crisis – European Affairs Magazine

Dozens persons killed in air raid on Al Raqqah school by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition

23 Marzo 2017 BreakingNews @en di

Dozens of displaced persons have been killed in an air raid allegedly carried out by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition on a school where they were sheltering in the ISIS-controlled Al-Raqqah province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday. It reported that at least 33 people were killed in the bombardment by warplanes believed to belong to the International Coalition, carried out in the city of Mansura in western Al-Raqqah province on Tuesday night. SOHR activists said that 33 bodies being pulled out of the rubble of the school before members of ISIS arrived to drive civilians away.

Egypt will support Syria in the fight against terrorist organizations

24 Novembre 2016 BreakingNews @en/Middle East - Africa di

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi stressed that his country supports the Syrian Arab army in the face of the terrorist organizations, underlining the necessity of dealing seriously with the terrorists and disarming them. Speaking in an interview with the Portuguese TV on Tuesday, President el-Sisi said supporting the national armies of countries is priority for Egypt including in Libya, Iraq and Syria. He reiterated that a political solution to the crisis in Syria is the best solution, indicating at the same time that it is important to deal seriously with the terrorist groups and work on disarming them.

African leaders are attending a mini summit on the Libyan crisis

10 Novembre 2016 BreakingNews @en di

African leaders review Libya crisis at Addis Ababa mini-summit: “there is no military solution” says AU chairman, Chad’s Idriss Deby despite insistence from the head of the African Union Commission, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that the “dire situation in Libya cannot be allowed to continue”, African leaders attending a mini-summit on the Libyan crisis held in the Ethiopian capital today were given little encouragement that a breakthrough was on the horizon. Chairing the meeting, Chadian President Idriss Deby who is the AU’s current head said that the AU could not support any military intervention in Libya by anyone hoping to try and normalise the situation there. Instead, international efforts to promote peace had to be followed and respected. The mini-summit was convened by Deby to assess the situation and international efforts to resolve it.

Winter ices migrants flows but not concerns

13 Novembre 2015 Miscellaneous di

Only a year ago, in 2014, the most important route into Europe for migrants was across the Mediterranean sea, in boats of up to 800 passengers from the North African coast to Italy (Lampedusa sas primary destination) or Malta: the southern route. So far in 2015, migration along the alternative eastern route has rised.

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Matter of fact, during 2012 a fence was erected on the border between Turkey and Greece, forcing migrants to take boats from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands or travel north to the Bulgarian border. In 2014, Bulgaria began building its own fence to prevent this.

In September 2015 alone, 156,000 immigrants took the eastern route compared to just 7,000 in the same month the previous year.

The Schengen area makes things easier once the migrants have entered Hungary or Slovenia, but, on the other hand, things are getting much harder to deal, to administrate for these countries. In early July, Hungary began building a fence on its Serbian border, forcing the migrants on the west route through Croatia, often entering Hungary from there and a second fence was built on the Croatian border in October, pushing people up to Slovenia. Actually, Slovenia is building a fence itself. Balcans countries are struggling in order to face the situation. Albanian Government has already stated that the country will make what’s in it’s possibilty to mitigate the pressure in the area.

European countries are forced, under pressure, to find long term solutions, Germany in first place.

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and most powerful woman in the planet, is facing risks on her own political body, over migrants crise . When migrants began to arrive in large numbers over the summer, she announced publicly that they were to be welcomed rather than turned away. Considering that an imponent number of Syrians living in Turkey have been able to make a living only because of temporary employment or casual labor, but , as Turkish economy has begun to deteriorate, unemployment has grown by being unaffordable, those Syrians are also leaving Turkey. So, what’s next?

Germany is home to the vast majority of past Turkish immigrants into Europe, and tensions have long been high over the issue. Syrians have a explicit and strong case for asylum, and it is extremely hard to repatriate them. The European Union wants to keep the Balkan countries from confronting one another over migrant flows. At the same time, the bloc wants to keep borders within Europe as open as possible to preserve the union’s structure while apportioning them fairly across the Continent. The Oct. 25 summit likely discussed all of the possible solutions along the migrant route and most summits during last two years have tried the same.

As temperatures drop immigrant flow will arrest the emergency. The latest flows have also revealed a drop in the portion of migrants from Syria and a rise in Afghan and African migrants, partly because of cheap Turkish Airlines flights to North Africa. Unlike Syrians, authorities will find it much easier to send back migrants from these points of origin.

But the fact is that war keeps on radicalizing in Syrian territories, which is much more than a preview on warmer season to come: migrants are most likely not stopping their desperate journeys.

Sabiena Stefanaj

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