistan – despite the danger posed by the Taliban – so she can give hope to millions of other women and young girls who cannot leave the country.
With Pope Francis, the statement says, the US Bishops are “praying for peace in Afghanistan – ‘that the clamor of weapons might cease and solutions can be found at the table of dialogue.’”
.@NATO Secretary General @JensStoltenberg and I discussed preparations for the August 20 virtual meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan. We also stressed the importance of close coordination for the safe and orderly evacuation of Allied and our Afghan partners.
In Europe, the chairman of the German Bishops Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing said he was “outraged by the widespread suffering and helplessness of those whose future is being stolen from them.”
He said, “The takeover by the Taliban in Afghanistan represents a disastrous defeat for the United States and the countries that until recently were committed to its side,” including Germany. He warned that the “life and limb of thousands and thousands of people are endangered and the flame of hope that has nourished them is extinguished” by the surrender of the country to the Taliban.
Bishop Bätzing insisted that western countries must evacuate Afghans who assisted their military forces and international aid organizations, saying “generous admission offers” should be granted, especially to those most at risk. He urged them to help countries in the region accept and care for refugees from Afghanistan, and said the European Union must be prepared to welcome refugees who arrive in Europe.
Bishops insisted on the power of prayer, and invited “everyone to join in prayer with the sufferings of the people of Afghanistan, and to call on God for His gracious help.”
Brussels 19.08.2021 Extraordinary Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs – Brussels, 20 August 2021
An extraordinary virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held via secure teleconference on Friday 20 August 2021. NATO Foreign Ministers will discuss developments in Afghanistan.
An extraordinary virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Foreign Ministers will be held on Friday 20 August 2021. #NATO Foreign Ministers will discuss developments in #Afghanistan.
The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
The meeting will start on 20 August 2021 at +/- 14h00 Brussels. The Secretary General is expected to brief the press after the meeting.
Spoke with @EU_Commission President @vonderleyen and @eucopresident Charles Michel about the situation in #Afghanistan. #NATO continues to work closely with the #EU & the rest of the international community to coordinate and facilitate evacuations.
Previously at the press-briefing in NATO HQ Brussels on August 17, the Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg said: “The North Atlantic Council has met to discuss Afghanistan.
“The situation is extremely serious and unpredictable.
Kabul has fallen, and the Taliban have taken control of most of the country.
I am deeply saddened by what I see unfolding in Afghanistan.
#NATO Allies met to discuss #Afghanistan. The situation is extremely serious & unpredictable. Those taking power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not regain a foothold. Allies have the capabilities & vigilance to respond. https://t.co/f0cicsUoVo
“NATO’s focus right now is to ensure the safe departure of personnel from Allied and partner countries, and of the Afghans who have helped us.
NATO has been working round the clock to maintain operations at Kabul international airport.
Around 800 NATO civilian personnel have remained to provide key functions under very challenging circumstances.
“Including air traffic control, fuel, and communications.
And I would like to thank them.
Let me also thank the military forces of NATO Allies, in particular Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom for their vital role in securing the airport.
Operations at the airport are now gradually resuming.
And during today’s meeting Allies announced that they are sending additional airplanes.
“We have also maintained our diplomatic presence.
Our Senior Civilian Representative Ambassador Pontecorvo and his team have been working closely with Allies and the rest of the international community to coordinate and facilitate the evacuation.
And we remain committed to completing evacuations including of our Afghan colleagues, as soon as possible.
The Taliban must respect and facilitate the safe departure of all those who wish to leave.
The airport, as well as roads and border crossings, must be open.
All Afghan men, women and children deserve to live in safety and dignity.
There must be a peaceful transfer of power to an inclusive government.
With no revenge or retribution.
“A government that does not respect the fundamental rights of all Afghans and reinstates the reign of fear, risks international isolation.
“The United States agreed with the Taliban last year that US troops would withdraw by May.
And after many rounds of consultations, all Allies agreed to follow the US decision.
Ending our military mission was not easy.
We were faced with a serious dilemma.
Either leave, and risk seeing the Taliban regain control.
Or stay, and risk renewed attacks, and an open-ended combat mission.
“We never intended to stay in Afghanistan forever.
Over the past few years, from over 100,000 troops we went down to less than 10,000 – and now to zero.
But what we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated.
Parts of the Afghan security forces fought bravely.
But they were unable to secure the country.
Because ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted.
This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.
“At the same time, we need to have an honest, clear-eyed assessment of NATO’s own engagement in Afghanistan.
Despite our considerable investment and sacrifice over two decades, the collapse was swift and sudden.
There are many lessons to be learned.
“But we should also recognise the gains we have made.
NATO Allies and partners went into Afghanistan after 9/11 to prevent the country from serving as a safe haven for international terrorists to attack us.
In the last two decades, there have been no terrorist attacks on Allied soil organised from Afghanistan.
Those now taking power have the responsibility to ensure that international terrorists do not regain a foothold.
Allies have the capabilities and the vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan.
“Due to our military presence and the support of the international community, a new generation of men and women have grown up in a new Afghanistan.
Able to get education, take part in the political process, run their own businesses, and enjoy a vibrant media scene.
Today’s Afghanistan is very different to the Afghanistan of 2001.
So those gains cannot be easily reversed.
“The world will be watching.
And must continue to support a stable and peaceful Afghanistan”.
Brussels 22.05.2021 A special legal status – ‘controlled presence’ – will be introduced for migrants that have no right to stay in Russia, but are forced to remain on its territory due to circumstances, for example, the coronavirus-related lockdown, a source in press service of the Russian Interior Ministry told TASS in response to a respective request. (Image above: USSR people friendship fountain, Moscow, Russia)
“As one of preventative activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the mechanism ensuring safety and law enforcement in the migration field, it is planned to introduce a special legal status – ‘controlled presence’. It will be established regarding migrants having no legal grounds to stay in Russia, but remaining on its territory for whatever reason,” press service said.
The new legal status will be applied to foreigners, regarding which, for example, a deportation judgement has been suspended or exit from Russia has been limited due to necessity to execute the imposed punishment, participate in legal proceedings, the ministry explained. “The issue is under consideration on establishing such a status regarding foreigners with socially-dangerous diseases, who have been provided with instructions by Rospotrebnadzor on observing certain sanitary rules, including lockdown, as well,” it added.
Russia is among top-5 countries globally in terms of international migration. Now it is hit by fall in migrant workers. The shortage in construction alone 1.5m to 2m people. https://t.co/euWhNXBBEc
According to the data provided by the ministry, around 1.6M migrants have not left the country after expiration of the period of their stay in the country since last March when the coronavirus infection pandemic started. The measures that have been taken, have enabled around 400,000 people to legalize their status.
Anna van Densky OPINION European suggestion to arrange illegal migrant ‘disembarkation platforms‘ outside the EU is a stillbirth, rejected by all Maghreb countries, insisting that the creation of migrant camps in not a solution for existing problems of Africa ravaged by conflict and poverty, but a translation of an existing difficulties into another form of challenge – ever-growing refugee agglomerations. Meanwhile European leaders insist on delivery upon ‘obligations‘ given by their ancestors towards asylum-seekers, however they prefer to ignore the fact that the entire international legislation on refugees dates from Colonial era – Geneva Conventions on Asylum 1951.
Looking at Kenya, one can imagine a scale of a problem of mass migration of population in modern Africa – huge numbers of people spending day after day, year after year “camping” in tents. #Dadaab is an example of the failure even of the UN CHR to resolve problems of suffering from a conflict population through construction of permanent camps – the site hosting 300 000 Somalia refugees became an ever-growing hub attracting new arrivals, but failing to ensure return policies.
Watch this beautiful video to see how nicely we celebrated the #WorldRefugeeDay in #Dadaab, Kenya.
It was a happy day for everyone. Men, women, children, refugees and humanitarian workers came together to dance and sing for peace and better lif.
— Assadullah Nasrullah (@Assadullah_N) June 20, 2018
Refugee Convention 1951 is a genuine Colonial era document in the times when Africa had no single independent state, and the population of the entire continent was a half of European. Endorsing Asylum Convention back in 1951 no one could imagine the entire populations of Africans would be moved to Europe, using the document created after the WWII for the devastated European continent. It was amended only once with a Protocol, declaring Convention ‘universal‘, but nobody outlined how the developed part of the world would host all asylum-seekers of the planet.
Refugee Convention 1951 remains a key legal document that forms the basis of international action. Ratified by 145 State parties, it defines the term ‘refugee’ and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal obligations of States to protect them.
The core principle is non-refoulement, which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom. This is now considered a rule of customary international law.
However with the spread of radical Islamic terrorism, and subsequently the threat to ‘life and freedom’ menacing the entire populations of African countries, opens a broad gate to migrant flows, claiming right to shelter in Europe.
Today African populations are the fastest growing, representing a huge challenge for the young states themselves, where deprivation is massive – half of the Africans live in poverty, without access to basic human needs, such as nutrition, clean water, shelter.
The fastest growing business in Nigeria is poverty. The second fastest growing business is corruption. The third fastest growing business is terrorism. These are problems that wont bow to blame games. They can only be solved by forward looking leadership that‘s solution oriented.
However the intense work of different aid, development, and charities, infant mortality is declining, leading to demographic explosion. With current trends – on average five children per woman – Africa will become the most populated continent, home to six billion people by the end of the century. The EU concept of hosting ‘all in need‘ is a total illusion, even with reforming the EU Dublin regulation, and relocation migrants all over Europe – the simple arithmetics shows that 500 million European have no capacity to deliver in accordance to obligations of their ancestors: African population has been growing from 221 million in 1950 to one billion in 2009.
Nowadays realties indicate to the only possible direction to resolve problems of Africa – in Africa, not outside. In cooperation with African governments, but not in waging wars against them, as it happened in Libya, where the Western “lesson of democracy” caused an ongoing tragedy, destabilising life of the continent.
The comparison of modern asylum-seekers and migrants to Holy family, fleeing King Herod 2017 years ago, pronounced in the Christmas Eve prayer of Pontifex is at most extravagant allusion even in terms of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s atypical for high clergy personality.
In first place as the ultimate authority in interpretation of The Bible, Pontifex should have known, that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were not looking for an asylum abroad, but were moving within the Kingdom of Herod, although this is not the essential criticism.
The Biblical episode can not serve as a model delivering a solution of a problem of refugees, because first of all they became too numerous in modern word to accommodate in ‘rich’ countries. Pontifex continuous reproaches of Europeans for not doing ‘enough’ for asylum-seekers and migrants do not lead to the root problems resolution – the poverty in the countries of origin, and protracted conflicts, some of which date to epoch prior to Jesus birth.
A simple gesture of kindness of good Samaritans does not offer a key to the complex phenomenon of mass migration to Europe, neither does it help in their further integration. On contrary its simplification leads away from the effective answers.
The example of Sweden is a convincing evidence that the kindness Pontifex requires as a solution is an illusion.
Praised for its hospitality, receiving more than 160 000 migrants from Africa and Middle East since 2015, Sweden has been rapidly degrading into a Third world country, with a correlating rate of crimes, and growing no-go zones. Apparently Pontifex omitted that nowadays migrants do not always have the gentle nature of Joseph!
Graph with the number of people killed in shootings in Sweden from 2011 – 2017.
“The integration [of immigrants] does not go as it should. We had a problem with it before the autumn of 2015, when Sweden accepted a wave of migrants. For me it is obvious that we cannot accept more asylum seekers than we can integrate. It will not be good either for people who come here or for the whole society,” said the Swedish Finance minister Magdalena Andersson. Her words are the epilogue to the mass-scale experiment of a promoted by Pontifex model.
Joseph, Mary and Jesus as a son of asylum-seekers. The parallels are far to simplistic and linear to respond to the unfolding demographic crisis in Africa with eight children per women born in poverty. The allusion would sound grotesque if articulated by someone else than the Bishop of Rome: asylum-seeker Joseph… And Leonardo as a Gastarbeiter.
Welcome Gastarbeiters they will paint you smile of Mona Lisa! 🙂
The EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini refrain of being “so ashamed of the EU” came as startling amid the high level conference in the European Parliament on migration management. Lashing the European Union for not doing enough, Mogherini expressed her profound disdain with the organisation, incapable to host migrants in numbers they appear at European coasts.
The frustration of Mogherini with the reluctance of the EU member-states to host massive flows of migrants has its pre-history. previously the head of the European Actions Service has been known as an ardent promoter of Islam: “I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture”, said Mogherini at an event devoted to ‘Islam in Europe’.
“Islam belongs in Europe. It holds a place in Europe’s history, in our culture, in our food and – what matters most – in Europe’s present and future” – Mogherini continued.
However the biggest challenge to the diplomat is the European identity, she sees as an obstacle for free inflows of the migrants from the Islamic countries: “Any attempt to divide the peoples of Europe into “us” and “them” brings us in the wrong direction.” Following this logic anyone who reaches geographic Europe becomes European in his own right, without any need to adapt to the European culture in a broader sense, moreover the newcomers are entitled to recreate the ideology which is the reason of their misery, pushing them to flee their homes. No one ever heard of the Christians searching for asylum in Muslim countries, but strangely enough the major reason of their life drama is preserved as an integral part of their personal ‘freedom’, especially grotesque in case of Muslim women, who insist in Western societies on freedom of submission. A perfect oxymoron, and contemporary paradox, but not the only one.
However deeply ‘ashamed ‘ of the EU Mogherini is, she continues to receive a mega-salary of a high-ranking executive from the EU she scorns: a monthly pay of 27,953 euros – which increased on 633 euros this year according to Bild newspaper – thanks to the generosity of the European ‘shameful’ taxpayer, sponsoring the entire project.
Unlike Nigel Farage, I don’t think the MEPs are hypocrites being outraged about President Trump’s #terroristban, no they are not, they are a bunch of genuinely frustrated people sensing the very basement of their well-being is shaken.
It was easy to navigate in good weather, in old good days, when resources were plentiful, and nobody expected any decisiveness from the European Parliament – a champion of consensus.
However new realities demand adequate decisions: the security issues had to be addressed yesterday, before the terroristic acts in Paris, Brussels, Nice and Berlin. Moreover the Europeans are not able to host, or to provide for 850 Africans eager to immigrate to the continent of peace and prosperity, the true Eldorado with generous social security benefits, housing and medical care. One should admit there is no single prosperous democratic state in Africa, even in South Africa corruption is a ‘thief stealing the dream’.
Huge territories over the Afriacn continent ravaged by conflicts, mainly those on religious grounds, daily produce thousands of refugees streaming to the North, to Libyan coast to try their chance to cross the Mediterranean to find their European ‘Eldorado’.
On contrary to what the Left politicians try to convey to us, the microscopic number of migrants is going to get an employment. As one prominent European political concluded, the most refugees and migrants arriving are ‘uneducated, religiously blinded, fanatical and impossible to integrate’. Nowadays, Europeans bring here ‘such Neanderthals’ who had been extinct on the European continent (thanks God!), – the remarks caused ire of the Left, unable to see any flows in their potential electorate, gratefully voting for generations for their saviors and generous providers.
However it is not from the purse of the political care-takers the bill on mass-migration is footed, amounting in millions of asylum-claims per year. It is the dissolving European middle class who is burdened to an extend it can hardly make the ends meet. The UK PM Theresa May called middle class families with children ‘new poor’, with only half of them living in home of their own, according to a survey.
But the European left – the Socialists and the Greens, do not really care about Middle class, seen as a decadent bourgeoisie, the Left is busy importing their own electorate at mass scale to ensure their own warm place in the politics for generations to come.
The European left and even centre-right genuinely despises President Trump, who broke a steriotype, setting an example of a leader who cares about his own citizens first, unlike the European mainstream political cast, busy with transferring as many poor from the Third World as possible to sponsor their family growth as much as possible to break the model of nation-state with a cultural identity, and to move effortlessly towards federal Europe, ‘The United States of Europe’, one big market for consumers, without any particular moral concept, just with a burning desire to acquire. Looks like Mr.Soros dream to me:)
Here the EU left meets the liberals: both need mass-migration to realise their majestic plans, however none of them to a benefit of the ‘aboriginal’ Europeans.
Anna Van Densky blog 