The UN has reported a significant surge in the number of Syrian refugees trying to reach Italy by sea. Some politicians, meanwhile, tell RT they are troubled by the growing numbers of asylum seekers and how EU countries are going to cope.
Some 4,600 Syrian refugees have taken risky boat trips across the
Mediterranean to reach southern Italy since the beginning of this
year, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reports. Two-thirds of those
asylum seekers arrived in August, the agency says.
"Over the past 40 days, [some] 3,300 Syrians, of whom more
than 230 were unaccompanied children, have come ashore – mainly
in Sicily. Some 670 of these arrivals were during the past
week," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reports in Geneva
on Friday.
While Italy is coping with the increasing number of asylum
seekers, German has started accepting the 5,000 Syrian refugees
it promised to shelter.
The 5,000 are coming from Lebanon, which is currently giving
shelter to 700,000 Syrian refugees, and their applications will
be considered by Germany’s Interior Ministry, in cooperation with
the UNHCR.
Staff will examine "the relevant information in the
registration papers, contact the people and ask them if they
would be prepared to go to Germany," Deutsche Welle reported
Stefan Telöken, UNHCR spokesperson in Germany, as saying.
While refugee groups criticize the German approach for its
selectiveness and say the country could accommodate more of the
overall two million Syrian refugees, author and researcher
William Engdahl says Germany could do more to eradicate the
reasons for the crisis instead of just trying to cope with its
effects.
“The problem is the EU governments continue to support the
rebels, including German intelligence, and covertly in other
ways. I think it’s completely cynical of Germany to pretend to be
this humanitarian [host] for 5,000 refugees at the same time they
are pouring aid [into the war]… Let’s stop the reason why people
are leaving their homes. They aren’t leaving willingly,”
Engdahl told RT.
When Syrian refugees arrive in Germany, they are supposed to
spend two weeks in transit camps, where they will taught some
basic German and given some help on adapting to life in the
country, before being sent to various parts of Germany. The
country’s largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, will host the at
least 1,060 Syrians fleeing the conflict.
Some German politicians, like Markus Beisicht, from the Civil
Movement for North Rhine-Westphalia, are less than welcoming to
people fleeing the war.
“Our government is opening the door,” Beisicht told RT. “It’s
5,000, then 50,000, then more and more. Our cities, like
Leverkusen, can’t finance that. We’re broke. It’s not Germany’s
responsibility to solve the problems of the Arab world with our
taxes.”
Syria’s refugee crisis is “the gravest in the world” at this
moment, according to a recent UN report, which states that, with 4 million people
displaced inside the country and another 2 million forced to
leave Syria altogether, the total number of Syrians forced out of
their homes is 6 million.
The report also states that, in response to the US threat of
military strikes against the country, an estimated 5,000 Syrians
fled the country every day.
For more on the plight of the Syrian refugees in Europe, watch RT
Peter Oliver’s report from Berlin.