Migrants on the Move in Europe > Greek Coast Guard shoots migrant; Solingen Terrorist wasn't deported because he wasn't home at the time

 

Greek Coast Guard opens fire on migrant vessel

from Turkey after provocation, one migrant killed

Aug 26, 2024 10:30 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Turkey has been bullying and provoking Greece for quite some time, while aiding Muslim migrants to invade Greece — which is, of course, recognized as an important entry point to the European Union.

Recently, a Greek border guard was shot by what was believed to be a migrant smuggler while he was patrolling the unsafe border with Turkey.

Tensions will continue to grow between Greece and Turkey. Islamic supremacist Turkey is at fault.

Greece Coast Guard opens fire on migrant vessel from Turkey and kills one

by Lilian Trickey, Jurist, August 24, 2024:

The Greek Coast Guard confirmed on Friday that they opened fire on a boat of Turkish migrants and killed one man, according to local media sources.

The migrants were allegedly agitating the coast guard by rocking the latter’s boat, which prompted the crew to fire “warning shots” before shooting at the migrants. In their statement, the coast guard stated that the victim, a 39-year-old man, was likely killed by one of the bullets.

Greece has faced ongoing criticism over its treatment of migrants. In April 2023, the Aegean Boat Report registered “57 illegal pushbacks in the Aegean Sea” by the nation’s coast guard. The rights organization found in that month alone, 1,711 people were “denied their right to seek asylum” and that “their human rights [were] violated by the Greek government.”

What is the difference between the right to seek asylum and the crime of sneaking into a foreign country without permission? Can someone explain that to me? 

The Aegean Boat Report added that in the prior three years, Greece pushed back 58,000 migrants from Turkey in 2,167 separate cases…..

Germany's Scholz vows to increase deportations

after visit to Solingen mass stabbing site

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his government was looking at more ways to increase the rate of deportations during a visit to the site of a deadly mass stabbing carried out by a suspected Islamic State group member from Syria. Speaking during the visit, Scholz said that deportations had already increased by some two thirds compared to 2021 levels.

Issued on: 26/08/2024 - 15:31Modified: 26/08/2024 - 15:36    2 min

By:NEWS WIRES

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Video by:Antonia KERRIGAN

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to step up deportations on Monday during a visit to Solingen, where a deadly mass stabbing linked to the Islamic State group has emboldened the far-right opposition and stoked criticism of his government's handling of migration.

"We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported," Scholz told reporters in the western city, where he laid a flower at the scene of the crime.

"This was terrorism, terrorism against us all," he added.

The attack, in which a 26-year-old suspected Islamic State group member from Syria is accused of killing three people, has fuelled political tensions over asylum and deportation rules ahead of three state elections next month.

The militant Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on Friday evening during a festival celebrating Solingen's 650-year history. Alongside the three killed, eight were injured, some seriously.

The theme of the festival was "Celebrate Diversity"!

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which campaigns for a crackdown on migration, is leading in the polls in Saxony and Thuringia, where state elections are set for Sunday, and in Brandenburg, which has its election on Sept. 22.

The AfD seized on the attack in its election campaign, with Thuringia's leading candidate for the party, Bjoern Hoecke, pitching to voters the choice of "Hoecke or Solingen".

Opinion pollsters Stefan Merz of Infratest dimap and Manfred Guellner of Forsa told Reuters the attack would be unlikely to translate into more votes for the far-right party because its supporters had already been mobilised by migration issues.

Infratest dimap's Merz cited the possibility that the centre-right CDU could benefit at the expense of Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats.

Botched deportation

The attack puts pressure on Scholz as his Social Democrats, alongside their Green and Free Democrat coalition partners, bruised from months of quarrelling, are trailing in the polls.

In a sign of tougher rhetoric, Scholz promised in October 2023 to ramp up deportations "big style" – a promise he repeated after his visit to the Solingen attack scene.

Again in June, Scholz said he would take a tougher stance on deportation after an Afghan man stabbed a police officer, who later died of his injuries, during an attack on a right-wing demonstration in the city of Mannheim.

Scholz said on Monday deportations had increased by some two thirds compared to 2021 levels. "But that is no reason for us to sit back and relax," he added, saying the government was looking at legal and practical ways to boost the numbers.

Statistica reports some 16,000 deportations in 2023, 4000 more than in 2022.

Astonishing!

Authorities had planned to deport the suspect in Friday's attack to Bulgaria last year under European Union asylum rules, according to German media. The deportation was unsuccessful because the man had not been at his refugee accommodation when authorities tried to carry out the measure, the reports said.

A government spokesperson said the deportation plan had "failed in practice" rather than on any legal basis.

So, it sounds like the police made one effort to deport the terrorist, but because he wasn't home at that moment, they forgot about him. Someone should be held responsible for that piece of extremely shoddy work that ended up with 3 people dead and 8 wounded.

(Reuters)

Astonishing - ’Fake Officer’ Lied His Way into Swedish Military Intel & NATO for Decade

‘Totally incomprehensible’: ’Fake officer’ lied his way into Swedish military intel & NATO, hid forged credentials for decade

Military patrol in Sweden. FILE PHOTO © Reuters / TT News Agency

A Swedish man with no official training faked his way into the top ranks of Swedish military intelligence, helming sensitive projects before he was posted to NATO and later the Coast Guard. How did this happen?

The Swedish Armed Forces – and now NATO, which only learned of the deception this week – are furious, demanding to know how the man was able to slip through the cracks even after he was discovered and booted from his high-ranking Coast Guard post in January 2019 – only to reemerge at the helm of Sweden’s UN mission to Mali.

The faker first bluffed his way into a supervisory role in the military in Kosovo and Afghanistan, forging a diploma from the Signal Troops Officers’ College in Enköping with a fake colonel’s signature, Dagens Nyheter revealed on Monday.

He later faked higher degrees and special training in order to take on more senior positions in military intelligence, supervising not only other soldiers but also information security. These were important positions, with the impersonator overseeing the development of cryptographic keys at the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) – meaning responsibility for the military’s secure communications rested on his shoulders.

Amazing! Military intelligence security in the hands of a complete fraud! How ironic! 

In 2012, the fraudster was assigned to NATO in Brussels, the outlet revealed earlier this week. He even received a medal for his service, before crossing over to the private sector to work in information security with a subsidiary of defense contractor Saab.

The situation is “totally incomprehensible,” NATO expert Ann-Sofie Dahl lamented to DN, adding that it was “very, very worrying for Sweden’s cooperation with NATO.” It was a “feather in [Sweden’s] cap” to be permitted to work so closely with the alliance, Dahl said, and “it will take a very long time and great efforts to repair” trust in the country.

The impersonator wasn’t even found out during his time with NATO. In fact, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel so that he could work with more senior officers. He successfully hid for another five years, joining the Coast Guard in a high-ranking role with access to classified material. Only in December 2018 did the service find out he was lying about his credentials, removing him from his post the following month.

Somehow, though, that wasn’t the end of his military career. The Swedish Armed Forces is trying to figure out how he subsequently ended up as chief of staff for Sweden’s UN operation in Mali.

Lieutenant Colonel Carl-Axel Blomdahl, who is leading the official investigation into the case, insists they never got the warning from the Coast Guard about the man with the “doubtful CV.”

“Had we had access to the information, we would have acted on it,” he insisted. Blomdahl nevertheless waited to break the bad news to NATO until Monday, when DN published its own investigation exposing the man’s forged credentials. Needless to say, Brussels was not pleased.

“I don’t know exactly how to describe their reaction. But they don’t think this is particularly good,” Blomdahl told DN.

Armed Forces Commander-in-chief Micael Bydén demanded to know why the man’s deception was not shared with all branches of military command, ordering an investigation to “get to the bottom of this” in a written statement seen by DN.

Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson also demanded to know how the fraudster had gone undiscovered for a decade, likening the fiasco to the 2017 IT scandal at the Swedish Transport Agency, in which a huge trove of sensitive data was leaked, forcing several government ministers to resign in disgrace.

Maybe there's a clue in this report as to how he went undiscovered for a decade. You will note his name is being withheld, we have to wonder why? Is he a Muslim migrant, by any chance? Whether he is or not, his name and photo should be everywhere or else he is liable to end up as a minister in Stefan's cabinet.

Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist acknowledged that the ministry had received a notice from the Ministry of Justice about the faker. But since he had been removed from his Coast Guard position, explained Hultqvist’s press secretary, “the issue was… deemed to be resolved, and there was no reason to inform the Defense Ministry’s political leadership.” Hultqvist and Bydén have both been called before the Swedish parliament’s defense committee to answer questions about the case. 

EU Proposes Supporting Libya to Tackle Migrant Crisis

The only question is, why did it take the EU 2 years to come up with this idea?

One would have thought it to be the first thing they would think of.

By Andrew V. Pestano

Scores of migrants cling to the hull of a fishing boat as it made its way across the Mediterranean Sea 

on May 25. Europe has been dealing with a migrant crisis for years. Libya is now being used as a

gateway to smuggle people out of north Africa into Europe and EU leaders in Malta on Thursday

discussed possible ways to curb the circumstance. Photo courtesy Marina Militare Italiana

(UPI) -- European Union leaders in a Malta meeting proposed supporting the Libyan coast guard through training and equipment, and increasing actions against human smugglers in efforts to curb an inflow of migrants.

Human smugglers have been using Libya, which has a split government and no nationwide security apparatus in place, as a gateway to smuggle people from various African countries to Europe following a deal between the EU and Turkey, once the gateway, to tackle the migrant crisis.

Italy's coast guard on Thursday said more than 1,750 migrants had been rescued in the Mediterranean Sea within 24 hours. More than 180,000 migrants reached Italy last year, while about 5,000 died along the way.

The EU has a military presence in the Mediterranean Sea in the international waters off the coast of Libya but EU leaders have proposed increasing that support to find and shut down existing human smuggling routes.

"The status quo is unacceptable and something has to be done, this is why we want to train the Libyan coast guard and engage with communities inside the country," a EU diplomat said in Malta.

EU leaders in Malta also want humanitarian repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests have been rejected and improved conditions for migrants. Prior to the Malta meeting, EU Council President Donald Tusk said breaking up human smuggling operations and stopping dangerous sea travel "is the only way to stop people dying in the desert and at sea, and this is also the only way to gain control over migration in Europe."

Fayez al-Seraj, Libya's leader who leads a fragile U.N.-backed government, on Thursday met with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to sign a bilateral agreement to increase cooperation and to fight against human smuggling.

"If we want to give real strength and legs to managing migration flows, then there needs to be an economic commitment by the whole of the EU," Gentiloni said Thursday.