And because there remain long stretches of roads that refugees and migrants may have to walk, “should government authorities or other partners not be in a position to provide alternative arrangements, as an interim measure, UNHCR said it will consider providing transportation to reception centres to expedite access by refugees and asylum-seekers to assistance and protection services”.
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With 5,000 refugees and migrants expected to arrive in Europe daily in winter, the United Nations refugee agency on Thursday appealed for almost 100 million USA dollars to help Greece and countries in the Balkans to cope with the influx. The EU’s executive Commission stated in that “overall, an additional 3 million persons is assumed to arrive in the European Union over the forecast period”.
A girl carry a child in her arms as she waits with other migrants…
And a further three million migrants could arrive in European Union countries by the end of next year, officials have warned.
Organisers said they had no new demands but were taking a stand against the government’s bailout agreement and austerity measures, opposing pension cuts and rising unemployment rates in the shipping industry.
Viktor Orban, the nationalist prime minister of Hungary, said Thursday that Europe needs to encourage its citizens to have more children instead of welcoming refugees from South Asia, north Africa and the Middle East. “The survival of our civilization and our culture is at stake”, he told a conference. Almost 150,000 people have entered Slovenia since mid-October and country has complained it is overwhelmed. Last month’s surge was more than in all of past year.
Spain’s defense ministry said its forces had rescued 517 people from a wooden fishing boat that was adrift off the Libyan coast.
During his visit to Lesbos with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the President was able to assess first-hand the refugee and migration situation on the ground. Sweden expects up to 190,000 asylum-seekers this year.
The boat hit sandy shallows near the northern coast of Kos Thursday, and those on board were picked up by a coast guard vessel and transported to the island’s harbor. During the arrest, police said, the patrol and the group of refugees came under fire from a suspected smuggler still on the Turkish side of the border, who fired about 30 shots.
According to the European Union report, hard-hit migrant transit and destination countries are likely to see an impact of 0.2 percent of their GDPs in 2015, but Brussels pointed out that Germany and others would benefit in coming years from a boost in spending and the creation of more jobs.
While acknowledging the potential short-term impact, the Commission did not clearly state whether it would be flexible on budget policy.
Merkel says in her weekly video message Saturday: “We must speak again and again about the fact that the question of how we deal with refugees is a common question for all European member states”, at least those that have signed up for the Schengen passport-free travel area.
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Information for this article was contributed by Lorne Cook, Raf Casert, Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos of The Associated Press and by Griff Witte of The Washington Post.
