Refugees arrive at the train station in Dortmund, Germany. Photo / AP
Refugees arrive at the train station in Dortmund, Germany. Photo / AP
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker will try to overcome hostility from eastern Europe to a plan of migrant distribution quotas by offering bounties worth thousands of euros.
In an address to the European Parliament tomorrow, Juncker is expected to highlight compensation of 6000 euros to be given for each refugee a country accepts. Countries will be paid 500 in transport costs for every asylum seeker who arrives in their country who needs to be relocated to an EU neighbour within the scheme.
Juncker is trying to build political support for a mandatory scheme to relocate some 160,000 refugees from Italy, Greece and Hungary to other countries within the eurozone. A similar plan for 40,000 people had to be downgraded from "mandatory" to "voluntary" this year after facing objections from member states.
Migrants walk from the main station in Dortmund, Germany, to a hall where they get first attendance. Photo / AP
The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia at the weekend said the revived proposals were "unacceptable". Hungary and Slovakia regard the Middle Eastern refugees as a threat to their countries' Christian identity.
Federica Mogherini, the EU's chief diplomat, says the flow is "here to stay", and says those coming to Europe are refugees who need legal protection. Eastern European countries claim the people are motivated by higher standards of living and are coming from states such as Pakistan and Mali. "It is partially a migrant flow, but it is mainly a refugee flow, which puts us in a different situation when it comes to our legal and moral duties," said Mogherini.
International aid agencies estimate that nearly 340,000 people have sought to cross EU borders since January. Two-thirds of the latest European arrivals are believed to be from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea - countries considered by aid groups to be "refugee producing states," due to war or human rights abuses.
Documents scattered metres from Serbia's border with Hungary provide evidence that some people are scrapping their true nationalities and probably assuming new ones, just as they enter the EU. Many of those travellers believe using a fake document - or having none - gives them a better of chance of receiving asylum in western states. That is because the surest route to asylum is to be a refugee from war and not an economic migrant fleeing poverty. That fact has led to a huge influx of people claiming to be Syrian.
Serbian border police say 90 per cent of those arriving from Macedonia, about 3000 a day, claim they are Syrian, although they have no documents to prove it. The so-called Balkan corridor for the migrant flight starts in Turkey. "You can see that something is fishy when most of those who cross into Serbia enter January 1 as the date of their birth," said border police officer Miroslav Jovic. "Guess that's the first date that comes to their mind."
Fabrice Leggeri, the chief of EU border agency Frontex, said trafficking in fake Syrian passports had increased. In Germany, customs authorities have intercepted packages mailed to Germany containing Syrian passports, both genuine and counterfeit, according to the Finance Ministry.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow refugees stranded in Hungary to enter Germany caused a split in her conservative coalition. Merkel and Hungarian President Viktor Orban had agreed the decision to let refugees cross the borders was a temporary one made for humanitarian reasons. But leaders of Bavaria's Christian Social Union, the regional sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats in Berlin's ruling coalition, said the decision "sent totally the wrong signal".
And in Austria, authorities said they planned to halt efforts to welcome refugees with special trains and speedy processing, a sign of the competing pulls in the nation.
Issuing a broad appeal to Europe's Catholics, Pope Francis has called on "every" parish, religious community, monastery and sanctuary to take in one refugee family - an appeal that, if honoured, would offer shelter to tens of thousands.
Volunteers sort donated clothes for arriving refugees in Dortmund, Germany. Photo / AP
The Pope weighed in just as anti-migrant politicians, including senior European leaders, are wielding religion as a weapon.
Orban last week proclaimed Europe's "Christian identity" was under threat. Slovakia declared it would grant asylum only to Christians.
Francis delivered a direct challenge to such thinking. "Facing the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees - fleeing death by war and famine, and journeying towards the hope of life - the Gospel calls, asking of us to be close to the smallest and forsaken. To give them a concrete hope," he said. "And not just to tell them: 'Have courage, be patient!"'
Migrants who go against the flowAs people fleeing their homelands braved the risk of drowning to sail north towards Europe this year, Ibrahima Sarr crossed the Mediterranean in the other direction.
He came home to Senegal after almost a decade hawking counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags on Spain's southern beaches, to fulfil his dream of starting a business.
Sarr now sells rice, onions, potatoes and cooking oil in his neon-lit grocery store at the bustling Keur Mbaye Fall market in an eastern suburb of the capital, Dakar.
"In Africa, a son who migrates is the family's dream come true; they think it's the end of their problems," said Sarr. "It takes courage and ambition to return."
Sarr, 40, is the lesser-seen face of an influx of migrants from African coasts to Europe. He was among those driven by aspiration. Seen from Senegal, economic migrants enrich their families - and countries - when they send money home or return and invest. He replaced the floor tiles and mounted ventilators on the ceiling to renovate the store, and has recruited a younger brother to assist behind the counter.
Another migrant, Ndiasse Dieng, came back from Italy and opened a bakery in 2007 that employs six people and several distributors in the city of Thies. Next: a pastry shop and an onion farm.
"Migration is fundamental to the development of the country," said Jo-Lind Roberts, head of the International Organisation for Migration's Senegal office. "The idea is still very present that migration to Europe is the only way to support the family."
Among the West Africans who crossed by boat to Italian shores this year, the highest number come from Senegal. Migration has fuelled Senegal's economy for decades, as far back as French colonial rule.
The money being wired home by as many as four million Senegalese overseas has helped push families into the middle class - remittances exceed aid or direct foreign investment. Official remittances more than doubled from over $1 billion a decade ago to reach $2 billion last year, or 12 per cent of gross domestic product. The real amount, including envelopes stuffed with money that are carried back through a network of acquaintances, is probably twice that, or close to $4.5 billion.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, remittances sent home climbed to $52.5 billion last year, the World Bank estimates. Those funds are crucial to many economies, including in Gambia, Liberia, Somalia, and Nigeria.
Migration is especially vital for Senegal because it lacks abundant natural resources to sustain its population of about 14 million. Its main export commodity: unemployed young men. It also relies on fishing and farming, and tourism for foreign currency. At the same time, a flow of workers heads home after a few years in Europe, especially when their prospects are good. A hard life in Europe and separation from family also bring migrants back.
- additional reporting Washington Post-Bloomberg, AP
