Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) – The number of refugees and migrants fleeing to Europe in 2015 has topped an unprecedented 1 million, and at least 3,600 drowned or went missing trying to make the crossing, the UN said on Tuesday, calling for much more to be done to receive and aid those uprooted by persecution, conflict and poverty.

"Persecution, conflict and poverty have driven a staggering 1 million people to seek safety in Europe in 2015," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, told reporters here, citing estimates by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

As of Monday, some 972,500 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea, while more than 34,000 people have crossed from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land, Haq said at a daily news briefing here.

"The number of people displaced by war and conflict is the highest in Western and Central Europe since the Balkan crises of the 1990s," when several conflicts broke out in the former Yugoslavia, he said.

"One in every two of those crossing the Mediterranean this year – half a million people – were Syrians escaping war," Haq said. "Afghans accounted for 20 percent and Iraqis for seven percent."

According to UN refugee agency reports, the Syrian civil war, which has been raging since March 2011, has led to a massive displacement that has also, to a large extent, contributed to the huge influx of refugees in the Middle East and Europe.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that as anti-foreigner sentiments escalate in some quarters, it is important to recognize the positive contributions that refugees and migrants make to the societies in which they live and also honour core European values: protecting lives, upholding human rights and promoting tolerance and diversity.

More than 800,000 refugees and migrants came via the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece, accounting for 80 percent of those arriving irregularly in Europe by sea, while the number of those crossing from North Africa into Italy dropped slightly, from 170,000 in 2014 to around 150,000 in 2015.

Over the year, the number of people crossing the Mediterranean increased steadily from around 5,500 in January to a monthly peak in October of more than 221,000, said the UN agencies.

After an initial chaotic reaction which resulted in tens of thousands of people moving from Greece through the Western Balkans and northwards, and finding themselves blocked at various borders, a more coordinated European response is beginning to take shape.

The UNHCR launched an emergency response to complement European efforts, with more than 600 emergency staff and resources deployed to 20 different locations to provide life-saving aid and protection, advocating for human rights and access to asylum, particularly for refugees with specific needs, such as unaccompanied children and women-headed households.

But much more needs to be done to reinforce required reception capacity at points of entry and allow for the humane and effective accommodation, aid, registration and screening to identify those in need of protection, those to be relocated to other countries within the European Union, and those who do not qualify for refugee protection for whom dignified return mechanisms have to be put in place, according to the UN refugee agency.

At the same time, the UNHCR continues to call for safe, regular ways for refugees to find safety through more resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes, more flexible visa arrangements, more private sponsorship programmes and other possibilities.

In mid-December, the UNHCR brought together governments and civil society to a two-day forum in Geneva to address the root causes of displacement as conflicts in the Middle East and Africa drive unprecedented numbers of people from their homes while floods and droughts wreak havoc with lives and livelihoods in Asia.

"Our world today is at a crossroads," Guterres said at the opening session of the forum. "From a humanitarian perspective, this juncture is defined by two 'mega-problems' in an environment of global insecurity."

"A seemingly uncontrollable multiplication of violent conflicts in an environment of global insecurity, and the pervasive and growing effects of natural hazards and climate change that are already shaping our present and will shape our future even more," he said, calling for an approach that looked beyond immediate emergency response to "what got us here in the first place."

At his year-end press conference on Dec. 16, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the World Humanitarian Summit will be held in May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey, adding that the upcoming conference will be critical moment to address systemic funding problems, and agree on concrete steps to better prepare for and respond to crises.

"The world must invest more political energy in preventing and ending conflict, and in addressing violations of human rights – our best early warning signs of greater trouble to follow," Ban said.

Meanwhile, Ban reviewed the situation of "epic flows" of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 2015, saying that in the New Year "the world needs to aim for a new global compact on human mobility."
 

GENEVA, Dec 22 (Reuters) – More than 1 million refugees and migrants came to the European Union this year, while almost 3,700 died or went missing in perilous journeys which reaped huge profit for smugglers, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.

"This is three to four times as many migrants and refugees coming north as we had in 2014, and the deaths have already far surpassed the deaths last year," IOM chief William Lacy Swing told Reuters.

Almost all those arriving came across the Mediterranean or the Aegean Seas, and half were Syrians fleeing the war. Another 20 percent were Afghans, and 7 percent were Iraqis, IOM and the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a joint statement.

People smuggling operations probably accounted for the majority of journeys and likely earned at least $1 billion, Swing said, taking "anywhere from $2,000 to maybe $6,000 depending on how many members of the family and depending on which smuggling ring it is".

IOM estimates people smugglers in Europe have made $10 billion or more since 2000, maybe much more. "They are certainly getting very well paid for their services," Swing said.

Out of a total of 1,005,504 arrivals to Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus by Dec. 21, the vast majority – 816,752 – arrived by sea in Greece, IOM said.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said it was impossible to forecast how the flow of migrants would evolve in 2016.

"So much is in the balance, the resolution of the Syrian war, and the disposition of the European border protection moves that are being contemplated," he said.

"We never thought it would reach this level. We just hope people are treated with dignity."

The record movement of people into Europe is a symptom of a record level of disruption around the globe, with numbers of refugees and internally displaced people far surpassing 60 million, UNHCR said last week.

Swing said the war in Syria was only one among many causes, including Ebola and Boko Haram in West Africa, an earthquake in Nepal, conflicts in Libya, Yemen, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Afghanistan and Iraq.

"No wonder you have such a large flux coming north. This is an unprecedented scale of simultaneous complex protracted disasters from the western bulge of Africa to the Himalayas, with very few stable, peaceful spots in between."

U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres called on Friday for a "massive resettlement" of Syrian and other refugees within Europe, to distribute many hundreds of thousands of people before the continent's asylum system crumbles. (Editing by Dominic Evans)
 

The father of toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body on a Turkish beach became a symbol of the refugee crisis, has made a Christmas appeal to the world to open its doors to Syrians fleeing conflict.

The message, to be broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 on Christmas Day, comes after the UN refugee agency said that more than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe this year.

They included over 970,000 who made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

Three-year-old Aylan died in September after his family, sheltering in Turkey from the war in Syria, decided to make a desperate bid to reach Greece in a flimsy inflatable boat.

Shocking images of the toddler washed up and face down on the shore helped spur European nations to seek an effective response to the growing migrant crisis.

"My message is I'd like the whole world to open its doors to Syrians. If a person shuts a door in someone's face, this is very difficult," Abdullah Kurdi says in the video message.

"When a door is opened they no longer feel humiliated," he adds, according to a transcript released by Channel 4.

Aylan's mother Rihana and brother Ghaleb, 4, died in the same accident and were buried in the Syrian town of Kobane in September, days after the tragedy.

Abdullah Kurdi had been trying to escape along with his family and up to three other Syrians from the flashpoint town, which was last year the site of a months-long battle between Kurdish militias and jihadists.

"At this time of year I would like to ask you all to think about the pain of fathers, mothers and children who are seeking peace and security," says Kurdi who now lives in Erbil in Iraq.

"We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you."

The UNHCR said that of the million who reached Europe in 2015, about half were Syrians fleeing the country's brutal civil war.

"The number of people displaced by war and conflict is the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the 1990s," it said, referring to conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

In a sign that the crisis shows no sign of abating, at least 10 migrants including five children died Wednesday when their boat sank near the Greek Aegean island of Farmakonissi, the national ANA news agency said.

Another 13 people were rescued and two more are feared missing, the agency said.

And on Tuesday, the Italian coastguard said that nearly 800 people had been pulled to safety in the Mediterranean as they attempted the crossing, and one body recovered.

Greece was by far the leading landing spot for migrants to Europe this year, with 821,008 arrivals including 816,752 by sea, the International Organization for Migration said this week.

A total of 3,692 migrants died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean this year, it added.

EU leaders have set an end-of-June deadline to agree on a new border and coastguard force to slow the influx of migrants across the 28-nation bloc's porous external frontier.

They have also called for the rapid delivery of a promised 3.0 billion euros ($3.25 billion) in aid for refugees in Turkey in return for its help in stemming the flow.

Life is a struggle for most Syrians in Turkey, who live mostly off odd jobs that are often insufficient to feed and house a family.

Following a slew of emergency summits this year, EU leaders have acknowledged they were too slow to carry out a joint strategy to tackle Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II.
 

Plus de 972 000 migrants sont arrivés en Europe par la mer Méditerranée et 34000 sont passés par la voie terrestre.

Le dernier décompte établi, mardi 22 décembre, par l'Organisation internationale pour les migrants (OIM) et le Haut-Commissariat de l'ONU pour les réfugiés (HCR) fait état de1005504entrées de migrants en Europe, par voies maritime et terrestre.

«Au 21 décembre, quelque 972 000 avaient traversé la mer Méditerranée, d'après les chiffres du HCR. En plus, l'OIM estime que plus de 34000 s'étaient rendus en Bulgarie et en Grèce après avoir traversé la Turquie.» «Le total représente le flux migratoire le plus élevé depuis la seconde guerre mondiale», mentionne l'OIM dans son communiqué. «Alors que les sentiments anti-étrangers augmentent dans certains endroits, il est important de reconnaître les contributions positives des réfugiés et migrants aux sociétés dans lesquelles ils vivent», affirme Antonio Guterres, haut-commissaire de l'ONU pour les réfugiés, cité dans le communiqué.

L'Europe toujours divisée La Grèce a totalisé la très grande majorité du nombre d'arrivée des migrants, avec 816752entrées sur son territoire. La moitié des migrants qui traversent la Méditerranée viennent de Syrie, 20% d'Afghanistan et 7% de l'Iran, selon l'OIM.

Au moins 3695personnes ont trouvé la mort en tentant la traversée de la Méditerranée. En 2014, plus de 219000 migrants avaient franchi la Méditerranée.

Face à cette situation les Européens n'ont toujours pas trouvé de vraie solution à la crise des migrants, et ils semblent même plus divisés que jamais, malgré un Conseil européen qui s'est tenu à la mi-décembre. Ainsi, sur le plan de «relocalisation» de 160000réfugiés adopté en octobre, seulement 184 personnes étaient concernées au 16décembre.

L'Europe fait face au refus de la Hongrie, de la Slovaquie et de la Suède de participer à ce plan. Deuxième destination européenne pour les migrants, le pays scandinave arrive à saturation et a obtenu de ne plus accueillir de nouvelles personnes de Grèce ou d'Italie, pendant un an. Un troisième mini-sommet est prévu pour février.
 

Geneva (dpa) – More than 1 million people have arrived in Europe this year in a bid to escape conflicts and poverty.

The UN refugee agencyUNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that 972,500 people had entered the continent via the Mediterranean Sea, more than four times as many as last year.

A further 34,000 had travelling to Europe by land from Turkey, they said.

"One in every two of those crossing the Mediterranean this year – half a million people – were Syrians escaping the war in their country," UNHCR and IOM said in a joint statement.

Afghans accounted for 20 per cent and Iraqis for 7 per cent of the sea arrivals.

The vast majority travelled from Turkey to Greece over the Aegean Sea, while crossings from Northern Africa to Italy dropped slightly.

More than 3,600 people died or went missing on the dangerous sea routes, compared to nearly 3,300 last year. People smugglers often use unseaworthy and overcrowded boats.

"But it's not enough to count the number of those arriving," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said. "We must also act."

He called for open, legal and safe immigration channels that also meet the security concerns of European countries.

Amid fears that terrorists might pose as migrants to reach Europe, UN Hich Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned against xenophobia.

"As anti-foreigner sentiments escalate in some quarters, it is important to recognize the positive contributions that refugees and migrants make to the societies in which they live," he said.

The migration organizations said the European Union must expand the reception centres at its borders, to better identify refugees who need protection and economic migrants without a right to asylum who will be repatriated.
 

Half of those arriving in six countries were Syrians fleeing war and the overwhelming majority landed in Greece.

The number of "refugees and migrants" arriving by land and sea to the European Union passed the one million mark this year, according to the UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration.

The new figures, jointly released by UNHCR and IOM, listed the arrivals in six European countries since January 1, with the vast majority of people – 821,008 – landing in Greece.

Half of those arriving to Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus by December 21 were Syrians fleeing war, another 20 percent were Afghans, and seven percent were Iraqis.

Some 3,600 died or went missing, including 422 deaths at sea, the two agencies added on Tuesday.

"We know migration is inevitable, it's necessary and it's desirable," IOM chief William Lacy Swing said in the statement.

"But it's not enough to count the number of those arriving, or the nearly 4,000 this year reported missing or drowned. We must also act.

"Migration must be legal, safe and secure for all-both for the migrants themselves and the countries that will become their new home."

The UN refugee agency UNHCR is planning for arrivals to continue at a similar rate in 2016 but the IOM said it was impossible to forecast future numbers.

"So much is in the balance, the resolution of the Syrian war, and the disposition of the European border protection moves that are being contemplated," said an IOM spokesperson.

The record movement of people into Europe is a symptom of a record level of disruption globally, with numbers of refugees and internally displaced people passing 60 million, UNHCR said last week.

"I don't understand why people are insisting that this is a European problem. This is a global issue," Michael Moller, director of the UN office in Geneva, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The IOM's Swing warned that anti-refugee sentiment could put lives at risk adding that suspicion was based on stereotypes, fear of national identity loss and a "post-9/11 security syndrome".

"Every person entering from abroad is potentially a terrorist, exacerbated now with what happened in Paris," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"We're very disturbed at the widespread anti-migrant sentiment that can lead to xenophobia and risks to migrants."

The November 13 attacks in Paris , which killed 130 people, triggered concerns that ISIL fighters could enter Europe using the cover of refugee flows and prompted calls for nations to tighten their borders.

"The concern I have about a lot of statements that are being made on the public record right now is that it puts migrant lives at risk. All of our countries have always been open to new influx of people and it's always benefited us."

Asked if he would consider reaching out to political leaders stoking anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe and the US, Swing said: "We may have to. We probably will have to."
 

More than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe this year, including over 970,000 who made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

About half were Syrians fleeing the country's brutal civil war, according to the new figures released by the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.

"The number of people displaced by war and conflict is the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the 1990s," the UNHCR said, referring to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia that decade.

A total of 3,692 migrants died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean sea this year, IOM said.

The figures were released as Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reported that 11 more people, including three children, drowned in the Aegean Sea, underscoring the grave risks taken by those striving to reach Europe.

Greece was by far the leading landing spot for migrants to Europe this year, with 821,008 arrivals, including 816,752 by sea.

At certain points over the last 12 months upwards of 5,000 people were landing in the Greek islands each day.

But the rate of arrivals in Greece has eased slightly since November, partly due to increased maritime patrols by Turkey and partly because of colder weather.

Overall, sea arrivals this year dwarfed those of 2014, when the UNHCR recorded 219,000 migrant landings in Europe via the Mediterranean.

The UN has previously said it sees no let up in the coming months and that the number of migrants who reach Europe in 2016 could exceed the 2015 figures, especially if relentless violence in Syria persists.

"We know Syrians will go on trying to reach Europe until there is a fundamental change in the factors that are pushing them to leave," UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres told the UN security council on Monday.

Guterres said there was need for a "New Deal" between the international community, especially Europe, and Syria's neighbours who have born the brunt of the refugee influx caused by the civil war.

Afghans made up 20 percent of migrant arrivals in Europe, while seven percent were Iraqis.

After Greece, Italy received the second highest number of migrants, with 150,317 people reaching its territory this year, all by sea.

This marked a slight decline from 2014, when 170,000 people landed in Italy after crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.

Rounding out the list of European countries that saw migrant arrivals in 2015 was Bulgaria (29,959), Spain (3,845), Cyprus (269) and Malta (106).

"We know migration is inevitable, it's necessary and it's desirable," said IOM chief William Lacy Swing,

"But it's not enough to count the number of those arriving... We must also act," he added, calling for "legal, safe and secure" migration for those forced to leave their home country.

Reflecting on the last 12 months, the UNHCR criticised the "initial chaotic reaction" in parts of Europe to the flood of migrants, but applauded signs that a more coordinated response was now emerging.

But a unified EU positon remains elusive, with Hungary and Slovakia having made threats of legal action against the bloc's controversial plan to distribute 160,000 refugees across member states.
 

International Organisation for Migration announces latest figures, with Greek island of Lesbos now the main refugee gateway• Help refugees by donating to our 2015 appeal

More than a million people have now reached Europe through irregular means in 2015, the International Organisation for Migration has announced, in what constitutes the continent's biggest wave of mass migration since the aftermath of the second world war.

Out of a total of 1,005,504 arrivals by 21 December, the vast majority – 816,752 – arrived by sea in Greece, the IOM said. A further 150,317 arrived by sea in Italy, with much smaller figures for Spain, Malta and Cyprus. A total of 34,215 crossed by land routes, such as over the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

The overall figure is a four-fold increase from 2014's figures, and has largely been driven by Syrians fleeing their country's civil war. Afghans, Iraqis and Eritreans fleeing conflict and repression are the other significant national groups.

The European migration flow is nevertheless far more manageable than in the Middle East, where roughly 2.2 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey alone. In Lebanon, 1.1 million Syrians form about one-fifth of the country's total population, while Jordan's 633,000 registered Syrian refugees make up around a tenth of the total.

The denial of basic rights to refugees in those countries, where almost all Syrians do not have the right to work, is one of the causes of Europe's migration crisis. Refugees who have lived for several years in legal limbo are now coming to Europe to claim the rights bestowed on them by the 1951 UN refugee convention.

"In Jordan, life is so difficult," said Nemer, a 24-year-old Syrian student, minutes after landing this week on the Greek island of Lesbos. "There's no [legal] work. I can't go to university. There's no hope. And in Turkey it's the same thing: no work and no hope."

Other refugees are fleeing directly from the war zones themselves. Aruba al-Rifai, a 44-year-old civil servant from the outskirts of Damascus, arrived on Lesbos this week having come straight from Syria. "The bombs are getting worse, and it's just the beginning," said Rifai. "I come to Europe to feel like a human being."

Among rights workers, Tuesday's news prompted renewed calls for Europe to set up safe and legal access to refugees. Save the Children, which says that over a quarter of refugee arrivals to Europe this year have been minors, said the absence of a more humanitarian response meant that the values of the continent were now at risk.

"Despite many European countries and people generously helping one million refugees, Europe is doing too little to protect and help vulnerable refugee children and stop families drowning on our shores," said Kirsty McNeill, the charity's campaigns director.

"This is the test of our European ideal. When children are dying on our doorstep we need to take bolder action. There can be no bigger priority."

Among other demands, McNeill also called for better provision for refugees once they arrive in Europe. "Some reception facilities, especially at borders, aren't adequately providing for basic needs like food, water or healthcare," McNeill said in a statement. "The situation is expected to worsen with the onset of winter – especially for children -who are also more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, violence and trafficking. We urge European states to focus on immediate humanitarian needs on the ground, especially for children."

The record movement of people into Europe is a symptom of a record level of disruption around the globe, with numbers of refugees and internally displaced people far surpassing 60 million, UNHCR said last week.

"I don't understand why people are insisting that this is a European problem. This is a global issue," Michael Moller, director of the UN office in Geneva, told a news conference on Tuesday.

The UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres called on Friday for a "massive resettlement" of Syrian and other refugees within Europe, to distribute many hundreds of thousands of people before the continent's asylum system crumbles.

He called for European countries to recognise the positive contributions made by refugees and migrants and to honour what he said were "core European values: protecting lives, upholding human rights and promoting tolerance and diversity."

Lesbos is now the main refugee gateway to Europe, with just under half of those entering the continent in 2015 doing so by using the island as a staging post between the Greek mainland and the nearby shores of Turkey. Despite the worsening weather, and despite a so-called crackdown on Turkey's people-smugglers, the numbers arriving in December are still higher than in June and July. Over 15 boats arrived on Lesbos on Monday. Across the Greek islands, the average number of refugees arriving each day in December is 3,338, lower than the October peak of 6,828, but far higher than July's 1,771.

The IOM data is the latest in a slew of different and sometimes contradictory figures being used to quantify the European migration crisis. Other sources include the UN refugee agency, which is not publicly monitoring land arrivals; Frontex, the EU border agency, which sometimes double-counts people ; and Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, whose data conflates numbers from the refugee crisis with those that refer to internal European migration.

Between 12 and 14 million Europeans are estimated to have been displaced in the aftermath of the second world war.
 

Le chiffre du jour Alors qu'un seuil symbolique a été atteint, c'est le manque d'harmonisation d'accueil entre les Vingt-Huit qui pose problème.

Le million. Au 21 décembre, 1 005 504 migrants et réfugiés étaient entrés en Europe (3 % par terre et 97 % par mer) depuis le début de l'année, un nombre record, la plupart (816 752) débarquant sur les côtes grecques, selon l'Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM). Ces arrivées, également effectuées par l'Italie (150 000), Malte, la Bulgarie, l'Espagne et Chypre, représentent un nombre quatre fois plus élevé qu'en 2014. «Le plus gros afflux depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale», note l'OIM.

La moitié sont syriens, 20 % afghans, 7 % irakiens, selon l'OIM et le Haut Commissariat de l'ONU pour les réfugiés (HCR). Il faut ajouter ceux qui ne sont jamais arrivés : cette année, déjà 3 692 migrants sont morts en Méditerranée, soit plus de dix par jour (et 400 de plus par rapport à tout 2014). Mardi, onze se sont noyés en mer Egée. «On ne peut pas se contenter de compter le nombre d'arrivants ou les près de 4 000 disparus ou noyés, a indiqué mardi le directeur général de l'OIM, William Lacy Swing. Il faut agir. La migration doit être légale, sûre et sécurisée pour tous – les migrants et les pays qui vont devenir leur nouvelle patrie.» Vœu pieu. Si l'Europe croit vivre une «crise des migrants», elle subit surtout son incapacité à définir une politique commune sur l'immigration, chaque pays préférant garder sa souveraineté en la matière. Sur un territoire regroupant 500 millions d'habitants, ce devrait être arithmétiquement possible d'absorber un million de personnes. D'autant que c'est juridiquement obligatoire : environ 80 % des arrivants proviennent de pays en guerre, ce qui leur donne droit au statut de réfugiés.

«Chacun pour soi». Pour l'ancienne commissaire européenne Emma Bonino, «l'absence de réponse coordonnée a transformé un problème gérable en grave crise politique – qui pourrait détruire l'UE, comme la chancelière Merkel a prévenu». Elle épingle des Etats membres «égoïstement repliés sur leurs propres intérêts». Sylvie Guillaume, eurodéputée PS, dénonçait, lors d'une récente journée d'études à la Sorbonne, la «politique du chacun pour soi». Mi-décembre, les capitales européennes n'avaient relocalisé dans différents pays que 200 demandeurs d'asile sur les 160 000 promesses, alors que c'est la seule solution, martèle le HCR. Les dirigeants des Vingt-Huit font «beaucoup de sommets pour peu de résultats concrets, avec toujours les mêmes blocages : "Vas-y d'abord, toi, je verrai ensuite ce que je fais"», explique Sylvie Guillaume. Ce qui donne un «concours Lépine de l'immigration» : chaque sommet accouche d'une proposition qu'on oublie ensuite de mettre en œuvre. «L'UE navigue à vue, abondait lors du même colloque le juriste Serge Slama, c'est un bateau où chacun rame dans son sens.» Il y voit «plus un côté Inspecteur Gadget» : «On invente des solutions mais au moment où elles sont adoptées, on sait qu'elles sont périmées.»

Dans ce chaos, la France, qui a enregistré 69 000 demandes d'asile depuis début 2015 (en hausse de 17 % sur un an), fait figure de mauvais élève. «Depuis dix ans, elle a rendu son système d'asile très peu accueillant, avec un taux de reconnaissance très faible, rappelle Serge Slama. Pendant quinze ans, on a sous-dimensionné le système pour le rendre dissuasif.» Pour le sociologue Antoine Pécoud, «c'est un choix politique de gérer les migrations comme un trou noir».

«Pas mon pays». Seule Angela Merkel s'est mise à la hauteur en acceptant de recevoir tous les migrants et devrait enregistrer 1 million de demandes d'asile dans l'année (les chiffres différant grandement d'une source à l'autre). La chancelière a maintenu sa position malgré les critiques : «Si nous devons nous excuser de présenter un visage amical à des gens en détresse, ce n'est pas mon pays», justifiait-elle en septembre. L'attitude frileuse de l'Europe s'explique d'autant moins qu'elle n'est que marginalement touchée. La planète a compté en 2014 près de 60 millions de déplacés forcés (dont 19,5 millions hors de leur pays), et ce chiffre devrait être dépassé en 2015. La répartition se fait de façon très inégale, rappelle le HCR : la Turquie est le premier pays d'accueil (plus de 2 millions de réfugiés), le Liban reçoit le plus de réfugiés par rapport à sa population (209 pour 1 000 habitants) et l'Ethiopie le plus par rapport à ses ressources (469 réfugiés pour un dollar de PIB par habitant). Les pays riches n'en accueillent donc qu'une petite partie : 86 % des 14 millions de réfugiés dénombrés par la Banque mondiale en 2014 ont été reçus par des pays pauvres ou émergents, les riches n'en récupérant que 1,6 million. «Je ne comprends pas pourquoi on dit que c'est un problème européen. C'est un problème mondial», a relevé le directeur du bureau de l'ONU à Genève, Michael Møller. Pour le directeur général de l'OIM, il n'y a, du côté des dirigeants, qu'«absence de courage, manque de leadership et de sensibilité morale». Alors que les ONG, submergées, sont arrivées à un «point critique», alerte le patron du HCR. Le nombre des réfugiés dans le monde a progressé de 45 % depuis quatre ans. Pour Guterres, «le moment est venu d'un changement radical dans les efforts internationaux pour gérer les déplacements». L'Europe joue son avenir à ne pas vouloir s'y adapter.
 

Face à l'exode massif des réfugiés de la guerre qui fait rage aux portes de l'Europe, le renforcement des frontières prime sur les considérations humanitaires. La création d'un corps militarisé européen aux moyens renforcés et aux prérogatives étendues est en discussion, dont l'intervention nécessiterait un abandon de souveraineté qui suscite des réserves. Devant le danger de l'effondrement de Schengen que représente le rétablissement de multiples frontières intérieures, le renforcement de ses frontières externes est à l'ordre du jour. Sur la route des Balkans empruntée cette année par plus d'un million de réfugiés – de la Grèce à la Slovénie, avant d'atteindre l'Autriche et l'Allemagne – les barbelés ont en effet poussé comme des champignons et les contrôles frontaliers ont été rétablis.

Rares ont été les voix qui, comme celle du commissaire aux droits humains du Conseil de l'Europe, ont déploré la «désastreuse» prise en charge des réfugiés, laissés à eux-mêmes et traversant la mer Égée au prix de la noyade de plus de 3600 d'entre eux à ce jour, selon le Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés de l'ONU (HCR). «Si le cours des choses ne change pas, a-t-il ajouté, les valeurs et les principes énoncés dans la déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme perdront tout leur sens». Car, en dépit d'appels répétés de la part des ONG, la création de couloirs humanitaires n'a jamais été envisagée. Forte de ses 500millions d'habitants, l'Union européenne s'est révélée incapable d'accueillir un million de réfugiés. Des transferts directs de Turquie à l'Union européenne sont certes envisagés à l'avenir, mais seuls quelques dizaines de milliers d'entre eux pourront, au mieux, en bénéficier, à condition que les frontières turques soient fermées à tous les autres.

Déjà décidée, la répartition selon un système de quotas de 160000 réfugiés entre les pays européens est contestée par plusieurs gouvernements, les autres ne se précipitant pas pour la mettre en pratique.

Ce qui ne réglera pas le sort des centaines de milliers d'entre eux déjà entrés en Europe, auxquels se joignent tous les jours 4000 nouveaux réfugiés qui abordent les îles grecques malgré l'hiver. Le plus grand exode connu depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale va se poursuivre, et il est illusoire de vouloir l'arrêter. Pour ne parler que des Syriens, qui représentent la moitié des réfugiés, le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) a rendu public que plus de 12millions d'entre eux, dont 5,5millions d'enfants, ont un besoin immédiat d'assistance humanitaire. Plus de 4millions ont fui à l'étranger, et environ 8millions se sont déplacés à l'intérieur du pays. La chancelière Angela Merkel remarque que «se barricader au XXIesiècle n'est pas une option raisonnable», pour préconiser, seule et avec peu de chances de succès, que l'accord de répartition des réfugiés soit permanent et déplafonné. Ce qui ne laisse comme alternative que de les tenir à distance en obtenant de la Turquie qu'elle leur ferme sa frontière maritime avec la Grèce.

Principal point d'entrée des réfugiés dans Schengen, la Grèce assure désormais le tri des réfugiés afin de séparer ceux qui peuvent prétendre à l'asile des «migrants économiques» à refouler. Mais, d'après le Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR), les Syriens, Irakiens, Afghans et Érythréens – qui constituent la première catégorie – représentent 80% des réfugiés. Pour diminuer le flux, il n'y a pas d'autre solution que d'obtenir du gouvernement turc qu'il fasse blocage. En le finançant pour qu'il améliore le sort misérable des plus de 2millions de réfugiés qui s'y trouvent déjà, afin qu'ils s'y fixent, le bouclage de la frontière achevant de les convaincre...
 

BERLIN
A senior Bavarian politician said on Tuesday that refugees with forged Syrian passports have disappeared in Germany and there are grounds for suspicion that they may have had contact with Islamic State militants, German media reported.

The minister spoke after top-selling daily Bild reported that about a dozen refugees were in Germany with false passports originating from the same place as those held by two Islamist militants involved in attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 which killed 130 people.

Bild cited government sources as saying the passports were stolen and had "the same forgery features" as those held by the two Paris attackers. It said German authorities did not know the current location of the individuals with these passports.

Joachim Herrmann, interior minister in the southern German state of Bavaria, was quoted by German media as confirming that German security services knew that some people had entered in October and November with passports with similar serial numbers to Syrian passports that had been stolen by IS.

"We know that because we made copies of these passports at the time," Die Welt and other media quoted Herrmann as saying, adding that two of the Paris attackers also had passports from a similar series.

"An initial suspicion that this could be about more people sent by IS is likely and must at least be cleared up," Herrmann was quoted as saying.

Unfortunately, it was unclear where the refugees in question were at the moment, he added.

About one million people have come to Germany seeking asylum this year alone, many fleeing war and poverty in countries such as Syria and Iraq. The attacks in Paris raised worries about Islamist militants entering Europe undetected.

The head of the EU's border agency warned this week that the large number of refugees entering Europe posed a security risk and civil war was making it harder to check the authenticity of Syrian passports.

Media have reported that IS militants have probably procured tens of thousands of real passports after taking control of local authorities in parts of Syria, Iraq and Libya and may also have seized machines to produce identity documents.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
 

Refugees will be at the heart of the next Berlin film festival, with hundreds of free tickets for asylum seekers and new movies spotlighting Europe's historic influx, its director said.

Dieter Kosslick told AFP ahead of the 66th edition in February that the Berlinale would try to set an example of tolerance and integration in Germany, a society that has been rocked by the arrival of around one million newcomers this year.

He said the festival, which prides itself on a heady mix of A-list Hollywood stars and hard-hitting international cinema, has from the start strived for social relevance.

"Refugees have always played a role at the Berlinale, since 1951," when the festival was launched in the Cold War outpost of West Berlin, just six years after World War II.

"Back then many Germans were refugees and the festival was founded to foster understanding in German society and among nations."

The Berlinale, Europe's first major cinema showcase of the year and the only one to sell tickets for all of its featured films to the public, aims to give asylum seekers a break from long waits and crushing boredom.

"We are working with refugee aid organisations on a foster programme to distribute free tickets" teaming up volunteers with asylum seekers, he said, in an interview in his modest office overlooking Berlin's ultramodern Potsdamer Platz, the festival venue.

"Currently the plan is around 1,000 tickets but we could imagine making it more."

He added that invitations to the opening night gala on February 11 also included a request for a donation to a treatment centre for torture survivors, thousands of whom have sought refuge in Germany.

Kosslick, 67, is credited with strongly boosting the event's international profile since he took the reins in 2001. The festival will open with Joel and Ethan Coen's all-star Hollywood romp "Hail, Caesar!" and Meryl Streep chairing the jury that will award the Golden Bear top prize.

This year's selection of around 400 films from across the globe, which Kosslick is racing to complete and is still under close wraps, will cover many aspects of the refugee crisis, from its root causes to its impact on the rich West.

"We have always dealt with the refugee issue at the Berlinale," he said. "Now it's time to understand each other, show tolerance, accept each other and show that with the films we present."

The youth film sidebar section Generation will expand an existing outreach project at local schools to offer "welcome classes" to refugee kids to help them integrate into German society.

And the Berlinale Street Food Market, where festival-goers can grab a bite between screenings, will this year include a refugee-run catering van featuring Middle Eastern specialities, Kosslick said.

The Berlinale is to demonstrate to Germans that refugees can enrich their society, Kosslick said, amid a deep divide between supporters of an open-door policy for the most desperate applicants and rising anti-migrant sentiment.

"Of course you must recognise that these people are afraid," he said, referring to opponents of Germany's relative openness to refugees.

"At the Berlinale, we can show people how exciting – and harmonious – it can be to spend 10 days with migrants and people from other countries."

Kosslick said he wanted to capture a bit of the optimism and can-do spirit that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has preached during the crisis.

"I have to say that Frau Merkel has done a good job on refugee policy," he said.

"We have a historical responsibility here – where else but in Germany?"

Kosslick said an abundance of films about the Nazi era, including the adaptation of international bestseller "Alone in Berlin" due to premiere at the festival, were helping Germans grasp their country's dark past.

But he said the reality of seeing refugees at their doorstep was adding a new dimension to that understanding.

"It is an opportunity for German society to consider our relationship with our history. None of us can imagine what the Nazi crimes really meant and what millions of refugees endured – it is beyond our comprehension," he said.

"But you can understand what it means for someone to arrive in a cold country in November or December wearing flip-flops, to be standing there waiting, heavily pregnant and no one is helping. The refugee influx is a great chance for us Germans to better understand our own history."
 

ATHENS, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Five children, one woman and four men drowned when their boat sank off the small Greek island of Farmakonisi, Greek coastguard officials said early on Wednesday.

Another 13 people, 11 men and two women, were rescued and two were still missing according to witnesses, the officials said adding that a helicopter, a patrol boat and private vessels assisted the search-and-rescue operation.

"The vessel, a 6-metre (20-foot) speed boat, sank under unknown circumstances," one of the officials told Reuters. "They were in the water when they were spotted by a rescue boat."

The incident took place east of Farmakonisi, close to Turkey's coast. Tens of thousands of mainly Syrian refugees have braved rough seas this year to make the short but precarious journey from Turkey to Greece's islands.

More than 1 million refugees and migrants came to the European Union in 2015, while almost 3,700 died or went missing during the journey, which has reaped huge profit for smugglers, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.

The EU is counting on Ankara to stem the flow of refugees from Turkey into Greece and onward to Germany and other EU countries. A report said there was little evidence of progress since Turkey signed an "action plan" with the EU.

Its neighbour, Greece, which is a gateway to the EU, is also trying to rebuff criticism that it has done too little to manage the people arriving on its shores.
 

One Catholic parish in Germany tore out its pews to make space for refugees. Franciscan monks near Rome took a family into their hilltop convent.

But in northern Italy, a rural priest faced hostility when he asked his flock to shelter Muslims.

Four months after Pope Francis appealed to the parishes and religious communities of Europe to each take in one family of refugees, the response is decidedly mixed.

Arms have opened wide in some places but indifference, bureaucracy, fear, and xenophobia have reared their heads elsewhere, particularly after the attack by Islamist militants who killed 130 people in Paris last month.

Around a million migrants arrived by sea in Europe in 2015, with some 3,700 dying, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Some of them, if Francis is heeded, should be heading to safety among the roughly 120,000 Catholic parishes in Europe

But in Italy – which with more than 25,000 has the largest number of parishes – only about 1,000 have responded, according to Father Giancarlo Perego, head of the Church-affiliated Migrantes Foundation. Another 1,500 families had offered to host refugees.

Perego and other Church officials pointed out, however, that many Catholic parishes were already supporting refugee services well before the pope's appeal.

Italian bishops have published a "How To" booklet for parishes, dealing with everything from how to prepare parishioners for the arrival of refugees, legal issues, and a glossary explaining terms such as asylum and repatriation.

When Francis announced the initiative on Sept. 6, he set the example by welcoming two families into the Vatican's own two parishes.

MIXED WELCOME

Many of the migrants entering Europe have headed to Germany, where the Catholic Church is one of the richest in Europe, partly because of a Church tax on members, and which has an institutional tradition of helping refugees.

More than 3,000 staff members work full time to help refugees and are backed up by about 100,000 volunteers, according to a spokesperson.

St. Benedikt's parish in the northern port city of Bremen removed pews and confessionals and converted the church into a temporary refugee shelter.

"This is our duty. We can't sing Christmas carols about opening doors to those in need and at the same time refuse to let anyone enter," said one of its priests, Father Johannes Sczyrba.

St. Roch church in Brussels opened its doors at night and now shelters about 200 refugees.

"The numbers grow and grow and grow. It's like a little explosion," said Father Hugo Van Gee.

Gilles Cnockaert, spokesman for Catholic charity Caritas International, said the pope's call was "like an electrical shock" for Belgian Catholics and prompted more than 550 people to offer to house asylum seekers.

But it had not all been welcoming.

A number of Catholic prelates, particularly in Eastern Europe, were less than eager and warned of the long-term effects that migrants, most of them Muslim, could have on local culture.

"We are not being xenophobic or inhospitable," said Bishop Piotr Libera of Plock in central Poland. "We are being wise. If you let a stranger into your home, into a home that is just being built, a small home, a home that is frail, you may get yourself into a great deal of trouble".

In Italy, a major gateway into Europe for migrants, it has also been mixed.

The Rome newspaper La Repubblica said only 80 of Rome's more than 300 parishes had responded to Francis' call. The response was much lower in other Italian cities, the paper reported.

Parishioners of the church of San Saturnino in an up-scale Rome neighborhood refurbished a two-room apartment for three African refugees. They take turns helping them shop and cook.

Father Michael Perry, worldwide head of one of the branches of the Franciscan order, said monks in a convent south of Rome had taken in a refugee family and another convent in the central Rome neighborhood of Trastevere was housing 15 people.

But the appeal has also run into stubborn resistance, including in some areas of northern Italy where anti-immigrant feelings run high and defending regional identity has long been a political battle cry.

In September Father Lucio Mozzo, who looks after six rural parishes, called a meeting to see how parishioners felt about housing a family of Syrian refugees in a disused vicarage.

"My grandfather built that place for priests, not for Muslims," one man shouted.

Perry, the Franciscan leader, said he sensed that the Paris attacks had made some Catholics more hesitant and wary.

"That (the Paris attacks) is having some consequences. There is a rising fear in some people because they don't know what systems and controls are in place (to vet refugees)," he said.

(Additional reporting by Conor Humphires in Dublin, Alissa De Carbonnel in Brussels, Justyna Pawlak in Warsaw, Krisztina Than in Budapest, Tina Bellon in Berlin, Francois Murphy in Vienna, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, and Rodrigo de Miguel Roncal in Madrid; Editing by Crispian Balmer/Jeremy Gaunt)
 

Les réfugiés qui devaient emménager en janvier dans des cabanes Ikea à Zurich dormiront finalement dans des installations en bois aggloméré. Ces dernières ont passé avec succès le test anti-incendie fatal aux structures en plastique vendredi dernier.

La halle d'exposition 9 de la Foire de Zurich, à Oerlikon, servira donc, comme prévu, de centre d'urgence pour requérants d'asile dès le 4 janvier. L'organisation d'accueil AOZ et la ville de Zurich ont travaillé d'arrache-pied, durant le week-end pour remplacer les cabanes Ikea incompatibles avec les normes anti-incendie en milieu intérieur.

Elles ont élaboré un prototype composé de plaques ignifuges en bois aggloméré. De taille égale à une cabane Ikea, il peut être meublé de la même manière, indiquent la ville et AOZ. Suite au test anti-incendie passé avec succès, une entreprise de construction en bois va produire durant les Fêtes les 62 cabanes qui accueilleront les 250 réfugiés prévus.

Trois fois plus chères

La nouvelle solution coûtera plus cher que celle développée par la fondation Ikea et le Haut-Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR): 3800 francs par cabane – heures supplémentaires des ouvriers comprises – au lieu des 1200 francs que coûtaient les cabanes en matières plastiques. Chaque structure en bois aggloméré est montable en une heure.

Les cabanes Ikea ont entretemps été démontées. Elles ne seront pas revendues en raison des mauvais résultats obtenus lors du test anti-incendie. Plusieurs personnes avaient manifesté leur intérêt pour acheter une cabane chacune. D'une capacité de cinq personnes chacune, ces installations de 17,5 m2 ne disposent pas de fenêtres, mais de plusieurs bouches d'aération.

Ces petites maisons, facilement montables et peu onéreuses, ont déjà été déployées par centaines dans des camps de réfugiés au Tchad, en Ethiopie et en Irak, selon le site internet de "Better Shelter". Depuis cet été, quelque 1200 maisonnettes ont aussi été montées en Grèce pour accueillir le flux croissant de migrants.

Controverse sur les cabanes en plastique

Les autorités cantonales suisses avaient demandé une vérification du respect des normes anti-incendie. Une étude allemande avait en effet mis en doute la semaine dernière la fiabilité des informations données par le HCR et des experts suédois.

La fondation Ikea a réagi samedi en prenant la défense de la sécurité de ses cabanes. Leur réaction au feu a été testée selon les normes européennes et présentent un niveau de sécurité supérieur à ce qui se fait ailleurs en matière d'hébergement d'urgence, selon elle.

Fin octobre, les cabanes Ikea avaient été présentées en première suisse en Argovie pour servir de centre d'urgence pour requérants d'asile. Le canton prévoyait d'en acquérir 200 pour héberger des réfugiés dans des halles industrielles. Elle a renoncé à son projet en raison du résultat du test effectué vendredi à Zurich.
 

IZMIR, Turkey — The Turkish Coast Guard has stepped up nighttime patrols on the choppy, wintry waters of the Aegean Sea, seizing rafts full of refugees fleeing war for Europe and sending them back to Turkey.

Down south, at the border with Syria, Turkey is building a concrete wall, digging trenches, laying razor wire and at night illuminating vast stretches of land in an effort to cut off the flow of supplies and foreign fighters to the Islamic State.

On land and at sea, Turkey's borders, long a revolving door of refugees, foreign fighters and the smugglers who enable them, are at the center of two separate yet interlinked global crises: the migrant tide convulsing Europe and the Syrian civil war that propels it.

Accused by Western leaders of turning a blind eye to these critical borders, Turkey at last seems to be getting serious about shoring them up. Under growing pressure from Europe and the United States, Turkey has in recent weeks taken steps to cut off the flows of refugees and of foreign fighters who have helped destabilize a vast portion of the globe, from the Middle East to Europe.

Smugglers who used to make a living helping the Islamic State bring foreign fighters into Syria say that it is increasingly difficult — though still not impossible — to do so now. Border guards who once fired warning shots, they say, now shoot to kill.

"Whoever approaches the border is shot," said Omar, a smuggler interviewed in the border town of Kilis who insisted on being identified by only his first name because of the illegal nature of his work. "And many have been killed."

Another smuggler, Mustafa, who also agreed to speak if only his first name was used, said, "Two months ago, you could get in whatever you liked." He said he used to bring in explosives and foreign fighters for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. That allowed him to continue his regular business of smuggling food and other items, like cigarettes, into Syria. Now, he said, "the Turkish snipers shoot any moving object."

At the coast, Turkey's efforts to interdict more boats full of migrants came after the European Unionagreed to pay Ankara more than $3 billion to help with education and health care for the refugees in the country.

Some rights groups have cried foul. Amnesty Internationalrecently accused Turkey of illegally detaining migrants and, in some cases, of sending them back to war zones. Turkish officials have said they detain relatively few migrants, and only ones they say have links to smuggling rings.

The Basmane neighborhood of this coastal city, the primary hub for migrants on their way to Europe, is quieter than it was during the summer — not primarily because of any new toughness by the Turks, but because fewer migrants will risk a sea crossing during the winter, when the waters are rougher. Smugglers' fees have lately dropped to as low as $500 per person from about $1,200 because of the lower demand.

On a recent afternoon here, Bilal Barghoud, a 19-year-old Syrian, sat in a dingy guesthouse. Scrawled on the wall, in Arabic, was, "We have vests and inner tubes," and, "Tea for 1 Turkish lira." Mr. Barghoud had just returned from a harrowing night at sea.

The trip began smoothly, he said, but as they drew closer to Greece, the waves grew higher. Then, just a few minutes from the beaches of Greece, a Turkish Coast Guard cutter appeared.

"Everyone was saying, 'Oh, in 10 minutes we'll be in Greece,' " he said. "And then that ship showed up. Everyone was afraid."

The Turks brought them back to the port and also confiscated their life jackets.

Now, he said, they were waiting for a new night and another shot at crossing to Greece. Their wait was not long. The next morning, having successfully evaded the Turks, they were safely on the shores of Europe.

American and European leaders have complained for years that Turkey's border policy inflamed the Syrian civil war and enabled the rise of extremist groups like the Islamic State. Determined to see the overthrow of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, it allowed a virtually free flow of weapons and fighters across its lands.

Turkish officials have rejected such criticism, often blaming Western "Islamophobia" and European governments' treatment of their own Muslim populations for the copious flow of foreigners passing through Turkey to join the Islamic State.

While American officials say Turkey has improved in numerous ways — for instance, it has created a watch list of 26,000 terrorism suspects and established a new agency to monitor it — they are still pressuring the country to do more.

As Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter flew to Turkey recently to push officials to do more in the fight against the Islamic State, he said of the country, "The single most important contribution that their geography makes necessary is the control of their own border."

In recent weeks, the United States has increased airstrikes on the last stretch of Islamic State-held territory along the Turkish border: a 61-mile strip of land west of the Euphrates River. This is the area where last summer the United States and Turkey spoke publicly of a deal to clear the area of the Islamic State, but the two sides disagreed on what to call it — the Americans said "ISIS-free zone" and the Turks a "safe zone" — and the idea seemed to fade.

Now, after the recent Islamic State-inspired terrorist attacks in France and the United States, the two countries have renewed cooperative efforts to seal that final stretch.

Despite the Turkish crackdown, foreign fighters are still able to reach the Islamic State. According to a recent report by the Soufan Group, a political risk firm based in New York, the Islamic State now has from 27,000 to 31,000 foreign fighters, more than double the estimate the firm published in June 2013.

Richard Barrett, senior vice president at the Soufan Group, said that while the Turks were doing a lot more, there were still effective smuggling routes for the Islamic State. He said there were some reports that the group faced a shortage of manpower, but nevertheless the numbers of foreign fighters show that "they are still able to get people in."

With 2.2 million Syrians, and tens of thousands more Iraqis, Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country. But as it has moved to clamp down on its southern border, critics say it has also closed its doors to new refugees. Many of these are currently fleeing Russian airstrikes in rebel-held areas of Syria and finding themselves trapped by Turkey's closed doors.

Now, to reach safety, these refugees say, they have to be smuggled multiple times: from Islamic State-held areas to rebel territory, and then to Turkey, before they even consider the sea journey to Europe. Omar, the smuggler, said that thousands of desperate Syrians would cross in to Turkey if it reopened its border crossings.

Turkish officials, though, say that the country's policy toward refugees has not changed.

"We will still keep our open-door policy," said a senior Turkish official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. "But obviously the security situation on the ground changed."

As refugees here wait to leave, they worry about the rough seas and the Turkish Coast Guard, but also about how they will be treated, as Muslims, in Europe in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

"In Europe, as Muslims, we will be treated badly," said Amir Kuatbi, who left Damascus, Syria's capital, in recent weeks to escape army conscription and who was hoping to reach Sweden. But in Turkey, he said, "there is no future."

He chose Europe, and the day after he spoke, he arrived in Greece, on his way to Sweden.

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Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and Karam Shoumali from Izmir and Gaziantep, Turkey.
 

The difference in the response from the German chancellor and the British prime minister to the biggest refugee crisis Europe has faced since the second world war could not be more stark.

Angela Merkel's Germany has taken in more than 1 million asylum seekers this year. Her electrifying welcome announcement in August transformed the chancellor's cautious reputation for leading from behind, to one of a moral pioneer.

It is true that her open door response has provoked a backlash, particularly in Bavaria, through which most refugees and asylum seekers have entered Germany. But the backlash, while real enough in her own CDU party, appears to have been confined to a minority of the wider public.

A French-based IFOP poll of seven countries showed support for the principle of sheltering refugees from war and persecution has dropped in Germany from 79% in September to 75% in October. Fewer than half of Britons, French or Dutch say they feel the same way. While the demand for an upper limit on the number of refugees in Germany has damaged Merkel, it seems far from sweeping her from office.

David Cameron and his home secretary, Theresa May, on the other hand, have not only kept the door firmly shut but have made a virtue of it. While Germany accepted 108,000 asylum seekers between September and November, Cameron was boasting last week of resettling just 1,000 Syrian refugees over a longer period.

The PM has firmly argued that it is better to keep the 4 million Syrian refugees "in-region", underpinned by a generous cumulative £1bn aid programme and to end the incentive for those making the journey by "breaking the link between getting on a boat in the Mediterranean and getting the right to settle in Europe".

He adopted a tough-minded approach to this policy even to the point of refusing in October 2014 to provide any further support for a European search and rescue operation to prevent refugees drowning on the grounds that it would only encourage more people to attempt the dangerous sea crossing.

There have been two moments in the past year when it appeared that Cameron might adopt a less hard-hearted approach. The first came when the mounting death toll in the Mediterranean interrupted the parochialism of Britain's election campaign and even Nigel Farage understood that the British public wanted to pluck those in the leaky boats from the sea.

Cameron relented and sent in the Royal Navy flagship HMS Bulwark to help the rescue effort. But after saving nearly 5,000 lives Bulwark was withdrawn by June and its replacement HMS Enterprise was given a different mission of gathering intelligence on the people smugglers and their routes.

The second moment came in early September when the rest of Europe was responding to the summer drownings by proposing a mass emergency relocation programme of 160,000 refugees who had made it to Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Cameron, feeling the political heat from opposition politicians, notably Yvette Cooper, and the media, was fuelled by the disclosure that only 216 Syrian refugees had arrived on Britain's own vulnerable persons resettlement programme in the first nine months of 2015.

A further 2,204 Syrian asylum seekers had arrived in Britain under their own steam, including through Calais, but Cameron defused a growing political clamour that he did not care by announcing the current programme to bring 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrians from the camps to Britain by the time of the next election. Only 1,000 arrived by Christmas. It was deeply unambitious compared with Britain's past history of offering a safe haven, let alone the hundreds of thousands being given sanctuary in Germany.

It also came with the condition that Britain would play no part in the EU's own internal relocation programme designed to share the responsibility for refugees between northern and southern Europe. Instead Britain would reinforce efforts to strengthen Europe's external borders by going after the smuggling gangs and ensuring the rapid processing of asylum application programmes of those who did make it into Europe and the return of those who did not qualify as refugees.

While Britain sat out the refugee crisis, the rest of Europe found it was placing a severe strain on the very solidarity that binds the EUtogether. As the flow through the Balkans gathered pace in the autumn, border after border was temporarily reinforced placing a question mark over the very future of the Schengen borderless Europe. The Paris terror attacks momentarily raised unfounded fears that the refugee wave had been exploited by jihadis.

Countries such as Denmark dropped their previous pledges to take part in the relocation programme as politicians proposed seizing refugees' jewellery and cash. It is a measure of Europe's failure that so far only 160 or so of the one million refugees who made it to Europe by sea or by land have been relocated under the scheme.

The EU is left preparing for what is predicted to be an even larger movement of refugees in 2016, with divisive plans for a new EU border guard, a "smart" borders data tracking system and a "safe country" whitelist for rapid returns. Cameron may be congratulating himself for insulating Britain from the refugee crisis but all the signs are that it has only just begun.
 

A young Paulton boy has written a heartwarming letter to Father Christmas, in support of Syrian children who are in crisis.

Five-year-old Finlay Niemand asked for one of his presents this year to go to "a Syrian boy who has nothing".

His mother Kim is a supporter of the charity ActionAid which works with women and children on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Kim made a donation to ActionAid's Christmas Appeal and in response the charity sent a couple of toys to go to its mother and baby centre.

This will allow young children to play while their mums get some much needed rest and support.

The charity's head of humanitarian response, Mike Noyes, said: "The refugee crisis has been one of the biggest news stories of the year and touched many people in one way or another.

"Finlay's heart-warming letter to Santa is quite simply a lovely story of a young child's compassion at a time when compassion is needed most.

"This year thousands of child refugees have been forced to flee their country with their families and very few belongings, they arrive in Greece scared, vulnerable and without a safe home.

"On the Greek island of Lesbos, ActionAid has set up two mum and baby centres, a safe space where refugee women can breastfeed in private and are given essential supplies like nappies and wipes.

"With Finlay's donation, we bought some small toys for the centre, so that young children can play while their mums get some much needed rest and support. This was an opportunity to help give young children an attempt at some normality during what is such a difficult time.

"While ActionAid's work in Greece continues to focus on meeting the immediate needs of the most vulnerable refugees, we are incredibly grateful to Finlay and his family for sparing a thought for some of the world's most vulnerable children this Christmas.

"We ask that anyone else hoping to help homeless children consider donating to our Christmas appeal."