Migrants on the Move > Czechia finds 30 migrants on way to Germany, one dead

 

Czech Republic: Police find 30 migrants stuffed into a truck; 

one dead

Sep 4, 2024 7:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

The Czech Republic, like other EU countries, has been seeing a steady stream of illegals flowing in for years. Most migrants to the Czech Republic are coming in from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year there was a spike in this mass migration, prompting Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala to call for tighter border controls.

In November, Poland and the Czech Republic extended temporary border controls with Slovakia because of a surge of Muslim migrants. But illegals are still flowing in. They use Slovakia as a transit country to get to western Europe, especially Germany.

Globalists have encouraged any and all means of illegal migration, along with people-smugglers, who are doing lucrative business. Countries such as Germany are particularly attractive to illegals because of its generous welfare program.

The Ministry of the Interior in Prague indicated that “13,898 people were apprehended in the Czech Republic last year without valid residence papers.”

In 2020, a very similar incident took place in the Czech Republic, when police found 48 Syrian migrants inside a Turkish truck. They were headed to Germany and the Netherlands.

Czech Republic: One dead as police find 30 migrants in truck

DW, September 3, 2024:

Czech police found around 30 migrants, one of whom was dead, in the back of a truck on Monday night.

The truck was stopped along a stretch of motorway between Prague and the eastern German city of Dresden.

“All these persons have been detained,” police said on social media.

“We have no information suggesting someone has managed to escape.”

The Czech Republic is a popular transit route for migrants seeking to reach Germany and other wealthy European countries….

Germany to Ramp Up Security at Swiss Border After Migrant Pushed 8yo Boy Under Train

FILE PHOTO: A police officer stands guard at the Frankfurt station © REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

Days after a foreigner killed a young boy by pushing him and his mother under a train, the German interior minister has recommended stricter checks at the country’s Swiss border and advanced security measures at all rail stations.

“I will do everything in order to put intelligent controls in place on the border,” Horst Seehofer told Spiegel magazine in a follow-up to the harrowing incident at Frankfurt station, in which a 40-year-old Eritrean man assaulted an eight-year-old boy and his mother.

The immigrant, believed to have lived in Switzerland since 2006, pushed the pair onto the tracks seconds before a high-speed train, the Intercity Express, arrived.

The mother managed to roll out of harm’s way but her child was killed. The attacker then attempted to flee the station but was pursued by a group of passengers and was eventually apprehended by police outside the Frankfurt terminal.

Now, Seehofer wants to introduce “occasional, temporary checks at the border with Switzerland” to screen foreigners. Both Germany and Switzerland are in the visa-free Schengen area, but travelers crossing their border aren’t subjected to any controls.

The issue needs to be dealt with immediately, Seehofer warned, mentioning that a total of 43,000 unauthorized arrivals had been registered in Germany last year. The conservative politician was once at odds with Angela Merkel over imposing limits on incoming immigrants, but this time the Chancellor “is fully on my side on the issues of security.”

Messages of mourning, candles and flowers are placed by people for the boy who died at the main train station in Frankfurt

© REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

Border checks aside, Seehofer also urges ramping up security at railway stations. He didn’t expand on that but said it could involve installing safety barriers or locks on the platforms – similar to those already in use in London and Paris. Such countermeasures could potentially cost billions of Euros, the minister acknowledged

Just another expense for Merkel's Madness.

The Frankfurt tragedy re-ignited a heated migration debate that reached its climax back in 2015 and 2016, when Germany opened its borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers – mostly from the Middle East and Africa. The heavy influx of migrants saw the crime rate going up and also led to the resurgence of the far-right extremists ready to use violence against foreigners and “pro-refugee” politicians.

UK Wants Pakistan to Take Back Thousands of Migrants Who Overstayed Visas – Pakistan FM

This is the work of Sajid Javid, whom I consider the best candidate to be the next PM

Pakistani men are responsible for the systematic rape, gang-rape, drugging and sexual abuse of thousands of little British girls in several cities around England. Being able to deport them more easily is a good thing.

Revellers attend an event in Trafalgar Square to the end of Ramadan, June 8, 2019

© ZUME Press / Tom Nicholson

The British government has asked Pakistan to sign a treaty that would allow it to send thousands of Pakistani migrants with expired UK visas back to their home country, says Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Qureshi said he recently discussed the treaty with UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid, and appeared to support the measure, adding that it could be helpful for Pakistanis looking to stay in the UK on visas.

“We have initiated dialogue on this,” Qureshi told a press conference at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Tuesday. “This will help those who are genuine visa applicants. This will help Pakistan.”

Qureshi noted that an extradition treaty is also needed between Pakistan and Britain, which he said has been one of the “biggest obstacles” for the two countries. He stressed the need to build on a prisoner swap arrangement that already exists.

Tensions flared with Pakistan over the summer of 2018 when Britain, citing the lack of an extradition treaty, declined to deport former Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar back to his home country, where he was wanted in connection to a graft probe.

Though reliable estimates are notoriously difficult to obtain for illegal immigrant populations, a 2007 London School of Economics study estimated there were some 533,000 “irregular” or undocumented immigrants in the UK. The country also has the largest Pakistani expat population in Europe, totalling around 1.2 million legal residents, but it is not clear how many currently live in the UK without visas.

'Police Can No Longer Handle the Lawless Jungle After Dark in Amsterdam' - Ombudsman

The New Normal - Amsterdam after dark

FILE PHOTO: Aan overturned car in Amsterdam © Cris Toala Olivares / Reuters

As dark descends on Amsterdam, the Dutch tourist hotspot turns into an “urban jungle” where the police are powerless to handle crime, violence and drug trade, Arre Zuurmond, the city's ombudsman, warned.

"The city center becomes an urban jungle at night," Zuurmond told Dutch paper, Trouw. "Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation."

Drugs are being sold openly in the streets, pedestrian areas are used for car and bike races, there’s widespread theft and other offenses, the ombudsman said, using the world “mayhem” to describe what’s happening in the city.

Earlier, Zuurmond set up three CCTV cameras at the busy Leidseplein square ringed by bars and clubs, which is located in the south western part of the city center. The facts exposed as a result of his surveillance experiment turned out to be quite depressing.

"One night we counted 900 offences, mainly between the hours of 2:00am and 4:00am. The atmosphere is grim, and there is an air of lawlessness," the ombudsman told Trouw. "Scooters race through the pedestrian areas. There is a lot of shouting. Drugs are being bought. There is stealing,” he said, adding that police often do not even try to intervene.

"There is violence but no action. You can even pee on the van of a mobile [police] unit and the driver won't say anything,” Zuurmond said. He also described the situation at the square at night as “intolerable lack of authority.”

The notorious Red Light district streets, which are “packed” with crowds of revelers in the evenings, also witness a high crime rate. Human trafficking has become a particular source of concern for the local authorities as it even prompted the municipality to launch a special project aimed at combating the issue as well as reducing the overall crime rate. However, all the efforts have been largely to no avail so far, the paper reports, citing the assessment made by the Amsterdam city court.

The problems deepen as they continue to spread across the city, Zuurmond warned. He particularly drew attention to the fact that some 2,000 illegal taxis are now roaming the streets at nights for fares. The city also has a flourishing black market with racketeers dealing with wads of cash. “Shadowy money is everywhere in the city center,” the ombudsman said.

The tense situation is partly a result of government policy, Zuurmond explained. “The government has deliberately stimulated tourism after the economic crisis, but [it] has forgotten to… take additional [security] measures.”

According to Dutch media, the problem that currently plagues the capital of the Netherlands might in fact be part of a larger issue. In the Netherlands, there are around 160,000 people who have been “irrevocably convicted” but have managed to avoid punishment, Trouw reports, citing data provided by the municipality of Amsterdam.

According to the ministry of justice, more than 12,000 out of the 160,000 have to serve a custodial sentence. About 10 percent of such convicts fleeing justice reportedly reside in Amsterdam, where they can actually apply for a new passport virtually without any background checks. As a result, hundreds of alleged “street criminals” just “disappear.”

Amsterdam welcomes 18 million tourists every year – more than the total population of the Netherlands. The city has recently been hit by a string of violent incidents. In late June, a motorcycle gang member was arrested after he allegedly fired an anti-tank missile at an office building which houses a magazine publisher in Amsterdam. Just days later, a van crashed into the head office of daily newspaper De Telegraaf in the Dutch capital, in what police believe was a deliberate attack. Neither incident resulted in casualties.

Last week, a Briton was shot in the head outside a café in Amsterdam by a fellow national in what police described as a gang feud. An international manhunt was launched after the incident. The shooting victim remains in the hospital in stable condition.

And no-one dare say the word 'migrants' in relation to the rocketing crime rates.

People Smuggler Gets 1,489 Year Sentence for Trafficking Syrians, Iraqis to Greece

Refugees and migrants protest outside refugee camp in Athens © Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters

A smuggler in has been sentenced to 1,489 years in prison for bringing Iraqi and Syrian refugees into Greece from Turkey. He is one of 23 people sentenced for smuggling on Monday.

The Thessaloniki court found the 54-year-old Greek man guilty of running a smuggling ring that saw hundreds of refugees trafficked into Europe from Turkey between 2015 and 2016, iefimerida reports.

Despite the more than 1,000-year sentence, Greek law states that the maximum prison term that can be served is 25 years. Many of the other sentences handed out were for between 200 and 300 years, EleftherosTypos reports.

The smugglers were rounded up as part of a July 2016 police operation. The indictment includes 46 cases of trafficking migrants, largely Iraqis and Syrians. The refugees paid the traffickers to bring them from parts of the Evros river, which they crossed by boat before being brought to Thessaloniki in trucks with special hiding places.

Once they made it to Thessaloniki, they would wait in fields before being taken by taxi to the police station to be registered, Seleo reports. Once they had been registered, they were taken to Edonmei and onwards to Central Europe.

A further 23 people were acquitted. They were largely taxi drivers. One of the taxi drivers was convicted, as he was found to have played a significant role in the operation.

The End of Merkel? Open-Door Migrant Policy Sends Coalition Running for the Exits

After Greeks started painting 'Der Fuhrer' mustaches on Angela Merkel because of her hard-line on their utterly irresponsible finances, she saw the migrant crisis as a way to boost her image to one of compassion. The gambit worked, for awhile, and then the reality of the consequences of inviting a million Muslims into Germany with no vetting began to set in. After 2 years, some politicians are overcoming their political correctness and beginning to realize that Germany is on the road to cultural suicide.

Migrants take selfies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel © Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing an unprecedented political crisis that could upend her image as the “new leader of the west” after the Free Democrats (FDP) abruptly pulled out of negotiations with Merkel’s conservative bloc and the Greens.

Responses to the failed negotiations were immediate. The euro plunged to a 2-month low against the yen, and a planned meeting between Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was cancelled “in view of the political development last night,” according to German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Merkel won a fourth term as chancellor in September’s national Bundestag election, but her own party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its Bavarian ally the Christian Social Union (CSU), lost 65 seats between them — their worst showing in decades.

With her own conservative bloc unable to command a majority in parliament, Merkel attempted to forge a so-called ‘Jamaica’ coalition with the pro-business FDP and the progressive Green Party.

But after more than four weeks of negotiations, FDP leader Christian Lindner announced on Sunday that his party was withdrawing from the proposed political alliance, citing irreconcilable differences between the would-be coalition partners.

Migrant crisis lays waste to Merkel’s coalition

Disagreements over climate, energy, and monetary policy required difficult compromises — but “the elephant in the room” that made the Jamaica coalition untenable is Germany’s migrant crisis, Maximilian Krah, a former CDU politician, told RT.

“The migrant issue is the main issue in the whole of Germany,” Krah insisted. “Whenever you go into private discussions, that’s the issue. But political correctness prevents the German public from debating it openly,” he said.

“If you read the declaration of the liberals when they broke up the coalition talks yesterday night, the migrant crisis was just one word among a lot of others but no one believes that they broke up because [of] the debate on ‘Industry 4.0’ or digital industry.”

Since 2015, over 1 million refugees have flooded into Germany from the Middle East and North Africa. Merkel’s uncompromising open door policy towards migrants galvanized Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which scooped up 13 percent of the vote in September’s election.

Frank Hansel, a member of German parliament from AfD, told RT that Merkel’s unwillingness to change course led to the downfall of her proposed majority coalition — and ushers in the “end of the Merkel era.”

“She was not able or capable or willing to change her policies regarding the euro crisis which still divides Europe", Hansel said of Merkel. “She was not willing to change her policy regarding the illegal mass migration. So this really had to come to an end. The Jamaica government will never come into existence.”

A political system in crisis

Merkel’s options are limited as she attempts to navigate what is essentially unchartered territory in German politics.

The creation of a new majority coalition is unlikely, as it would require the staunchly anti-Merkel Social Democrats (SPD) to join forces with the conservatives. Hours after the Jamaica coalition talks failed on Sunday night, SPD deputy leader Thorsten Schäfer-Gumbel stated unequivocally that his party was “not the spare wheel on Angela Merkel’s careening car,” as cited by Deutsche Welle.

Forming a minority government, while possible, is a “long and humiliating procedure,” Dr. Rainer Rothfuss, a geopolitical analyst and consultant, told RT. “The German political system is in crisis. This has been clear already when we saw the election results in November,” he added.

According to Germany’s constitution, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has the option of nominating someone for the office of chancellor. In this scenario, Steinmeier would likely nominate Merkel, but if she failed to win an absolute majority in the Bundestag, it could trigger a new election within 60 days.

The end of Merkel?

Journalists, pundits, and politicians alike have now called into question the popular mantra that, in the wake of Trump’s presidential election victory, Merkel is the “new leader of the West.” The failed coalition will also likely hurt Germany’s standing within Europe, which has looked to Berlin for political and economic leadership, Rothfuss told RT.

“Germany, at the moment, has lost influence inside the EU, and I think that this reflects also the misguided policies of Germany in the past two or three years which started most of all with the 2015 refugee crisis which led to an influx of over 1 million refugees from the Middle East, and which also led, in consequence, to the Brexit vote,” said Rothfuss.

While Merkel’s fate is uncertain, experts argue that it is clear we are witnessing the “final stage” of her chancellorship.

“We’ve reached the final stage of Merkel’s chancellorship, but I can’t tell you how long this stage will last,” said Krah. “It can last 3 months or 3 years. But you can be sure you won’t see Merkel in charge by the year 2020.”

U.N.: Smuggler 'Pushed' Migrants Off Boat, Killing Dozens

By Danielle Haynes  

International Organization for Migration staff assist Somali and Ethiopian migrants who were forced into the sea by smugglers on Wednesday. Photo courtesy they U.N. Migration Agency

(UPI) -- A human smuggler forced more than 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into the sea as their boat approached the Yemeni coast, killing at least 29 people, the United Nations' migration agency said Wednesday.

The International Organization for Migration said its representatives found the shallow graves of 29 people on a beach in Shabwa, a Yemeni governorate along the Arabian Sea, during a routine patrol Wednesday. Those who survived the incident rapidly buried the dead upon reaching the shore.

The IOM said at least 22 people were unaccounted for after being forced into the sea, and medical staff provided healthcare to 27 survivors. Others left the beach before assistance arrived.

"The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea, when he saw some 'authority types' near the coast," said Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen chief of mission. "They also told us that the smuggler has already returned to Somalia to continue his business and pick up more migrants to bring to Yemen on the same route. This is shocking and inhumane. The suffering of migrants on this migration route is enormous. Too many young people pay smugglers with the false hope of a better future."

In Yemen? Seriously?

The IOM estimates about 55,000 migrants have left the Horn of Africa to travel to Yemen since the beginning of the year. More than 30,000 of them are under the age of 18 and from Somalia or Ethiopia. The average age of the passengers on the boat Wednesday was 16.

"This journey is especially hazardous during the current windy season in the Indian Ocean," an IOM release said. "Smugglers are active in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, offering fake promises to vulnerable migrants."

'Everything will Collapse': German Courts ‘Overwhelmed’ by Asylum Seeker Claims

© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

The number of cases filed by asylum seekers challenging the decisions of immigration authorities in German courts has brought the legal system to the brink of collapse, a top German judge has warned in an interview.

The sheer number of cases filed has overwhelmed the civil courts of the country, said Robert Seegmuller, chairman of the Association of German Administrative Law Judges while speaking to the publishing house Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

“The situation is dramatic for administrative courts,” Seegmuller told RND. “We are now completely stretched to our limits.”

Seegmuller had been complaining since spring about the number of lawsuits being filed against the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Thousands of applicants have challenged the decisions delivered on their cases by the BAMF, including deportation orders back to potentially unsafe countries such as Afghanistan.

Based on RND’s estimations, there are approximately 250,000 asylum-related cases waiting to be brought before the courts.

Good grief! What about all the other civil cases - they will have to wait for years to be heard.

“The administrative court system cannot endure such a figure in the long run. At some point, everything will collapse,” Seegmüller warned. “Things may go well for a while, but not permanently.”

With such a vast volume of cases, the German legal system finds itself lacking judges and other personnel, space, and IT capabilities, he added.

“The justice system is indeed determined to bulk itself up, but it is ever more difficult to find the desperately needed personnel,” he said.

Seegmuller said in addition to the volume of work, the courts have to deal with poor decision-making by immigration authorities. He would not elaborate further.

The situation has been further complicated by a explosive reports earlier this year, in which a group of German soldiers with right-wing affiliations, allegedly plotted the assassinations of left-wing politicians with the intention to pin the crimes on migrants.

One of the suspects had managed to obtain a second identity as a Syrian refugee, prompting an early review of up to 100,000 asylum decisions which has created an even bigger backlog, according to the German Interior Ministry.

Only 2% Potential Migrants Amid 10,000 Rejected Boarding Denmark-Sweden Ferry

File picture shows a Danish custom officers at the Oeresund Bridge border control between

Denmark and Sweden © Morten Germund / Reuters

A multimillion dollar project mandated by Swedish authorities aiming to find illegal migrants and asylum seekers crossing the strait from Denmark only has a success rate of some 2 percent, mostly complicating ordinary commuters lives, a ferry operator revealed.

Stockholm introduced identity checks for travelers from Denmark to Sweden in January as part of measures to reduce the flow of illegal migrants. Passengers boarding trains, ferries or buses bound for Sweden are required to show a passport or other form of ID in order to be allowed onboard.

Now HH Ferries, which offers sea connections between the two neighbors, says that security checks only stem out 2 percent from the entire flow of passengers.

The route that runs between the Danish town of Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden, this year, only refused 200 entries to illegal asylum seekers while turning down 10,000 Swedes and Danes, who simply forgot to take along their papers.

“The majority of the people we refuse boarding are Scandinavian citizens, mostly Swedes. We’re obviously all used to travelling in a region where mobility is in flow,” Henrik Rørbæk, administrative director of HH Ferries, told DR.

One would think being fluent in Danish or Swedish would be sufficient proof. They are looking for migrants after all. Is that too much like racial profiling for the Swedish government?

While the nationwide success rate of the ID check program is not known, Rørbæk believes the mandatory government requirements are not worth the expenses. Rørbæk claimed that his company spends an equivalent of $325,000 every month to follow government’s regulation. Failure to check ID may result in a government fine of $5,400.

“It is a big procedure for the sake of relatively small figures. And in general, the flow of asylum seekers up here has not been very great. It also shouldn’t be any secret that this is costing us large amounts each month,” Rørbæk continued.

Over three million passengers passed through ID checks in 2016, reports DR. HH Ferries Group owns the ferry route between Helsingborg and Helsingör running across Öresund strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border.

With vessels departing every fifteen minutes on a 20 minute-long route, the company’s fleet can transport up to 50,000 passengers and 9,000 cars as well as 1,600 buses and trucks across Öresund on a daily basis.

But frustrating as it may be for Scandinavians to cross their borders, Sweden’s Integration Minister Inger Støjberg maintains that border control should stay.

“We know that things can change very quickly and that a large number of asylum seekers who possibly want to travel on to Sweden might come here, and get stuck here, so as long as the Swedes maintain their ID checks, I see no reason why we should lift our border control,” Støjberg told DR.

Overall Sweden in 2015 received about 163,000 asylum seekers, but has lowered the estimate to about 30,000 bids in 2016.

EU to Help Mali Economy in Exchange for Easier Migrant Repatriation

Finally, a sane, rational, and reasonable approach to the migration problem. It needs to be a template for other African countries.

© Andreas Solaro / AFP

The EU and Mali have reached an agreement on repatriating asylum applicants who are denied entry by European authorities. In exchange for Mali accepting the migrants back, the EU will invest funds to help it and its neighbors improve border security.

“It is the first time the EU establishes such a precise mechanism with an African country with regards to returning failed asylum seekers,” a statement from Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, who signed the agreement on the EU's behalf, said on Monday, as cited by Deutsche Welle. Koenders, who was on an official visit to the Malian capital Bamako, called the deal “necessary,” explaining that it aims to fight the root causes of illegal migration.

“There is support for the way in which we want to do a partnership with Mali, which involves very much working on the root causes in Mali, on why people are leaving,” he said, as cited by Reuters.

“We've worked a lot on the battle against trafficking, now we can work together to ensure that no people are dying on the road to Libya and Algeria,” he told the news agency.

Under the agreement, the EU will provide funds to Mali to help it create more jobs and improve border management, including by introducing biometric passports and advancing security in the northern part of the country, which borders Algeria.

In return, Mali promised to repatriate its citizens who have reached Europe but were deemed ineligible for asylum there, and also aid the EU in the fight against people smugglers.

The deal comes as the EU looks to collaborate on migration with the countries from which most asylum seekers originate. Some 1.4 million people have arrived in the EU since last year, many of them taking a dangerous route across the Mediterranean Sea. According to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), this year has seen an estimated 4,733 casualties among migrants trying to reach Europe via the sea, which is 1,148 more recorded deaths than at the same point in 2015.

    Great Mosque, Djenne, Mali

As of December 7, more than 350,000 migrants had entered Europe by sea since the beginning of 2016. Most came from Syria, where the civil war has claimed the lives of over 250,000 people and displaced some 12 million others since 2011, UN figures show. Asylum seekers have also come in large numbers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Eritrea, Mali and other countries in the region.

The flood of migrants and refugees has in many cases caused a mixture of anger and uncertainty among European nations, and the bloc has made curbing immigration a priority. EU states have been strengthening their common external borders and adjusting legislation, and are now working on similar deals to the Mali one with Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger and Afghanistan.

In March of this year, the EU reached a landmark deal on migrants with Turkey. The sides agreed to return all illegal migrants reaching Greece from Turkey's shores in exchange for the EU taking in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and giving Ankara €6 billion ($6.8 billion) in funding over the next five years. The deal, however, has recently been threatened by Turkey itself, as it aimed to gain visa-free travel within the Schengen Zone for Turkish citizens, but no moves in this direction have been undertaken by the EU.

Nor should there ever be; it would become a highway for terrorists!

Apart from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon host most of the refugees from the Syrian war. These have also been receiving more EU funds as help in coping with the newcomers, as well as means to prevent them from moving on to Europe.

Is anyone curious why Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Gulf States, and North African countries are not taking refugees? Anyone besides me?

Austria to Deport 50,000 Asylum Seekers by 2019, Will Offer €500 to Those Leaving Voluntarily

Austria plans to deport 50,000 failed asylum seekers within the next four years, after Vienna MPs last week approved a bill toughening admission policies for migrants.

© Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

Some remarkably sensible decisions out of Vienna!

This brings the total of migrants to be deported to 150,000 by 3 countries - Austria, Denmark and Sweden

“I think 50,000 is realistic [in terms of a number to deport],” Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz stated.

“But at the same time, it is clear that many of the refugees who have come to us will stay here. We therefore need to stop the influx,” he told the Austria Press Agency (APA).

The federal government will offer as much as €500 (US$544) in “return assistance” to migrants who leave voluntarily within three months after their asylum applications were rejected, according to the APA. The country is also considering using its C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft for deportations, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said, according to Reuters.

Vienna has added Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Georgia, Mongolia and Ghana to a list of countries described as ‘safe,’ enabling it to send asylum seekers back to those areas more quickly.

Kurz said late last month that Austria (with a population of less than 8.5 million people) recently accepted the second highest number of refugees per capita in Europe.

“Last year Austria had 90,000 asylum applications. This number is too high for a small country, and measured in terms of population, it is the second highest in Europe after Sweden,” he told the Aargauer Zeitung daily.

The government said last month that it would seek to cap the number of asylum seekers at 37,500 in 2016. In the next four years, Austria plans to take in a number of refugees amounting to no more than 1.5 percent of its population.

“Anything else would overwhelm our country. The United States takes on only 10,000 refugees. Slovenia only 1,000. We saw 90,000 applications last year. We cannot cope, for sure,” Kurz told the APA.

Last Tuesday, Austrian MPs approved a new bill that allows the fate of a refugee to be reconsidered for up to three years after they were granted asylum. It states that if asylum seekers are no longer in danger after a three-year period, they could be deported. Deportation is unlikely if a refugee is already well-integrated and there are humanitarian reasons why they should not be sent back, the new rules say.

The new policy also specifies how long asylum seekers will have to wait to apply to bring their family members to join them. Refugees under subsidiary protection need to wait for at least three years before applying. War refugees from countries like Syria have to apply within three months and convince the government that they have enough resources to support their family members. The Austrian government has promised that each case will be considered on an individual basis.

Last month Kurz said that refugees who refuse to attend special integration training courses in Austria as a part of a new program may see their social benefits cut.

“Those who are not willing to learn German, who do not want to be part of the labor market, who are not ready to attend an integration course, will face social benefits cuts,” Kurz said in Davos. “The migrant inflow should be reduced but those who do have the right to get asylum should be integrated into society,” the minister stressed.

According to the new regulations issued by the Austrian Defense Ministry, the country is set to use its army to stop refugees intending to transit through Germany and not apply for asylum there, as hundreds are being rejected at the German border. More than 1,000 migrants with forged IDs are being turned around at the Austrian border each week. The soldiers’ presence will be made “clearly visible” to deter migrants trying to find illegal ways into Austria.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also demanded the legal option of deploying Bundeswehr troops, following attacks on hundreds of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

Sexual assaults and harassment of women by male refugees and migrants has become a particular concern for European governments.

Sweden Imposes Temporary Border Controls to Deal with Migrants

© Roger Sahlström / YouTube

Sweden is introducing temporary border controls to halt the influx of refugees and to screen those trying to enter the country illegally. The 10-day closure, effective from Thursday at noon, was announced by the country’s interior minister, Anders Ygeman.

EU refugee & migrant influx
“A record number of refugees are arriving in Sweden. The migration office is under strong pressure... and the police believe there is a threat against public order,” Ygeman told a press conference.

Border controls, the minister believes, will “bring order” to the national asylum system. Ygeman mentioned the refugees will be given options to apply for asylum in Sweden or leave the country. Stockholm may consider extending the border controls for 20 days.

The restrictions will primarily affect the Oresund bridge where migrants cross from Denmark, as well as ferry ports in the south that receive vessels from Denmark and Germany. The government has already asked the ferry companies in Germany to check passengers’ IDs before they board boats bound for Sweden.

Sweden, which receives the most migrants per capita in the EU, says it has welcomed more than 120,000 people since January. By the end of the year, up to 190,000 asylum seekers are expected to reach the country, more than doubling the number who came in 2014, when the Scandinavian country received 81,000 refugees.

In light of this, the minister said that Sweden is the country that has taken “the greatest responsibility for the refugee crisis” and that other countries need to follow suit.

The moves to tighten its borders came as European and African leaders met in Malta to hammer out a joint strategy to deal with the biggest refugees crisis since World War II. About 140,000 of the nearly 800,000 migrants who have reached Europe by sea in 2015 came from Africa, according to figures from the International Organization of Migration.

Following the border closure, Fredrik Bengtsson, a spokesman for the Swedish Migration Agency, said that currently the authorities are struggling to deal with the influx.

This is not good!
Swedish migration officers have been picking people up by bus once they cross the border, before delivering them to government offices. But “once they get there, quite a lot don’t enter and get registered, but disappear,” Bengtsson said.

The communications director for the migration office, Mikael Hvinlund, stressed that border closure will offer asylum seekers better living conditions.

“People are forced to sleep in tents, in offices and in evacuation centres” normally used for natural disasters, Hvinlund said. “We are not fulfilling our mission, which is to offer a roof to everyone... Re-establishing border controls can help us.”

Last week, Stockholm urged the European Commission (EC) to arrange for some migrants to be moved to other EU states.

Sweden is the fourth country to re-establish border controls since the start of the migrant crisis this summer. In September, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia temporarily limited the free movement policy within the EU.

Slovenia building fences
While Sweden moves ahead with its migration approach, Slovenia announced that a razor-wire fence is being erected along the border with Croatia to stem the flow of migrants.

Slovenia starts erecting razor fence along Croatian border
amid migrant crisis © Antonio Bronic

Slovenia followed Hungary in sealing its borders last month. Following the move Slovenia became the epicenter of Balkan route for the thousands of migrants who are fleeing conflict in Africa and the Middle East.

ISIS Terrorist Arrested in Stuttgart Refugee Center; Boxes of Fake Syrian Passports Intercepted

An ISIS terrorist posing as an “asylum seeker” has been arrested by German police in a “refugee” center in Stuttgart, and German customs officers have seized boxes containing Syrian passports being smuggled into Europe.

According to a report carried by RTL’s German language service, the terrorist is a 21-year-old Moroccan using a “false identity” who had registered as an asylum seeker in the district of Ludwigsburg. He was identified after police linked him to a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish authorities. He is accused of recruiting fighters for ISIS, where he acted as a contact person for fighters who wanted to travel to Syria or Iraq.

This first confirmed arrest of a bogus “asylum seeker” came simultaneously with the admission by a German finance ministry spokesman that “boxes” of fake Syrian passports, destined for sale and distribution to the hordes of nonwhite invaders seeking to settle in Europe as bogus “war refugees,” had been seized.

That news, carried in a report by the German Tagespiegel newspaper, also revealed that 10,000 fake Syrian passports were seized by police in Bulgaria, on their way to Germany.

The finance ministry official said both genuine and forged passports were in the packets intercepted in the post. Possession of these passports is a vital part of claiming “asylum” as “war refugees.”

The Tagespiegel also revealed that the fake Syrian passports are being sold for about $1,500 each—and the fact that many of the “refugees” can afford to buy multiple passports is yet another indication of the bogus nature of their claims to be “asylum seekers.”

Actually, the writer of this article doesn't seem to know that Syrian asylum seekers are 'war refugees' (I believe) not 'economic refugees'.

Significantly, the Tagespiegel article continued, “It is not only Syrians who are interested in Syrian passports. Refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan want to become Syrian in order to secure their recognition as asylum seekers in Western Europe. According to press reports, nine out of ten refugees who came from Macedonia to Serbia claimed they were Syrians.”

The trade in fake Syrian passports was also confirmed by the head of the EU frontier police, Fabrice Leggeri, in a recent interview with the Europe 1 TV station.

Leggeri told Europe 1 that the trade in fake Syrian passports originated in Turkey. “There are people who are now in Turkey, buying false Syrian passports because they have obviously realized that it is a windfall since Syrians get asylum in all Member States in the European Union,” he said.

“People who use false Syrian passports often speak in Arabic. They may originate in North Africa or the Middle East, but have the profile of economic migrants.”

As I watched news reports last night of the migrants arriving in Germany, I noticed that a few of them put their backpacks up on their shoulders to hide their faces from the camera. Gee, I wonder why? 

ISIS said some months ago that they would send 500,000 terrorists into Europe this year. That is a ridiculous number, of course, they don't have 500,000 terrorists, but it's a good bet that they have embedded some terrorists into the migrant exodus. Whether that number is in the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands, or tens of thousands, only time will tell.

Is the sudden realization that terrorists are embedded in the migrant flow the reason Germany activated the military? I would bet money on it, though they won't admit it now.