In some European countries Islamization is a growing problem due mainly to the spectacular influx of migrants from Muslim countries. Several countries are pushing back against Islamization; some can't bring themselves to do it. They will eventually, for Islam is not compatible with any other ideology and the horrors of living in a Muslim country that drove those people to emigrate, will manifest in Europe and, indeed, already are.
Muslim women & supporters protest as
Denmark burqa ban comes into effect
Hundreds have rallied in Copenhagen as a new ban on the wearing of face veils in public came into effect in Denmark. The Danish government is taking a more conservative position on immigration and integration.
The ‘burqa ban’ came into effect on Wednesday, after being enacted by the Danish parliament in May. The law was brought forward by Denmark’s ruling center-right coalition, and passed with a 75-30 vote.
Under the ban, the wearing of the niqab face veil and the burqa, a full-body cover, is outlawed. Those who break the law risk a 1,000 kroner (€135) fine, with repeat offenders liable for a 10,000 kroner (€1,340) fine or jail time.
Protesters began marching against the ban at 5pm local time on Wednesday, heading from Copenhagen’s Norrebro district to Bellahoj police station on the outskirts of the capital. Children, Muslim women not wearing the niqab and non-Muslim Danes with their faces covered have joined the march.
The demonstration aimed “to send a signal to the government that we will not bow to discrimination and a law that specifically targets a religious minority,” 21-year-old protester named Sabina told Reuters. Sabina is one of about 200 Muslim women – 0.1 percent of the population – in Denmark who wear a veil or full body cover on a daily basis. Copenhagen is home to over 50,000 Muslims.
Activists have called the ban discriminatory. Marcus Knuth, member of parliament from the ruling Venstre party called the burqa “strongly oppressive.” Denmark now joins France, Belgium, and Austria in banning the wearing of the burqa in public.
Knuth’s party has presided over a shift to the right in Danish politics recently, in reaction to the European refugee crisis. Knuth has described refugees as a “burden” on Danish society, and called for their immediate deportation once their home countries are deemed safe to return to.
In March, immigration minister Inger Støjberg marked the passing of her 50th anti-immigration measure by celebrating with a cake decorated with fruit, the Danish flag, and the number ‘50.’
Among Støjberg’s 50 regulations is one requiring newly arrived asylum-seekers to hand over their valuables and jewelry to help pay for their stay in Denmark, and a separate law imposing identity checks along the border with Germany.
The government has also targeted settled immigrants, who it says often live in “parallel societies.” In July, as part of a series of measures aimed at eradicating immigrant ghettos, the government announced tougher criminal penalties, lower benefits, and mandatory integration classes for those living in ghettos.
The latest law has divided public, with some praising the 'burqa ban' on social media and others calling it a populist and discriminatory move.
Asylum applications in Denmark have dropped by 84 percent between 2015 and 2018. The country is home to some 500,000 non-western immigrants, mostly hailing from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Somalia. - All of which are Muslim countries!
‘Explosive situation’: Pro-migrant group forced
to end its crucial work in Paris due to violence
Solidarité Migrants Wilson / Facebook
Tensions between asylum seekers and police, aggressive drug addicts and government inaction – the volatile atmosphere in a Paris district is forcing a pro-migrant group to cut off their vital volunteer work for newcomers.
Solidarité Migrants Wilson has been distributing food for migrants near Porte de la Chapelle station in Paris' 18th district for 20 months. Yet since August 1 the group has decided to stop their work as they can’t cope with the growing level of violence in the area.
“From the beginning our mission was to serve hot drinks and bread and we have done this for 20 months, every day. During the last month though (July), we started questioning our mission, as we don’t want our volunteers to be put in danger,” Philippe Caro from Solidarité Migrants Wilson explained to RT.
According to Caro, the situation is becoming tense. Migrants cluster in terrible conditions and some of them don’t even have tents, and just sleep on the ground, he said. “Sometimes they are being woken up by police early in the morning, they kick them and use tear gas to move them,” Caro states.
The situation gets even more dangerous when drug addicts show up at food distribution events and cause problems. “It creates additional tension,” Caro says. “They’re aggressive, including towards the volunteers. So this is an explosive situation,” he admits.
The activist blames both the French government and the Paris administration for their inaction which lead to the growing level of violence in the district. “The state is responsible for people on the streets, for taking in migrants. Meanwhile, the authorities in Paris are restricting access to water taps in the summer. It’s irresponsible,” he laments.
Solidarité Migrants Wilson wrote a letter to the Paris administration, explaining that their volunteers won’t be able to work in the area due to tension between police and migrants, as well as the massive presence of drug addicts. The group called upon the city authorities to improve conditions in the district and solve the problems. The volunteers are planning to meet in September to discuss what the group will do next.
France, like other EU states, is currently experiencing the worst refugee crisis since WWII. The number of asylum seekers in the country reached 100,000 in 2017, according to asylumineurope.org.
In June this year France was among those states that said they have no intention of opening refugee facilities on their soil following a summit between EU leaders. At the gathering, a solution was reached which would involve EU members propping up so-called controlled centers on a volunteer basis.
French police clear 450 migrants from camp in Nantes
AFP, news.france@thelocal.com
Migrants and refugees are evacuated from their camp by French CRS riot police at Daviais square in Nantes, western France, on July 23, 2018. Photo: AFP
French police on Monday cleared some 450 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from a park in the western city of Nantes where they had been camping for more than a month.
Regional authorities said 455 people were cleared in the operation, ordered over the "worrying" sanitary situation at the encampment, where rats had been spotted and where some migrants had caught scabies.
Nantes, a riverside city in Brittany home to 300,000 people, has seen asylum applications jump 28 percent in a year, bucking a trend among most other big French regional cities.
The migrants evicted from the city-centre camp were sent to a public hall where officials were examining their cases. Regional authorities said they would shelter "the most vulnerable people" and asylum seekers "as much as possible", but warned that their facilities were "saturated".
Officials had said last week that they had found only 100 spaces in emergency shelters throughout the region. "It means at least 300 people are going to sleep in the street tonight, without tents," said Francois Prochasson, a member of a local group which helps migrants.
"They're just going to go somewhere else, to another park, and nothing will have been fixed," he said.
Photo: AFP
Regional authorities said migrants who "cannot claim asylum or legal residency, or who have claimed asylum in another European Union member state, will be asked to leave the country".
President Emmanuel Macron's government is pushing through parliament a tough new immigration law which would speed up the asylum process and accelerate deportations.
France received a record 100,000 asylum applications last year, though the overall numbers entering Europe via dangerous Mediterranean crossings have fallen sharply from their peak in 2015.
Sharia law recognized by British court
for first time in landmark divorce case
Central London Mosque near Regent's Park. © Stephen Chung / Global Look Press
A British court recognized Sharia law for the first time after a judge made a landmark ruling on a divorce case, which could have far reaching effects on Islamic marriage in the UK.
In the case of the estranged couple Nasreen Akhtar and Mohammed Shabaz Khan, the High Court ruled that their Islamic faith marriage, nikah, is recognised by British matrimonial law despite their being no legal precedent for it to be recognised as such.
Akhtar will subsequently be able to bring her case before the divorce court, where she can claim a share of assets from her marriage to Khan. She would have been unable to do so without the High Court ruling.
Khan had initially sought to block his wife’s application for divorce at a UK court, arguing that the marriage - conducted in 1998 - was not legal.
Justice Williams said the marriage was void under section 11 of the 1973 Matrimonial Causes Act because it was “entered into in disregard of certain requirements as to the formation of marriage. It is therefore a void marriage and the wife is entitled to a decree of nullity.”
The ruling could have significant implications for sharia law, especially those, like Akhtar and Khan, who marry under Islamic but not British law. If the precedent set by Akhtar’s case is followed it could allow for easier divorces and a splitting of husband’s assets, in similar situations.
A Home Office report, commissioned by now-Prime Minister Theresa May, found that women married under sharia law are often unaware that they have no legal protection under British law.
Migrant rescue vessel back at sea
after international dispute
Written by Reuters,
The migrant rescue ship Aquarius, at the centre of a dispute between Italy and Malta in June after both refused to accept more than 600 people it picked up, will begin a new mission in the southern Mediterranean, organisers said.
The 77-metre vessel, operated by Franco-German charity SOS Mediterranee, will sail from Marseille on its tenth operation of the year, having rescued some 3,000 people this year, many fleeing from Libyan shores.
“The ship goes back to sea this afternoon,” Francis Vallat, president of SOS Mediterranee, told reporters. “If only one reason was needed, it is that during June, according to the latest figures, there were seven times as many deaths this year than in June last year because of the lack of NGO rescue ships. We’re going back.”
In June, Aquarius picked up 629 migrants, including children and seven pregnant women, off the coast of Libya. It planned to take them to the nearest European port, the usual practice with rescue missions.
The then new Italian government, a coalition including the anti-immigrant League party, asked the ship to go to Malta rather than Italy. Malta said it was not the appropriate destination or capable of taking the migrants in.
This led to a stand-off that drew in the European Union and France. Political tensions still persist between Rome and Paris. Eventually the migrants were taken in by Spain, now facing a renewed flood of people fleeing North Africa.
The Aquarius is one of a number of NGO-supported ships carrying out rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean, alongside the Italian navy and EU-led missions.
More than 10,000 migrants drowned in the region since 2014, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Italy, which has brought ashore more than 650,000 migrants since 2014, wants migrants returned to where they left. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini accused SOS Mediterranee and other charities of being a Mediterranean “taxi service” for migrants.
Frederic Penard, director of operations for SOS Mediterranee, said there was no question of Aquarius rescuing migrants and taking them back to Africa. “We always refuse to disembark people in Libya,” he said. “Libya cannot be considered safe. Everyone agrees with that for the moment.”
Libya is mostly run by organized crime and Islamic radicals who would pick up anyone off the streets and hold them for ransom. Rape and beatings are very common. These are the consequences of deposing a strong-man - chaos and criminals.
Spain’s Sanchez welcomes migrants
– with an eye on elections
© Jorge Guerrero, AFP | The Red Cross helps a young girl arriving at Spain’s Algesiras port on July 21, 2018.
Text by Thomas ABGRALL
While most EU nations are tightening their migrant policies with an eye on their electorates, Spain’s new centre-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is welcoming migrants – for exactly the same reason.
Spain has now become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Europe, replacing the Libyan-Italy Mediterranean route that was once the main migrant gateway to the continent.
In less than a week, nearly 2,000 migrants entered the country and since the beginning of the year, 22,858 people arrived in Spain by sea while 307 died attempting the crossing, according to IOM (International Organization for Migration) figures published on July 31, 2018. More migrants have arrived in Spain over the past seven months than in all of 2017. The country has now surpassed Italy and Greece as being the first entry point via the Mediterranean.
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s centre-left government has rejected the term "mass immigration" that has fuelled the discourse in several European nations. "We’re trivialising the word ‘mass'," said Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell during a joint press conference earlier this week with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.
Borrell instead chose to highlight the need for “new blood” in a continent with an ageing population. "Europe's demographic evolution shows that unless we want to gradually turn into an ageing continent, we need new blood, and it doesn't look like this new blood is coming from our capacity to procreate," he noted.
In addition to the sea route, migrants are also attempting to reach Spain by land by crossing into the Spanish North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Last week, 602 migrants managed to scramble over the double barrier between Morocco and Cueta throwing caustic quicklime, excrement and stones onto the police below.
While admitting the incident – which made headlines in Spain – “shocked public opinion”, Borrell insisted that it was all relative. “Six hundred people is not massive compared to 1.3 million” Syrian refugees currently in Jordan, he said.
Perhaps, but Jordan is being greatly supported by other countries and is a Muslim country. Spain will get little help from the EU and is a Catholic country although it will become a post-Catholic country in this century.
A matter of domestic policy
Borrell’s comments were a confirmation of a different policy adopted by the Sanchez government. Since taking office in June, the new Spanish prime minister has been pursuing a migration policy that’s more respectful of human rights. In June, he accepted the Aquarius, a boat chartered by the aid groups SOS Méditerranée Sea and Doctors Without Borders, which had been sent back from the ports of Italy and Malta, with 629 migrants on board.
More respectful of human rights or politically expedient?
Madrid’s new policies are being hammered out with an eye on the upcoming local elections, followed by European parliamentary elections in May 2019, according to some experts.
"These left-leaning positions are directly linked to Spain's domestic politics,” explained Barbara Loyer, a Spain specialist at the University of Paris VIII. “The Socialist Party, at the head of a fragile coalition, is trying to seduce the voters of [the left-wing] Podemos and [centre-right] Ciudadanos – two new parties that have changed the equation. All of this is being done with a view to the forthcoming elections, and recent polls seem to show that this tactic is starting to pay off.”
Since 1998, the number of foreigners documented in Spain has increased tenfold, from 1.6 percent of the total population 20 years ago, to 12.2 percent in 2016, or 4.6 million people. But while populism is rising across Europe in countries like Hungary, Italy, Austria and Slovakia, Spain, for now, is not facing any such threat, according to Loyer. "The decision to host the Aquarius has been criticised by some Spanish media, but overall, the issue of immigration does not cause a national debate as elsewhere in Europe," she explains.
The far-right does not go far in Spain
In 2014, former members of the Spanish centre-right People's Party launched a new party, Vox, propagating the sort of hardline anti-immigrant, anti-EU positions familiar with far-right parties across Europe. But Vox has remained a marginal player in Spanish politics.
"The small far-right and anti-Islam parties have very little influence. There is no postcolonial issue in Spain with the Moroccans, as in France with the Algerians. There could be feverish outbreaks in some regions with a high proportions of immigrants, but we are not there yet,” noted Loyer.
By 2017, the number of Moroccans registered in Spain had reached more than 682,000 people, according to Loyer. But today rather than coming from Morocco, the majorty of migrants are mostly from Latin American countries – such as Venezuela and Colombia – and East European nations like Romania.
But, Loyer noted, if Morocco were to change its border policies, that could change the equation. "If Morocco decides to close its eyes, as it seems to have done recently in Ceuta, hundreds of people could arrive every day," she explained.
Morocco has been calling for EU aid that has not yet arrived and its government is strongly opposed to setting up "hotspots" – as envisaged by EU leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron – on its soil.
On the fence on a thorny issue
Human rights groups however are still cautious before evaluating the new government's migration policy. "While there have been a number of positive actions, our greatest concern is the government’s European policy. Pedro Sánchez wants to be the driving force behind a new European solidarity policy towards refugees. We should judge the results obtained," said Nuria Diaz, spokesperson of the Madrid-based NGO, CEAR (Comision Espanola de Ayuda al Refugiado). "The Spanish government will also be evaluated on its ability to receive migrants, and its cooperation with different organisations," she added.
Overwhelmed by the arrival of 2,000 migrants in less than a week, Spain has asked for €30 million in assistance from the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and Internal Security Fund (ISF).
Another thorny issue is the law permitting Spanish border guards in Ceuta and Melilla to summarily return migrants to Morocco, a policy that has was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in October 2017.
The six-metre (20ft) high “anti-migrant” razor wire fences separating Ceuta and Melilla from Moroccan territory has been a contentious issue since “jumpers” attempting to scale the fences often wound themselves.
The controversial razor wire fences were first introduced in 2005, but removed two years later after a Senegalese national died attempting to scale the fence. In 2013, Spain’s conservative former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s revived the fences after waves of migrants scaled them.
Months after the ECHR condemnation, Rajoy’s government appealed the ruling and the new Spanish government has so far not taken up the issue.
In June though, Spain’s new interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, told a Spanish radio station he was “going to do everything possible to see that these razor wire fences at Ceuta and Melilla are removed".
But that’s unlikely to happen during the summer break. "It is unclear whether the Spanish Socialist Party will renounce the [ECHR] appeal [launched by Rajoy], or whether it will remove the barbed wire fences of Ceuta and Melilla as it has recently announced. Everything will be clearer in September," said Loyer.
50,000 Migrants waiting to storm Spain from Morocco
POLICE sources have warned some 50,000 illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are waiting in Morocco to cross into Spain.
It comes after around 21,000 migrants have so far made the extremely dangerous journey across the sea to seek asylum in Europe.
IN DEEP WATER: Migrants making the dangerous journey
Spain has become the number one point of migrant arrival in 2018, after the country’s socialist government gave the green light for open borders.
According to El Mundo, North Africa is becoming a ‘pressure cooker’, with at least 50,000 African migrants desperate to cross into the European country via the Strait of Gibraltar.
Human smugglers are apparently helping migrants bypass border controls in Morocco, with the promise that Spain is their ‘paradise’.
Police sources have even likened the concerning situation to the ‘Crisis of the Cayucos’, when thousands of migrants risked their lives in wooden boats called cayucos to reach Spain’s Canary Islands in 2006.
Migrants make their way to Morocco, cross through the Sahel area after paying the mafias, then elude the lax southern border controls in Morocco, revealed the El Mundo investigation.
Specialists believe this method is becoming more frequent and more violent, as the mafias’ desperate clientele reaches staggering numbers and continues to grow.
Just weeks ago, over 700 migrants stormed the fence separating Morocco from Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta, which has been the most violent incident to date say the Guardia Civil.
Migrants came equipped with means to get around the concertinas, as well as using quicklime against agents guarding the border, injuring 22 while four suffered significant burns.
The Spanish Association of Civil Guards (AEGC) confirmed in a statement that the immigrants ‘sprinkled quicklime, excrement and rust’ on the agents and 22 have been treated for ‘chemical burns, inflamed eyes, bruises and respiratory disorders’.
Croatian Police Accused Again of
Brutality to Migrants
Anja Vladisavljevic BIRN Zagreb
Improvised shelter in the suburb of Bihac, Borici settlement. Photo: Anja Vladisavljevic
No Name Kitchen, NNK, an NGO that helps migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Wednesday on social networks accused Croatian police of beating a migrant and documented the claim with a photograph of his injured back.
It said its volunteers were dining on Tuesday in the town of Velika Kladusa when the man arrived and asked them to check his injuries. “He was beaten with a plastic baton few times, and also kicked with boots on his face. We did not want to publish pictures of his face, as he might have problems afterwards,” NNK told BIRN.
He had apparently returned from trying to reach European Union when he said the Croatian police beat him and his friends. The Croatian police did not respond to BIRN's request for a comment about this claim.
A rising number of refugees and migrants heading through Bosnia want to enter the EU via Croatia and then seek asylum in Western Europe. One of the transit hot spots is the Bosnian border with Croatia, around the small towns of Bihac and Velika Kladusa, in northwest Bosnia.
The numbers heading north from Greece via Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia have doubled since last year, with Bosnia now struggling to accommodate and feed around 5,000 people.
None of those people want to stay in Bosnia. Most attempt to cross the border into Croatia, but the obstacles are formidable, from forests and rivers, to uncleared landmines and an unwelcoming Croatian police.
NoNameKitchen
@NoNameKitchen1
Tuesday night, while having dinner between the volunteers working in Velika Kladuša, a man comes and asks us if we could check him, he just came back from "the game" and the Croatian police beat him. This is how his back looked like ten minutes after coming back from the border.
Amnesty International, NNK, as well as a number of Croatian non-governmental organisations and media have documented numerous cases of the Croatian police using disproportionate force.
BIRN heard similar stories from the refugees and migrants it spoke to in Bihac on July 23. Refusing to be named, they spoke of physical violence, of possessions being confiscated or destroyed and money and cell phones seized.
On July 19, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that dozens of people were being treated daily for injuries sustained while trying to cross from Bosnia into Croatia.
Boris Pavelic, a journalist who often reports on this issue, told BIRN that such violence can be prevented only by serious public pressure on the government and police. Pavelic said journalists and activists should patrol the border together with the police, in all conditions, by day and night, and in the most difficult terrain.
“This would not end the violence completely but it would reduce it. But I'm afraid the violence cannot be completely stopped, certainly not with this anti-immigrant policy of the European Union,” he told BIRN.
On July 24, Croatian Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic dismissed allegations of police brutality, saying the authorities acted only in accordance with Croatian and EU law.
On July 29, the Croatian Police Union, SPS, dismissed media reports of inhumane treatment of migrants, and commended the police for their performance in guarding the border.
The Croatian journalists' association, HND, replied on July 30, saying the SPS had shown a lack of understanding of how journalism works – and accusing the SPS of interfering with the right of the media to do their job freely and of exerting pressure on the freedom of the media.
Idle migrants end up drug dealing - Genoa prosecutor
(ANSA) - Italy, - Genoa Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi said Thursday that he thinks asylum seekers that are not kept busy by their reception centres often end up dealing drugs.
Cozzi was commenting after an anti-drugs operation in the city that saw 13 alleged pushers arrested, including six asylum seekers.
"We have noticed that asylum seekers who are linked to centres that do not engage them in activities have the propensity to deal," Cozzi said.
"There are good centres and others without programmes.
"Activity is the best deterrent against crime".
Should Europe promote African development
to stem migration?
How long have I been saying this?
By EFE
The new leader of Spain's right-wing Popular Party visited an immigration center in the south of the country Wednesday, where he called on Western countries to promote development programs in African nations to lessen the incentive for migrants making the perilous journey to Europe.
Pablo Casado, the new face of the Spanish opposition, urged the government of Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez to face up to the challenge of migration and proposed that European governments come up with an aid initiative similar to the Marshall Plan the United States implemented to help some of Europe to get back on its feet after World War II.
Yes! And America should be doing the same thing in Mexico and Central America!
"Western counties should not simply send aid, because they can end up in the hands of corrupt governments, but they should promote institutionalization, education, job creation and regulated immigration," Casado, who rose through the more conservative ranks of the PP, told reporters in Algeciras, near Cádiz.
In recent months, an increased number of migrant arrivals to Spain's southern shores, especially near the port city of Cádiz, via the Mediterranean Sea, has prompted the Spanish government to request extra support from the European Union amid a wider national debate on how the challenge of migration should be addressed.
Some 22,858 migrants arrived in Spain in the first six months of 2018, according to the International Organization for Migration.
"Saying that there are enough papers for everyone, or that the State has limitless resources or that the illegal immigration route to Spain is easier than other countries is not going to solve the situation," the PP leader, who met with several migrants in Algeciras, told the press.
The 37-year-old, who took over from Mariano Rajoy on July 21, said he wanted to follow in his predecessor's footsteps by pursuing cooperative relations with countries of migrant origin like Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco.
"That was much easier than taking a photo in Valencia when on the same day more immigrants than were on the Aquarius were arriving in Algeciras and Almeria," he said, criticizing Sánchez, who soon into his own tenure as prime minister ordered the port of Valencia to accept the Aquarius NGO rescue vessel, which had spent days at sea with around 630 people on board after both Italy and Malta refused it entry.
Meanwhile, Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister, Josep Borrell, said the European Commission had unblocked some 55 million euros ($64 million) of funds to "alleviate the circumstances that are occurring in Morocco."
Borrell has made these statements when asked about the letter from EC President, Jean-Claude Juncker, to PM Sánchez, and a subsequent telephone call.
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