New interior minister vows end to ‘refugee camp’ Italy
Italy’s newly sworn-in minister of the interior and one of the leaders of the Euroskeptic coalition, Matteo Salvini, has assured Italians that he’s ready to fight illegal immigration and fulfill his election promises.
Only days after the long-awaited government was formed, the leader of the League party travelled to Sicily, where he confirmed that he intends to initiate a massive crackdown on migrants, declaring that “the free ride is over.”
“As the minister of interior, I will collaborate with the European and African states to do everything I can to avoid more deaths [in the Mediterranean], avoid that thousands of desperate people deceive themselves that, here in Sicily, there are houses and jobs for everyone,” Salvini said during his visit to one of the migrant “hot spots” in Sicily.
According to a poll conducted by Quorum in 2017, 68 percent of Italian voters have a negative view of immigration.
Many people applauded when Salvini said that “Italy and Sicily cannot be Europe's refugee camp” anymore, and that Italy needed to create deportation centers.
Not everyone is in favor of Salvini’s tough migration policies, however. There were those who heard dangerous notes in his speeches in Sicily, with protesters shouting “Salvini, go home!”“Shame on you!” and bluntly calling him “racist.”
Salvini’s anti-immigrant initiative has also been dismissed as unrealistic by critics like journalist Oscar Giannino, who on his radio program ‘La Versione di Oscar’ raised doubts about whether the new interior minister had properly evaluated all the difficulties involved in repatriating over 500,000 people.
However, during his visit to Sicily, Salvini emphasized that his was not a “hard line against migrants,” but simply “a line of commonsense.” With “€5 billion spent to keep migrants in hotels,” it would be better to reallocate this money and send them back home to their countries of origin and invest in their future, he said. This was especially so because not all of them were asylum seekers, as they declared themselves to be, he said.
“They are not asylum seekers, because someone arriving from Tunisia isn’t escaping any war,” the minister said.
Widely criticized by the European community for his anti-migrant rhetoric, the League’s leader insisted that he wanted to safeguard the interests of common Italians.
“They either help us to safeguard our boundaries, save lives, and ensure the security of our country or we will have to take a different path,” the minister said, responding to the criticism.
In light of the forthcoming meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg to discuss the EU’s “Dublin” rule, Salvini emphasized that the problem of immigration could not be solely an Italian problem anymore. The Dublin rule, under which migrants have to file for asylum in the first EU state in which they arrive, had serious repercussions for Italy, which remains the favorite spot for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea in smugglers' boats. It was forced to receive over 700,000 refugees since 2013.
Most refugees, who had initially intended to move to countries in northern Europe, never made it there because of stricter border controls in France, Austria and Switzerland.
Europe’s largest prison housing radicalized inmates
‘starting to explode’
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters
A major French prison, which houses more than a hundred radicalized inmates, is overcrowded, understaffed and “starting to explode,” a correctional officers’ union warns. It says the guards suffer attacks and commit suicide.
Europe’s largest prison Fleury-Merogis is in dire condition, the representative of the CGT Penitentiaries Union told RT. “Every day in France, there are prison supervisors who are attacked violently; every day we have security problems because all the proposals are not yet in place,” Ambroise Koubi said. He added that the authorities offered to send in extra 1,100 supervisors, but so far it didn’t happen.
“Fleury-Merogis is starting to explode already. Because we are tired of this. You are the first TV channel I’m telling this to, but yesterday we had a suicide,” Koubi said, adding that the prison had 10 other suicide cases since January, with supervisors among the victims.
The prison, situated north of Paris, (Google Maps, below, shows it in the south of Paris) housed several well-known jihadists. Among them was Salah Abdeslam, who organized the Paris shootings in November 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked a kosher store in January 2015, and the Charlie Hebdo attacker Cherif Kouachi. The jail currently has over 120 radicalized inmates, says the penitentiaries union official.
Koubi told RT that the existing staff isn’t enough to maintain an overcrowded jail. “On one floor, the supervisor can have between 100-130 detainees to manage,” he said. “Just imagine how hard it is to manage all these prisoners.”
The prison guards staged several protests in the past, decrying the lack of attention towards poor working conditions inside and the radicalization of inmates. In January, they managed to block the entrance to the prison for a few hours and clashed with riot police.
Overall, there are more than 500 terrorists currently behind bars in France’s prisons, with 1,200 more inmates considered to be radicalized, according to the French Justice Minister. The government is set to release 40 convicted terrorists within two years.
The country’s public anti-terrorism prosecutor voiced concern over the plans. “There is a major risk of seeing people who are not at all repentant at the end of their sentence come out of prison, who could even be more radical given their stay in prison,” Francois Molins told French BFM TV channel last week.
No kidding! The solution is not a very good one, but I haven't heard any better. The solution is to declare radicalized Muslims insane, for they surely are, and then lock them up until they renounce Mohammed and the Quran. If they are unable to do that then they should remain in a secure facility or be deported.
Jihadis and far-right extremists to be targeted in UK's renewed counter-terrorism strategy
The new measures will give security services greater powers to intervene in terror plots
© Luke MacGregor/Reuters
The Home Office has announced an overhauled counter-terrorism strategy that includes the closer monitoring of British jihadists and a new approach to targeting the growing threat of far-right extremism.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced the new measures as part of efforts to revamp the security service’s Contest strategy, which will utilize a multi-agency approach in order to tackle terrorist threats that are becoming “increasingly diverse.”
Javid has previously described his family's heritage as Muslim but clarified that he himself does not practise any religion.[6][66] He received religious hate mail in the form of a "Punish a Muslim day" parcel; as of March 2018, he was the fifth British MP to receive such abuse.[67]
Normally, when I quote Wikipedia, as I did immediately above, I remove footnote references. I didn't this time because it struck me as hilarious.
I was horrified when his name was announced as the new Home Secretary, but having read about him, I have to say I am very impressed; and I like what he's doing here.
As part of the renewed strategy, technology companies will have greater responsibility in tackling cases of extremism online, while Javid has called for greater cooperation with businesses when they spot worrying buying-patterns, or suspicious behavior while hiring a vehicle, purchasing chemicals, or components that could be combined to make explosives.
An additional 1,000 security services staff will also be recruited to collect and analyze data as well as keep suspects under better surveillance, and powers will be granted with the intention to disrupt terrorist plots and jail suspects before an attack could take place.
MI5 and counter terrorism police are currently running more than 500 live operations involving roughly 3,000 'subjects of interest'.
At the Contest relaunch, Javid said that there had been a “step change” in the threat from terrorism. He also drew a comparison between Islamist extremists and far-right terrorists.
The Home Secretary said the UK will still identify “the biggest threat is from Islamist terrorism,” including Al-Qaeda and “Daesh,” the Arabic term used for Islamic State, he will also identify far-right extremism as a growing cause for concern.
“...Extreme right-wing terrorism is also an increasing threat," Javid said on Monday. "Both exploit grievances, distort the truth, and undermine the values that hold us together."
Of course, right-wing extremism grows because the government does so little in controlling Muslim immigration and in curbing Muslim men's violent behaviour toward young, White, British girls. Many are being prosecuted now, but there is still a profound reluctance in many areas to clamp down on Pakistani child sex exploiters.
"Our greatest strength lies not only in what we do but who we are and the values and freedoms we hold dear," Javid added."That is why everyone has a part to play in confronting terrorism. I want to say to all those who stand up against all forms of extremism that this government stands with you. I stand with you. But there is more for us all to do."
The announcement comes the day after the first anniversary of the London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attacks where eight people were murdered by jihadists.
Javid also reaffirmed his support for the government’s much criticized Prevent program, which aims to avoid radicalization and extremism. This will see MI5 warn teachers and police about terrorism suspects in future.
Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, however, has called for Prevent to be reviewed, claiming it can be counterproductive, according to the Guardian.
Earlier this year, it was reported that anti-fracking and animal rights activists were being included in Prevent training, with Merseyside Police likening them to jihadists and neo-Nazis.
Since March last year, security services and police claim to have thwarted 12 jihadist and four far-right terror plots.
Switzerland to inspect Facebook and Twitter profiles
of asylum seekers
File photo © Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
Asylum seekers in Switzerland could soon have their social media profiles reviewed as part of their application processes, according to local media reports.
The newspaper ‘NZZ am Sonntag’ reported that Swiss authorities will inspect data from an applicant’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to investigate claims of asylum. A spokesperson for the State Secretariat for Migration told the newspaper that the information published on these sites can cultivate a better understanding of a person’s circumstances.
"From the information that asylum seekers publish on social networks, it may be possible to draw conclusions that may be of importance for the asylum procedure such as references to family relationships," the spokesperson said in a statement cited by SwissInfo.
Quite frankly, I'm astonished to see this report. Astonished that is isn't already being done everywhere in Europe and America.
A working group has now been established to set down rules around how and under what conditions information on social media can be accessed.
Advocates for the strategy cite the case of a Nigerian man who applied for asylum in Switzerland in 2016 amid claims that he had been persecuted in his own country. After finding pictures the man’s wife had posted online, investigators learned that he had not come from Nigeria but from Spain, where he had been living under a different name. A deportation order was appealed by the man’s lawyers on the grounds that the man’s privacy had been violated. The appeal was rejected by a federal court.
According to the non-profit group Swiss Refugee Council, Switzerland received more than 18,000 applications for asylum last year, including a record number from people living in other European countries. The majority of applications from outside Europe were from people from Eritrea, Syria and Afghanistan.
