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Since the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has lacked a national government, which has made it the main gateway for African migrants heading for the 28-member EU on dangerous Mediterranean crossings.

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Merkel, who faces elections in September, has been under intense pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Germany, which has taken in over one million migrants since 2015.

Her government has urged the Maghreb states and Egypt to step up border controls and speed up repatriations of migrants whose asylum applications are rejected.

Merkel first heads to Egypt, where she will meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, before holding talks on Friday with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi.

She is joined by a business delegation that could sweeten the diplomacy with investments badly needed by both countries, which are grappling with sluggish economies, tourism slumps after internal turmoil and jihadist attacks, and high unemployment, especially among youths.

A major focus in Egypt and Tunisia will be on their troubled neighbour Libya, a largely lawless country that has porous desert borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad and Sudan.

Without a political stabilisation of Libya, we wont be able to stop the human traffickers operating out of Libya who are responsible for by far the most arrivals in Italy, Merkel said in her latest weekly podcast.

Egypt, as a regional institution, as a regional power, plays a major role here, as do Algeria and Tunisia.

Holding centers

The trip is part of a larger diplomatic push by Merkel, who last year visited Mali, Niger and Ethiopia. She had also planned a trip to Algeria last week, but it was called off after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika fell ill.

Germany, which this year holds the G20 presidency, has also announced investment partnerships in Africa with the long-term goals of reducing poverty and deterring people from leaving in the first place.

Last year, Berlin spearheaded an EU agreement with Ankara that helped sharply reduce the influx of migrants through Turkey and western Balkan countries.

But as with the Turkey deal, the negotiations with the North African countries have been clouded by human rights concerns.

In particular, an idea floated by Merkels interior minister for North African countries to build holding centres for returned migrants has been rejected by Merkels centre-left coalition partners and by rights groups.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel whose Social Democrats hope to topple Merkel this year dismissed the idea, saying I doubt that all this has been really thought through.

Dodgy deals

Human Rights Watch noted that Egypt had largely banned protests, imprisoned tens of thousands of people, often after unfair trials, and outlawed the countrys largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ensuring safe and swift returns of Tunisians and Egyptians who are not in need of protection is legitimate, as long as the procedures are fair, said Judith Sunderland, a Europe and Central Asia director for the group.

Its another thing entirely to pursue dodgy deals that could trap asylum seekers and migrants from elsewhere in countries like Tunisia and Egypt that cannot guarantee decent treatment or meaningful access to asylum.

But Merkel is under huge pressure at home to achieve results in an election year, as the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party hopes to enter the national parliament for the first time.

Public fears in Germany have been heightened by several jihadist attacks last year especially the truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market on December 19 that killed 12, an attack attributed to a Tunisian immigrant, Anis Amri.

Anger had previously been fanned on New Years Eve of 2015-16, when large groups of mostly North African men sexually assaulted and robbed hundreds of women in the western city of Cologne.

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Merkel Hopes Egypt and Tunisia Visit Will Ease Migrant Crisis Before Election - Breitbart News

Miami Herald

It's only a drill: Guantnamo rehearses Caribbean migrant crisis Miami Herald Hundreds of U.S. forces are rehearsing a migrant crisis this week at the U.S. Navy base at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, a massive multimillion dollar drill that envisions the United States capturing huge numbers of people in the Caribbean bound for the United ...

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It's only a drill: Guantnamo rehearses Caribbean migrant crisis - Miami Herald

Tue, Feb 28, 2017, 00:00 Updated: about 9 hours ago

A family participates in a Travellers rights protest in Dublin in December 2009. Assimilation policies pursued over the past 50 years are responsible for Travellers terrible health and social status. Photograph: Alan Betson

Whatever is happening elsewhere in Europe, Ireland does not have a migrant crisis. The 2011 census shows that 12 per cent of people living here are of migrant origin. Three-quarters of these are of other white background, 2 per cent are of Asian origin, and just over 1 per cent are African or other black background.

Full integration into society is the best way to ensure the health and wellbeing of these new Irish. Integration is defined in current Irish policy (Integration: A Two Way Process, 1999) as the ability to participate to the extent that a person needs and wishes in all of the major components of society without having to relinquish his or her own cultural identity.

Integration involves changes in Irish society and institutions so that the benefits of diversity are realised. Many countries have had limited success in integrating migrants because they have pursued policies of assimilation (migrants expected to behave like natives) or ghettoisation (migrants kept together in the same locality), with disastrous results. These policies generate deep resentments in migrant populations and huge health and social problems.

A new Migrant Integration Strategy: A Blueprint for the Future was recently launched by the Department of Justice. The strategy includes actions on, among other things, accessing citizenship and strengthening the law in relation to racist behaviour and hate crimes. It also puts the responsibility on local authorities to promptly remove racist graffiti.

The strategy envisages migrants and their children benefitting fully from the education system and participating fully in politics and public life as provided for by law. Integration policies will be mainstreamed in the work of all Government departments, local authorities and other public sector organisations and agencies, such as the HSE.

Although integration is the policy stated in the strategy, some of the language sounds as if assimilation is the real goal. The vision, for example, is that Migrants interact with the host community and participate with them in cultural, sporting and other activities while preserving their own traditions as they wish. There is no mention of native Irish participating on an equal level with migrant cultural activities.

As well, the phrase host community is an unfortunate choice of words, conjuring up images of, at best, natives magnanimously tolerating migrant cultures, and, at worst, parasites feeding on their hosts. It also implies assimilation as migrants will be introduced to Irish society to enable them to adapt to it.

The strategy has a fund of 500,000 for 2017. Grants of up to 5,000 will be provided to community groups for projects to promote integration, which is like giving grants to womens refuges to prevent violence against women when what is needed is a crackdown on perpetrators.

The Government and State agencies must not make the same mistakes with migrants that they made with Irish Travellers. Assimilation policies pursued over the past 50 years are responsible for Travellers terrible health and social status. The most recent report from the ESRI shows that Travellers experience exceptionally strong levels of prejudice.

Only 8 per cent complete second level education. Out of a total health and social care workforce of more than 100,000, only 88 are Travellers. Their health deteriorates very rapidly after the age of 35 because of cumulative disadvantage. The Childrens Rights Alliance Report Card 2017 gave a woeful E? grade, the lowest possible, to Traveller and Roma children. Traveller children leave school an average of five years earlier than non-Travellers. Traveller babies are 3.6 times more likely to die in infancy than non-Traveller babies.

Being Travellers, migrants or Roma is not the problem. First Nations people in Canada, the US and Australia also have poor health because of the assimilation and ghettoisation policies pursued by mainly white immigrants. Being treated unequally and unfairly is the root cause of the health and social problems that develop in these communities.

Without equality, integration will not happen. Unfortunately, the Government strategy says almost nothing on treating migrants equally and fairly. It does recognise the importance of equality of opportunity but does not say how this might come about. Interpreting facilities will be provided so that services can be accessed on an equal basis and thats it.

The strategy must be closely monitored over the next few years to ensure integration is happening. If not, a new strategy must be developed with an emphasis on equality or Ireland will end up with a migrant crisis.

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Ireland's 'migrant crisis' is one of equality, not integration - Irish Times

GETTY

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing government considers migration to be one of the largest threats to the status quo in the EU.

But officials in Brussels and some other EU centres are distressed by some of his go-it-alone policies.

A European Parliament committee, for example, was due on Monday to discuss the state of fundamental rights in Hungary.

Mr Orban was also a rare EU leader to endorse US President Donald Trump, who is seeking to built a wall along the US-Mexico border.

The European Commission should not stand by while Hungary makes a mockery of the right to seek asylum.

Benjamin Ward

A barbed-wire fence is already in place, erected in 2015, when Hungary was part of the main overland route for hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, many fleeing the war in Syria.

It effectively blocked the route to Germany, where many were heading, but Hungary has said a second fence would make the barrier more effective and hold back migrants while processing their asylum requests.

Although the pressure on the border is far from the peak of the 2015 crisis, border patrols still prevent hundreds of illegal border crossings per day and escort back dozens of migrants who manage to break through, the government says.

GETTY

Poles for the second fence are already standing near the border station Kelebia, and construction materials have also been shipped to the border elsewhere.

Mr Orban's chief of staff, Janos Lazar, last week said the government had earmarked 110million for the fence and containment camps to hold migrants.

He said the second border fence, which will extend only to the Hungary-Serbia border for now, would be built as soon as the weather permitted and would be standing by the end of spring.

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A Migrant is helped to wash tear gas from his eyes after clashes with Hungarian police at the Horgos border

GETTY

Rights groups Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Human Rights Watch on Friday sent a complaint to EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos about current practices and proposed legal changes.

Human Rights Watch deputy director Benjamin Ward said: The European Commission should not stand by while Hungary makes a mockery of the right to seek asylum.

"Using transit zones as detention centres and forcing asylum seekers who are already inside Hungary back to the Serbian side of the razor-wire fence is abusive, pointless, and cruel."

GETTY

The Hungarian government's practice of allowing only 10 people in per day also creates a dangerous bottleneck along the Hungary-Serbia border in sometimes inhumane conditions, the rights groups added.

The government rejected that in an emailed reply to Reuters.

A statement said: Human Rights Watch... again tries to denigrate those serving at the border.

"Hungary was among the first to honour the EU's rules, protects the Schengen borders, stops, registers and separates refugees from economic migrants."

Originally posted here:
MIGRANT CRISIS: Hungary risks EU's wrath as it starts building ANOTHER border fence - Express.co.uk

Stephen Rea: NI actor says people should get angry about migrant crisis BBC News Leading Northern Ireland actor Stephen Rea has said people should "get angry" about the migrant crisis in Europe. He was speaking during a visit to the city earlier in the week to launch the File festival programme. Bafta-winning actor Rea, is also an ...

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Stephen Rea: NI actor says people should get angry about migrant crisis - BBC News