Europe Chronicle | February 5 to March 7, 2016
February 5th
A month after the law allowing the seizure of asylum seekers' assets above a certain amount came into effect in Denmark, no property has been confiscated so far.
February 19th
Austria is taking drastic measures and reintroducing border controls: it will only accept 80 refugees per day and allow 3,200 people wishing to travel to a third country to transit. It is thus joining the particularly harsh policy initiated by the four Visegrad group countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia). These countries want to re-establish borders within the Schengen area.
February 20
City of Bautzen, Germany. A fire destroyed the roof of a former hotel intended to house migrants. No injuries were reported, but the event was met with cheers from 20 to 30 people hostile to refugees gathered at the scene. Arson is the leading theory by police. Other incidents have been reported in the region, which is where the anti-refugee and Islamophobic movement Pegida originated.
February 26th
Barcelona: Protesters outraged by the delay in the arrival of refugees. The city, in alliance with Madrid and other cities in the country to offer suitable accommodation to exiles, presented its “Barcelona City of Refuge” plan the day before. In recent months, reception services have been strengthened and the population has mobilized. «We are furious. The city is ready from a technical point of view, all services are in place, citizens are waiting with open arms. But they are not arriving,» says Mayor Ada Colau. The Spanish government plans to welcome 17,680 people (not 2,749 as initially agreed). Only 18 refugees have arrived in the country.
February 26th
Hamburg. The «International Conference of Refugees and Migrants» brought together over 1,600 refugees and activists. Coming from all over Europe and originating from around the world, they gathered under the slogan ’We are here to stay.« Their two main demands: freedom of movement and freedom of settlement. A next conference is planned for the fall, in Berlin.
February 29
Start of the destruction of the Calais «Jungle.» French authorities, armed with bulldozers and tear gas, have destroyed a portion of the makeshift housing. Officially, 800 to 1,000 people are affected by the evacuation, though aid organizations put the figure at 3,450. The prefecture claims they can rehouse people in various structures, but these are deemed unsuitable by many involved in the camp's operations. Spartan containers, accessible only on condition of providing fingerprints. This is a deal-breaker for many migrants, as the use of this data remains unclear.
March 4
«Transform!», the European network for alternative thinking and political dialogue, has launched an international petition for a better reception of refugees arriving in Europe. It calls for an immediate reversal of a «xenophobic trend that is both deadly for foreigners and ruinous for the future of the European continent,» to offer safe haven to refugees. Petition available at: http://www.transform-network.net/fr/blog/blog-2016/news/detail/Blog/appeal.html
March 5
After announcing on February 18 the possibility of having police and military agents patrol the Turkish border, Nikolay Nenchev, the Bulgarian Minister of Defense, announced that the army will also patrol the Greek border. Bulgaria thus wishes to prevent the progression of exiles towards Europe, whether or not they are in the Schengen Area. Bulgarian authorities also announced in February the extension of the barrier erected in 2014 on the Turkish border. Through these various measures and the closure of many countries located on the «Balkan route,» Greece finds itself isolated from the rest of the Schengen countries and appears destined to become the final stop for many migrants.
March 6
NATO officially announces the launch of its operation in the Aegean Sea. Its stated goal is to combat «human trafficking and the activity of criminal networks fueling the crisis.» In reality, the objective of NATO members, including France, Germany, Turkey, and the United States, is to reduce the number of migrants reaching the Greek coast, and therefore Europe.
March 7
Residents of the Calais Jungle on a hunger strike have sewn their lips shut to protest the destruction of their shelter.