Europe’s migrant crisis: September 28 roundup
“We will not turn our country into a refugee camp”, Greece’s deputy immigration policy minister Yannis Mouzalas said in an interview with Avgi newspaper, adding that the ministry’s intention is to create shelters “as long as Europe proceeds with the relocation of 160 000 refugees”.
Evaluating the results of the recent EU summit on immigration, Mouzalas said that “in the last two years, under the pressure of the problem, Europe seems to be changing its policy, turning it into a more welcoming continent”, the Independent Balkan News Agency reported on September 28.
A new tragedy occurred on Sunday off the Turkish coast as 17 people lost their lives when the boat in which they were traveling sank while trying to get to Kos or Leros.
Among the victims are a woman and five children, all of them of Syrian origin. The bodies were recovered by the Coast Guard of Turkey from inside the cabin of the wooden boat, since, according to the Dogan news agency, the refugees were trapped and did not have time to go out on deck, the Independent Balkan News Agency said.
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic met with his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic in New York on Sunday, his media office said in a statement, reported by Serbian news website B92.
Nikolic and Grabar Kitarovic discussed the crisis in the two countries’ relations caused by the Croatian government, according to the statement.
The two officials “agreed this is not the way to create the needed atmosphere for regional co-operation, adding they will make efforts for the mutual relations to go back on an upward trajectory as soon as possible.”
The Czech Republic may be sued at the Court of Justice of the European Union for placing refugees’ children in detention facilities, Eliška Wagnerová, a senator and former Constitutional Court judge, told the public broadcaster Czech Television (ČT) on September 27, the Prague Post reported.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, ČSSD) took issue with her and argued that the Czech Republic fully observed the European law.
(Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev)