Has Europe Reached the Breaking Point?

[zenitzz]

At least 21 drown after boats capsize off Turkey

At least 21 people have drowned off Turkey in two separate incidents in which their boats overturned in rough waters as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.

Nine bodies washed up on a beach in the resort town of Ayvalık early on Tuesday, prompting authorities to dispatch coastguard boats and gendarmerie officials to search sea and land for possible survivors. By late morning, the death toll reached 14, the coastguard said, adding that seven others were either rescued or found alive.

Hours later, the Dogan news agency reported that seven other bodies had washed up on shore at Dikili, a resort about 30 miles south of Ayvalık.

About 850,000 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece last year, paying smuggling gangs to ferry them over from Turkey in frail boats. Hundreds have lost their lives during the crossings.

The International Organisation for Migration said an estimated 3,770 people died crossing the Mediterranean last year, making 2015 the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe.

Namik Kemal Nazli, the local administrator for Ayvalık, told the Anadolu agency that the victims of the first incident were believed to be from Iraq, Algeria and Syria. There was no information on the nationalities of those drowned in the second incident.

Nazli said the search continued and that the death toll could rise further.

A body in a lifejacket, was pulled from the sea on to the beach at Ayvalık by a fisherman and a military police official. Other bodies, also in lifejackets, were seen lying nearby.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/05/bodies-of-21-people-found-after-boat-capsizes-off-turkey

[xht]

A Climate of Fear Widens Divisions in Europe’s Migrant Crisis

ROME — In Finland, militia groups are patrolling small towns housing asylum seekers in the name of protecting white Finnish women. In Germany, far-right protesters rampaged through Leipzig on Monday, vandalizing buildings in an “anti-Islamization” demonstration. In Italy on Tuesday, an anti-immigration regional government approved the text of a law making it difficult to construct new mosques as Muslim refugees are settled in the area.

Across Europe, the refugee crisis that has engulfed the Continent since the summer is provoking new levels of public anxiety after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, where witnesses and the police described predatory gangs of mostly foreign men, including some refugees, groping and robbing young women. The Cologne police are also investigating allegations of rape.

While the police say the assaults in Cologne were carried out by hundreds of men, even that is a narrow sliver of the more than one million asylum seekers who entered Europe last year. Still, the anxieties provoked by the Cologne attacks quickly spread as reports emerged of similar New Year’s Eve assaults in other German cities, as well as in Finland and Austria.

While the details in some of those reports are sketchy, and none approach what happened in Cologne, they have touched an exceptionally raw nerve as European societies face the challenge of integrating and acculturating the asylum seekers, most of them Muslims, and a majority of those single men.

Far-right political parties, which have long invoked hoary stereotypes of dark-skinned foreigners threatening European identity and security, have pounced on the reports, having already capitalized on the inability of the European Union to secure its external borders while efficiently managing the movement of refugees inside the bloc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/world/europe/a-climate-of-fear-widens-divisions-in-europes-migrant-crisis.html?ref=world&_r=0

[Snail2]

It's not clear yet.
Europe is in serious crisis now but it's not first time.
Remember First world War, WW ii etc?
Every time Europe managed to survive because of unity and common vision between members.
Europe still have time to unite again, find common goal and vision and move on but no so much time left.
I hope to see some positive changes in Europe soon.
Merkel is maybe only hope for Europe now, someone with clear vision what to do and how to guide Europe.

During the two great wars Europe wasn't united at all and there wasn't any common vision. In fact it was split to at least three parts with opposing visions. The situation is the same today.

Merkel is either a traitor or a lunatic and the sooner the krauts get rid of her the better for us native europeans.

[Daniel91]

It's not clear yet.
Europe is in serious crisis now but it's not first time.
Remember First world War, WW ii etc?
Every time Europe managed to survive because of unity and common vision between members.
Europe still have time to unite again, find common goal and vision and move on but no so much time left.
I hope to see some positive changes in Europe soon.
Merkel is maybe only hope for Europe now, someone with clear vision what to do and how to guide Europe.

During the two great wars Europe wasn't united at all and there wasn't any common vision. In fact it was split to at least three parts with opposing visions. The situation is the same today.

Merkel is either a traitor or a lunatic and the sooner the krauts get rid of her the better for us native europeans.

OK maybe you are right but still is not to late that Europeans unite about common vision, overcome current crisis and move on.
I think that most Europeans today appreciate a lot 70 years without wars, long period of prosperity, freedom, open borders, democracy etc.
i don't think that average people and politicians wants to loose it and come back to chaos in the beginning of 20th century.
So, it's still time to unite about common vision and the same goal, to preserve European values of peace, cooperation, freedom and tolerance among people of different faith and nationality.

[xht]

Dozens of Migrants Drown as European Refugee Crisis Continues

LONDON — More than 40 people — including 17 children — died when two wooden boats full of migrants trying to reach Greece sank early Friday morning, as a continued flow of asylum seekers, even in dangerous winter weather, put new pressure on European leaders to address a crisis that seems likely to intensify again come spring.

The authorities said the two boats had sunk near Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea as they carried migrants from Turkey toward Greece. The Greek Coast Guard rescued dozens of survivors and was continuing to search the area by sea and air, The Associated Press reported.

Greece is the most popular entry point into Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Almost 37,000 migrants are reported to have arrived in Greece and Italy by sea and land this month, according to the International Organization for Migration, 10 times the number in the same period last year.

In the first three weeks of this year, at least 113 people died trying to make the sea crossing to Europe, the agency said, compared with 94 for all of January last year.

Despite the evidence that migrants from the Middle East and Africa are continuing to flee war and poverty in their home countries and will strike out to Europe again in huge numbers this year, European leaders have taken no major new steps to curb the flow. Nor have they agreed on a comprehensive border policy or prepared for another influx that could rival last year’s, when more than a million asylum seekers reached the Continent, many of them headed to Germany.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/world/europe/valls-france-eu-warns.html?ref=world

[zenitzz]

Bodies of 31 migrants recovered off coasts of Italy and Greece

A bout of mild weather brought more tragedy off the coasts of Italy and Greece on Thursday when at least 31 people died attempting perilous crossings from Libya and Turkey, authorities in both countries said.

Greek authorities recovered 25 bodies off the island of Samos, while another six were retrieved by the Italian navy – the first known deaths on the North Africa to Italy route this year. Those who had set off from the shores of Turkey were thought to be Iraqi Kurds. At least half of the victims were women and children.

Coast guard officials in Italy said they had rescued a total of 290 migrants throughout Thursday. They had attempted to make the passage in three rubber boats, one of which had nearly capsized by the time authorities reached it. On Tuesday the Italian coast guard had rescued 1,271 migrants attempting to cross from Libya.

The wave of migration from the Turkish coast to Greece’s outlying Aegean islands shows no sign of slowing.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/28/31-migrants-bodies-recovered-coasts-italy-greece

[ukeden]

If it has not, it is cracking, and it will break. It is inevitable.White People will simply have to fight for what is theirs and their place in the world, because our leaders have been stupid, as usual. Or, were they stupid? Probably, more like, evil, greedy, bastards, hoping to make even more money from the chaos and war they create

[MoneyChanger]

Whole those immigrants will destroy European economy and bring more instability!
I don't know why everybody falling on tears.
Who will wipe tears from face of your children when terrorism strikes again?

[bizerinm]

Yes, in fact idea of European Union is now in fiasco. It was wrong from start. You can't make USA from Europe. To much different nations, languages, economy..and not to mention histroy. You can not have same way of life on north and south and in one order most stable economic lands like Germany, Uk, Luxemburg togeather with Greece, Bulgaria or Rumunia. Second problems with laws about human rights make today problem with reefuges and Europe is in front of colabs.

[zenitzz]

Aegean Sea refugee crossings rise 35 fold year-on-year in January - watchdog


More than 52,000 refugees and migrants crossed the eastern Mediterranean to reach Europe in the first four weeks of January, more than 35 times as many as attempted the crossing in the same period last year.

The daily average number of people making the crossing is nearly equivalent to the total number for the whole month of January as recently as two years ago, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

More than 250 people have died attempting to make the crossing this month, including at least 39 who drowned in the Aegean Sea on Saturday morning after their boat capsized between Turkey and Greece.

Turkish coastguards rescued 75 others from the sea near the resort of Ayvacik on Saturday, according to the Anadolou news agency. They had been trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.

The eastern route into Europe, via Greece, has overtaken the previously popular central Mediterranean route from north Africa over the past year. Refugees have continued to use the route all winter, despite rough seas and strong winds.

“An estimated 52,055 migrants and refugees have arrived in the Greek islands since the beginning of the year,” the IOM said. “This is close to the total recorded in the relatively safe month of July 2015, when warm weather and calm seas allowed 54,899 to make the journey.”

Turkey, which is hosting at least 2.5 million refugees from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, has become the main launchpad for migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty. Ankara struck a deal with the EU in November to halt the flow of refugees, in return for €3bn (£2.3bn) in financial assistance to help improve the refugees’ conditions.

This week the IOM reported that a survey of migrants and refugees arriving in Greece showed 90% were from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. People of those nationalities are allowed to leave Greece and enter Macedonia en route to western Europe as asylum seekers.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/30/refugee-arrivals-greece-exceed-52000-january

[designerusa]

Finally, the EU is coming to its senses over the illegal mass migrant issue. No country in the world can afford to take 100s of thousands of people with dissimilar cultural and religious views, such as antipathy towards: women's rights, LGBT issues, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, secularism, and the separation of religion of state, and hope to keep their own cultures intact.

yes, asylum seeker issue is a really serious problem but we are western nations should be rescpectful towards immagrants cultural heritage too and this makes them integrate easily to western culture..

[Spendulus]

Finally, the EU is coming to its senses over the illegal mass migrant issue. No country in the world can afford to take 100s of thousands of people with dissimilar cultural and religious views, such as antipathy towards: women's rights, LGBT issues, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, secularism, and the separation of religion of state, and hope to keep their own cultures intact.

yes, asylum seeker issue is a really serious problem but we are western nations should be rescpectful towards immagrants cultural heritage too and this makes them integrate easily to western culture..

Sound like propaganda to me.  Sounds like you really do not know anything about what makes one or another culture "integrate easily to western culture."  You are just pursuing an ideological dream that has no relation to reality.

[salinizm]

Europe - Rest in Peace

not yet ..there are many years to saying ''rip'' for europe.. after ww3 , we can fell sorry for it..

[jak1]

Yes...and now with refugees problem it's definitely end of Europe. I can't understand why they simply stand and talk and do nothing. It looks like they now only for laws which now help immigrants to do their barbarian attacks without any fear that ll be arrested

[xht]

The Migrant Crisis: No End in Sight

 The perilous flight of refugees continues, with some 67,000 asylum seekers traveling to Europe last month. Meanwhile, the European Union and international donors are poised to increase their aid to one desperate group: Syrians displaced by war.

The refugees keep coming.

Forced from their homes by war and economic deprivation, tens of thousands of migrants made the perilous journey to Europe last month.

These asylum seekers, the latest surge in a great tide of human movement, have braved winter weather, stormy seas and closed borders in their escape from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.

On Thursday in London, the European Union and international donors are expected to pledge to increase their aid to Syrians displaced by war.

The toll, whether measured in lives or in dollars, is staggering.

More People, Fewer Choices

More than 67, 000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea since the start of the year. By comparison, 5,000 migrants made the journey across the Mediterranean in January 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration.

These newcomers join more than one million people who sought refuge in Europe last year. But more telling than the total number of migrants is the number who have been formally resettled: 190 in 2015, despite pledges to relocate almost 200,000

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/04/world/europe/migrant-crisis-by-the-numbers.html?ref=world
.