The number of people applying for asylum in Europe has dropped to levels similar to those recorded before the wave of refugee arrivals in 2015, the EU’s statistics agency said on Tuesday.
Eurostat said about 650,000 people applied for asylum in the 28 EU nations for the first time last year — about half of the number of applicants in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Syrians, arrived.
More than 102,000 were Syrians, 47,500 were Iraqis and 43,600 were Afghans.
Almost one-in-three people sought asylum in Germany last year. Twenty percent filed in Italy and 14 percent in France.
Few applied in Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Estonia.
About 1 million applications were still being considered by national authorities at the end of last year.
Also on Tuesday, Greek and international aid groups slammed a two-year deal between the EU and Turkey that has left thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in severely overcrowded camps on Greek islands.
The March 2016 deal aimed to halt the flow of tens of thousands of people from Turkey to nearby Greek islands, as they attempted to make their way to more prosperous European countries. It stipulated that those arriving after March 20, 2016, would be held on the islands and returned to Turkey unless they successfully applied for asylum in Greece.
The numbers of people arriving on Greek islands dropped dramatically after the agreement, but Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others described the deal as a failure by Europe to deal with the refugee issue adequately, saying it leaves people trapped in often hopeless situations.
“The [EU-Turkey] deal is a glaring example of Europe’s failure to design and implement a unified refugee and migration policy which would respect the human rights of those crossing its borders seeking asylum,” said Jenny Kavounidi, board member of the SolidarityNow aid group.
Rights groups have repeatedly complained of precarious security, poor health caused by overcrowding and increasing mental health problems due to the uncertainty faced by those in the camps, many of whom have been there for up to two years.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not