Friday, August 28, 2015

Spreading refugee crisis in Europe on land and Sea

  1. I'm thinking that one of the many reasons for this is people in Syria now believe that Assad may be gone soon. So, Alawite Shiites who would be massacred by ISIS if he left are coming now to Europe in droves, especially young men who don't want to die defending a lost cause.

  1. Death of 71 Migrants in Austria Illustrates a ...

    www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/world/europe/migrants-bodies...
    Aug 27, 2015 · Death of 71 Migrants in Austria Illustrates a Spreading Crisis in Europe. By ALISON SMALE and MELISSA EDDY AUG. 28, 2015. ... The Global Refugee Crisis, ... 



    Photo

    Bodies found inside an abandoned vehicle near Vienna were taken to a forensics institute in the city on Friday. Credit Dieter Nagl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

    VIENNA — Europe’s migration crisis continued to escalate on Friday, as the United Nations reported record numbers making their way across the Mediterranean to the Continent this year, and the authorities in Austria and Hungary sought to find the people responsible for the deaths of 71 people.
    At least 150 people were also believed to have drowned at sea off western Libya, after a fishing boat sank on Thursday, Libyan and international relief officials said. The exact toll was unclear, but it had the potential to be among the highest this summer for refugees and migrants trying to reach European shores.
    Ibrahim al-Attoushi, a Red Crescent official, said that 82 bodies had washed ashore and that about 100 people were still missing, Reuters reported.


    In Austria, the authorities reported that four children — three boys ages 7 to 10, and a toddler girl — were among the passengers found on Thursday in the back of a truck with no ventilation that was abandoned east of Vienna in the summer heat. The other passengers included 59 men and eight women.

    Continue reading the main story Video

    Officials Discuss Austrian Truck Tragedy

    Three people held in Hungary are being questioned after the bodies of 71 people, believed to be Syrian migrants, were found in a truck near Vienna.
    By REUTERS on Publish Date August 28, 2015. Photo by Roland Schlager/European Pressphoto Agency. Watch in Times Video »

    A Syrian passport was found on one of the victims, leading the authorities to conclude that at least some of the victims were part of the throng of people fleeing war and turmoil in the Middle East and northern Africa.
    The United Nations refugee agency reported that the number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe had reached 310,000 this year, up from 219,000 in 2014.
    Close to 200,000 people have landed in Greece this year and around 110,000 more have reached Italy, Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the refugee agency told reporters in Geneva.

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    AUSTRIA
    50Miles
    SLOVAKIA
    Vienna
    E60
    Location of
    abandoned truck
    BURGENLAND
    Budapest
    SLOVENIA
    HUNGARY
    CROATIA

    More than 2,500 people have died at sea this year, not including those believed to be victims in Thursday’s sinking off Libya. In 2014, 3,500 died or were lost while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
    “The way people are being packed onto boats is causing their deaths,” Ms. Fleming said.


    At the root of many of the deaths are the ruthless practices of human traffickers who overload boats, cars, trucks and vans with those willing and able to pay the high cost to cross the Mediterranean or European borders.

    Continue reading the main story

    Traveling in Europe’s River of Migrants

    Tens of thousands of people, most fleeing unrest, are desperately pushing through the Balkans to reach Hungary before it seals its border. The Times is documenting their journey.

    The Austrian authorities believe that is what happened to the migrants who were discovered in the truck on Thursday.
    Officials had initially said they expected to recover as many as 50 corpses from the truck, which was abandoned in the emergency lane of a highway southeast of Vienna, where the authorities believe it had been for 24 hours, after arriving from south of Budapest.
    But once the authorities were able to open the rear hold of the vehicle, said Hans Peter Doskozil, director of police in the eastern Austrian state of Burgenland, they found more corpses than they had expected. They are now scrambling to identify the victims and have set up a hotline for anyone seeking information about a missing family member.

    Continue reading the main story

    Multimedia Feature

    The Global Refugee Crisis, Region by Region

    In the latest crisis, tens of thousands are racing to Hungary before a border fence is finished.
    OPEN Multimedia Feature

    The authorities said it was too early to give an exact cause of death, but they noted that there was no ventilation in the sides of the truck, one of which was dented. It was not possible to say how long the dent had been there nor whether it had been caused by a traffic accident or by people inside trying to break through.
    “We cannot say whether air was able to circulate through the cooling system or the roof,” Mr. Doskozil said, “but I believe that it is highly likely that people in this truck asphyxiated.”
    The authorities said on Friday that four people suspected of involvement in the truck operation had been detained in Hungary. The Hungarian police said that three of those detained are Bulgarian, and that the fourth is Afghan.

    Continue reading the main story Video

    Officials on Bodies in Truck Near Vienna

    Chancellors Werner Faymann of Austria and Angela Merkel of Germany expressed sorrow on Thursday after police discovered at least 20 bodies of presumed migrants piled in a truck east of Vienna.
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date August 27, 2015. Photo by Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video »

    An initial investigation, conducted jointly by Austrian and Hungarian officials, led to the detention of three of the people, and they are believed to be in the lowest rank of a much wider Bulgarian-Hungarian human-trafficking ring, Mr. Doskozil said.
    “We believe that one perpetrator, a Bulgarian citizen of Lebanese descent, is the current owner of the vehicle,” he added. “Two other suspects who have been detained include a Bulgarian citizen and an individual in possession of a Hungarian identity card, whose nationality has not yet been determined — both believed to be the drivers of the truck.”
    In a separate case, 10 Syrian migrants were injured early Friday when a van overturned on a highway in Hungary, the police said in a statement.

    Photo

    Three people have been detained in connection with the deaths of 71 people in the truck. Credit Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters

    The Austrian Red Cross said it expected as many as 4,000 people to cross the country’s eastern border over the weekend, and the authorities said they would increase controls. They emphasized, however, that they would not be able to stop each of the roughly 3,000 trucks that enter the country from the east every day.
    The migrants found dead in Austria most likely followed a now-popular route from Greece, through the Balkans and Hungary, and toward the north. The movement is made possible by Europe’s open borders, which allow passage between member countries and is a fundamental part of life in the 28-nation bloc.
    Hungary reported a daily average of roughly 2,000 people cross its border with Serbia, but on Wednesday the number rose to 3,241 people, including 700 children — the highest number in a single day recorded this year, the United Nations refugee agency reported.
    In a bid to deter the flow of refugees, Hungary has accelerated construction of a fence along its border with Serbia, but humanitarian-agency officials in Geneva described it as “a roundabout subsidy to the smugglers,” who charge refugees and migrants more money to get them past it.
    Building walls “looks tough, it looks proactive, it looks as if you’re taking people’s complaints seriously that there are too many migrants,” Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, said. “It doesn’t work.”
    Correction: August 28, 2015
    Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the arrest of three people in connection with the Austrian truck. They were arrested in Hungary, not Austria. In addition, the article misidentified the nationalities of the three people. Two are Bulgarian, and the nationality of the third had not been determined; none have been identified as Hungarian citizens. The error was repeated in a capsule summary.

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