Germany Announces Emergency Border Controls Amid Migrant Crisis

[Purveyor]

Source: New York Times

BERLIN — With record numbers of migrants pouring across the Hungarian border and rushing west, Germany, the country that had been the most welcoming in Europe, suddenly ordered temporary border restrictions on Sunday that cut off rail travel from Austria and instituted spot checks on cars.

It took the action just one day before European ministers were scheduled to meet in Brussels to discuss a plan to disperse tens of thousands of refugees across Europe, with many governments, particularly in Eastern Europe, bristling at being forced to accept more migrants than they wish to take.

The crisis is the latest, and perhaps thorniest, test of Europe’s willingness to work together to solve big problems amid rising populist, nationalist and Euro-skeptic movements across the continent.

The move by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel was seen as a strong sign — if not an outright message — to other European Union members that Germany was growing weary of shouldering so much of the burden for Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis in decades without more help and cooperation from other nations.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/world/europe/germany-emergency-measures-european-migrant-crisis.html?_r=0

---

Schengen: Europe's Open Borders In Question

Germany's reimposition of border controls with Austria on Sunday has brought home the risks the summer refugee crisis poses to Europe's system of open frontiers, commonly known as "Schengen".

The Luxembourg village on the Moselle where old enemies France and Germany meet gave its name 30 years ago to the code which removed border checks between most European states. But hundreds of thousands of people arriving on the bloc's external borders claiming asylum, and discord among governments over where to put them, has exposed weaknesses in the Schengen ideal.

The European Commission, the executive of the European Union which enforces the rules on 26 states including four non-EU members, has ruled out major change. It describes Schengen as one of the greatest achievements of the postwar peace, a boon for citizens and non-European visitors, as well as for business.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, informed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel of Sunday's move, was quick to issue a statement saying Berlin was not breaking Schengen rules. These permit renewed frontier controls as a "last resort" where there is "a serious threat to public policy or internal security".

Such exemptions are subject to EU review and varying time limits, ranging from 10 days to, very exceptionally, two years.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/13/us-europe-migrants-schengen-idUSKCN0RD0UQ20150913

[roamer65]

1. Schengen is dead.

Juncker is full of shit.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Read a most interesting piece about the nature and extent of settling refugees in Europe.

Once you stop to think about it, it seems pretty evident how difficult it is to handle such large numbers of people, at the onset and in later months and years.

Indeed, even the very first requirement -- that of finding shelter -- is proving a challenge. Many cities are running out of facilities that can be quickly transformed into asylum hostels. And shelters made of containers, an idea that many have sought to apply, are in short supply, as became clear during a refugee summit held by CDU lawmakers in Rhineland-Palatinate earlier this week. And if they can be bought, the prices are high and the waiting list is months long. By then, winter will long since have set in, rendering insufficient the tents where many refugees are currently being sheltered.

First, those arriving by train are taken to a hall near the main train station, where aid workers are waiting with water and, should it be needed, clothing. But they are only allowed a few hours rest before being bused out to an emergency shelter somewhere else in the state, usually a tent, a gymnasium or an unused school.

A Free Bed

It used to be that refugees arriving at the train station were able to rest for five days at a reception center. But the closest such facility, in the Dortmund neighborhood of Hacheney, only has 350 beds. Today, that is barely enough to shelter pregnant women, families with small children and the sick. Everyone else, those who are assigned to emergency shelters strewn about the state, must be bused to Hacheney to register and then bused back. Not long later, they are relocated to a central shelter before, finally, being sent to one of the more permanent facilities located in a town, provided a free bed can be found.

"It's all worse than a conveyor belt," says Wahed Kabir, the deputy director of the facility in Hacheney. And already this year, that conveyor belt has come to a screeching halt nine times and asylum seekers who had arrived for registration found themselves standing in front of a locked door. The reason: With 1,000 people on the premises, the facility had reached capacity.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-asylum-system-stretches-to-breaking-point-a-1052546.html

[tclambert]

3. I'm sure Donald Trump would tell them they should build a wall.

[pampango]

19. The "Trump" of Hungary - PM Victor Orban - has just finished a "Trump" border wall.

"Hungary’s prime minister becomes Europe’s Donald Trump"

Hungary’s maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban is emerging as the straight-talking voice of right-wing Europe, vowing to block a wave of desperate refugees from seeking sanctuary in the region. Continuing a string of blunt statements of a sort rarely heard from heads of state on this side of the Atlantic, he warned Friday that Europeans now stand to become “a minority in our own continent” if the floodgates are not immediately closed.

Trump dreams of building a wall to keep migrants out. But Orban, 52, has actually done it — erecting 109 miles of razor wire to stop them. Authorities in Hungary, a key transit nation for ­asylum-seekers aiming for generous European nations offering shelter, including Germany and Sweden, have been preventing them from moving on and shuttling them to camps, in part to dissuade more from coming. Under international pressure Friday, Hungary agreed to bus some of the blockaded asylum-seekers to Austria. But it remained unclear whether the Austrians would accept them and what would happen to the thousands of refugees stuck in Hungarian camps.

Orban’s political party, meanwhile, has put up billboards in the Art Nouveau streets of Budapest warning migrants — almost none of whom want to stay in Hungary — not to “take our jobs.” On Friday, Hungary’s parliament passed emergency anti-migration laws in response to the crisis, slapping on three-year jail terms for crossing the new fence and authorizing the army to help process migrants in registration camps.

It is just another day for a man known by his critics as the Viktator — an authoritarian nationalist who has menaced his enemies and enraptured supporters with a polarizing panache. A right-wing firebrand who once tried to tax the Internet and whose government has launched a high-profile assault on nonprofit organizations, Orban, like Trump, has rarely shied away from a fight.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/hungarys-maverick-prime-minister-becomes-europes-donald-trump/2015/09/04/5cc9c63c-5306-11e5-b225-90edbd49f362_story.html

[Ex Lurker]

4. There's a photo going around of German police battling Syrian immigrants waiving an ISIS flag

anybody know the source of that and whether it's real, or a photoshop?

[christx30]

9. I found this. Can't testify to its veracity.

http://rudaw.net/english/world/14092014

[Kotya]

12. This photo?

I don't know where or when it was taken, if it was even taken in Germany, but it is making the rounds on conservative websites.

[img][/img]

Edit: A Google image search on "polizei' tells me that these do appear to be German police.

[Aerows]

5. We are heading into winter

What on earth is going to happen to hundreds of thousands of people that have flocked to Europe or are still on the way?

I am having a difficult time seeing how even herculean efforts with regards to logistics is going to prevent a tragedy. Katrina was a damn nightmare and all we had to do was feed people. Could you imagine a Katrina where the weather is inclement and deadly cold on top of limited resources?

I don't know how they will all manage.

[Mr.Squirreleo]

6. Why Germany

Is their a concrete theory on why all the refugees seem transfixed on seeking asylum in Germany? Would it not be better for everyone if they spread out around the continent, instead of packing Germany to the brim?

[coyote]

8. because Germany

has the strongest economy and social benefits. This brings the question how bad off are these refugess that they must cross 10 countries to get to Germany. They look more like economic refugees.

I am happy about the border going up in Austria but then again I am sitting at ground zero in Munich.

60% of Germany per the radio this morning is against taking refugees. It is not all flowers and candy here as they protray it in the media.

[Nihil]

11. Exactly: "Germany has the strongest economy and social benefits."

i.e., there is a large amount of deliberate choice involved here, much more
than the "desperation" that overseas commentators assign to the actions
of the migrants.

It's no coincidence that the primary destinations are those who offer the
most free social benefits ... or that the inhabitants of those countries are
getting pretty fed up with the "you must take more" comments when it is
at the cost of their own well-being.

[flamingdem]

15. Why did Merkel open the door?

Does Germany need workers that much?

[Nihil]

22. Why does America bring in so many foreign software engineers? (rhetorical)

Why are all of the gardeners in Houston Mexican?

How come there are so many migrant farm workers in Southern States?

$$$ (or £££ or €€€)

Germany (like Britain and other countries) doesn't need "workers" so much
as it wants "cheap workers".

The people who pay the politicians want to reduce costs and so "need" to keep
a supply of cheap labour that really isn't interested in Health & Safety laws or
Working Time Directives but who are primarily grateful for any pennies that are
dropped down to them.

[flamingdem]

7. Angela made an error by encouraging them

She held open a door causing thousands to risk their lives - not just the Syrians heard the call. Germany needs cheap labor. Now the word is out that Europeans will welcome or can be forced into caring for refugees and that it's a 97% chance that one will survive the journey and be able prosper vs. suffer war, drought and poverty.

With the Central American child migrants it was Mexico taking the hard line. One million have been stopped attempting to get into Mexico. We must be paying for that.

[Kotya]

13. Not just Syrians...

NPR was talking about this and how the black market for counterfeit Syrian passports has gone through the roof. Seems they're pretty easy to acquire.

[flamingdem]

14. Yes, I read that there were many Turkish and other passports left at the border

Wonder how easy it is to fake a Syrian accent - the reality is that they don't have enough Syrians on staff to discern.

Angela is getting a clue that not everyone is on the up and up..

[Kotya]

17. The reality is that

Germany isn't even questioning them, according to the same NPR program. Say you're Syrian and you're Syrian as far as border authorities are concerned.

Merkel rolled out the red carpet and hundreds of thousands of both refugees and migrants told themselves "it's now or never" and took her up on her generous offer. Can't say I blame them.

[flamingdem]

21. You can't blame them a bit

in fact it shows that they are intelligent to go so that's a plus.

I'd be first in line in their situation!

[Kurska]

10. Told ya so.

People who thought a nation could withstand thousands of arrivals a day indefinitely were out of the mind.

[left-of-center2012]

16. It's a muslim invasion of Europe

And it was caused by the Bush/Cheney wars

[pampango]

18. That's the RW meme anyway. I doubt many here are buying the RW view that people fleeing war

are a "muslim invasion".

[mylye2222]

20. "Cause by Bush Wars" That is why US would honor itself

In welcoming more refugees, it would be a kind of reparation attempting act.

France is doikg it since decades. It invaded Maghreb countries. It now has thousands of Maghrebian ascent people.