For months, tons of of hundreds of men, women and kids have really marched their means in to Europe, fleeing war, poverty & hunger, arriving in such huge numbers in that they set off unusual shows of compassion – & outright acts of worry. Borders were closed, benefits cut, and warnings issued in Arabic to stay away.
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But last Saturday, French officials revealed what could prove to be a turning point in the debate over migration: One of the attackers was carrying a Syrian passport, and perhaps more ominously, may have entered Europe along the migrant trail.
Shortly after the first shots rang out in Paris on Friday night, police in Rome moved swiftly to beef up security at the city’s main high-traffic tourist destinations, from the Vatican to the Coliseum.
“The dimension of the horror that is embodied in all this exceeds anyone’s ability to imagine it”, he said on the sidelines of the talks, in reference to the slaughter in Paris, adding that Germany “stands firmly at the side of our friends in France in their hour of suffering and despair”.
In a comment on the right-leaning news portal wPolityce.pl, Konrad Szymanski said his incoming government did not agree with the previous Polish administration’s commitment to accept a share of an EU-wide relocation of immigrants. Conservative lawmakers who were already upset by what they perceived to be a soft stance on Greece renewed their vocal criticism of Merkel. Hungary put up a fence. At that time, Germans backed her decision, which they saw as a chance to demonstrate solidarity for those in need, the article said. He adds “the European Union has to intervene and take concrete action to protect basic human rights within its borders”.
Germany registered a few 758,000 migrants this year through October, and a few 6,000 to 10,000 per day continue to arrive.
“I’m not afraid. We’ve seen everything in Syria. Poland must retain full control over its borders”.
Poland’s determination to scuttle the pact may spread, dooming it even as investigators in Paris are still trying to establish the identities and backgrounds of the assailants who killed at least 129 people Friday.
A former senior intelligence official, who is still well-briefed, said: “This is becoming a strategy for them: to embed among the migrants”. Politicians from around the world have condemned the attacks. The smaller countries of Eastern Europe are being overwhelmed with newcomers that must be fed, clothed, and housed – even if many of them are moving on to northern European countries.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron also convened a meeting to review security. “Family reunion as it has been understood until now can not currently take place”, the German government’s official spokesman said on Tuesday.
“In Syria there is war, here is war”, said Ferhad Nezdevan, 29, from Syria.
Those sentiments were echoed across the continent over the weekend.
She said “if everyone seals themselves off, then Europe and the (passport-free) Schengen area will no longer be what they were”. “The throat cutters and Islamic terrorists should be ELIMINATED with force!”
On refugees, “I don’t think she can change her basic position – that would be seen as opportunistic again”, said Manfred Guellner, the head of the Forsa polling agency. “Without borders, neither security nor protection are possible”.
In the Netherlands, the center-right prime minister, Mark Rutte, announced a tightening of border checks. But he declined to heed Wilders’ call for a total shutdown of Dutch borders.
“We know that our life of freedom is stronger than terror”, Merkel said in an unusually emotional speech on Saturday. “Let us answer the terrorists by living our values with courage”.
Merkel chaired an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss “the situation in France and all related questions”.
BERLIN _ Chancellor Angela Merkel faced renewed pressure over her open-door policy for refugees after a statement from Greek authorities raised the possibility that one of the Paris suicide bombers was a Syrian who entered the European Union posing as a refugee.
He said the police would be watching known sympathizers with not only extreme Islamist groups but also right-wing groups.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Muslim community has mostly remained silent in the face of the Paris attacks – as did in the French Muslims – but rare critics have called this a mistake.
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The fact that such attacks as have struck neighboring France and Denmark have not yet occurred in Germany, Vorbrücken attributes partly to better integration policies and a relatively low number of “dangerous” Islamists – about 300, experts say, as opposed to over 5,000 in France.
