Migrant crisis: Austria 'to end emergency migrant measures'

[icymist]

Source: BBC

Austria says it is planning to phase out special measures that have allowed thousands of migrants to travel freely from Hungary to Western Europe.

Chancellor Werner Faymann said Austria would remove the emergency measures for asylum seekers "step by step".

The easing of rules has meant thousands have been able to leave Hungary for Austria and Germany over the weekend.

Germany, where most of the migrants are heading, warned that its willingness to help "should not be overstretched".

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34169726

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I guess the refugee emergency is over. Huh?

[bemildred]

1. Iraqis join an intensifying flow of refugees to Europe from Turkey

BODRUM, TURKEY — The influx of refugees and migrants overwhelming Europe seems destined to intensify as the welcome extended by Germany encourages more people from the world’s most violent and impoverished countries to travel in search of new lives.

Iraqis formed the largest number of people descending from buses in the upscale Turkish seaside town of Bodrum on Sunday to attempt the short but perilous sea crossing to Greece, where two-thirds of those of those seeking asylum in Europe have arrived this year.

A little more than half of the arrivals in Greece this year have been Syrians fleeing their country’s brutal and unending war — and by August the proportion of Syrians had climbed to 78 percent, according to the most recent figures provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

But the Syrians now are being joined by Iraqis, as they, too, abandon hope that their country’s conflict will ever be resolved, said Mohammed Hamed, 33, an Iraqi policeman who left his wife and three children in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala three days ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iraqis-join-an-intensifying-flow-of-refugees-to-europe-from-turkey/2015/09/06/aee71eaa-54a6-11e5-9f54-1ea23f6e02f3_story.html

[murielm99]

2. I understand.

They are being overwhelmed, and there is only so much they can do.

It is time for some of the Arab countries to get off their asses and help the refugees.

[smirkymonkey]

3. I agree. I can't understand why the Gulf states seem to

be doing absolutely NOTHING to help the refugees. Especially when it would be so much easier for them to settle in a country that is culturally and religiously similar to those of the refugees. Why is it always up to Europe? I just can't understand the lack of action or compassion on the part of the Gulf States. They never seem to pull their weight.

[Marrah_G]

4. I want to know what the arab states are doing nothing to help

Europe is being overwhelmed.

[Abouttime]

5. I hope President Obama gets involved

We caused this crisis, we should accept responsibility and accept our share of the refugees.
I think they should be settled into the red states.

[aceofblades]

6. We certainly played a role

as did Assad himself of course and the gulf states, Iran, Turkey,ISIS etc. Plenty of responsibility to go around and I agree that the U.S> needs to help both in terms of refuges resettlement but also in helping to resolve the root causes of this migration.

[pampango]

7. Austrian far-right leader blames U.S., NATO for migrant crisis

The leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) has blamed the United States and the NATO Western military alliance for triggering the refugee crisis that has overwhelmed Europe.

"The USA and NATO have destroyed Iraq and Libya with their military intervention, bombs and missiles; provided financial, logistical and military support to the opposition against President Assad in Syria, and thus made possible the destruction, chaos, suffering and radical Islamism (IS) in the region," Heinz-Christian Strache said on his Facebook page.

Strache's opposition FPO party, which leads opinion polls ahead of the centrist Social Democrats and People's Party coalition partners, typically espouses anti-Muslim and isolationist approaches to dealing with foreign policy.

In a separate interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF, he called for erecting an army-patrolled fence along neutral Austria's eastern border with Hungary and for letting in Christian and Jewish refugees rather than Muslims. "We don't want an Islamisation of Europe. We don't want our Christian-Western culture to perish," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/05/us-europe-migrants-austria-strache-idUSKCN0R50HP20150905

I guess the refugee emergency is over. Huh?

The far-right wants it to be over, in the sense that they want nothing to do with allowing THEM to get any closer to US. Promoting any form of diversity and multiculturalism are way, way down on the right's list of things to do.