hungary seals its border as afghan becomes
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Hungary seals its border as Afghan becomes

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Hungary seals its border as Afghan becomes

An as-yet-unnamed 25-year-old man has become the first refugee to be shot dead trying to enter the European
Kuwait City - Arab Today

An as-yet-unnamed 25-year-old man has become the first refugee to be shot dead trying to enter the European Union when he was struck by a bullet fired by a Bulgarian border guard. The young Afghan, who died on Thursday night, had been among 54 refugees making their way to a better life in Europe when two guards tried to stop them.

He may be just one of thousands to perish on the hazardous journey westwards this year, and just one soul among the more than 700,000 refugees to seek asylum in the EU. But his death is a shocking illustration of the irony that, even as the EU opens its gates to refugees, it is adding guards to these gates.

The young Afghan's death is just one element in the whirling vortex of Europe's refugee crisis, but it is a particularly grim landmark. Officials say he was probably killed by a stray bullet that ricocheted off the bridge under which he was hiding, near the town of Sredets in south-east Bulgaria - around 20 miles from the border with Turkey, a country that has become pivotal to the EU's response to the crisis.

Within Bulgaria, the death prompted widely different reactions. Atanas Atanassov, the chair of the parliamentary committee on internal security and a minority partner in the coalition government, said: "In such a situation, we are talking about murder." But Valeri Simeonov, co-leader of the nationalist Patriotic Front, took a contrasting stance. "The Bulgarian border police officers should be given medals because they were doing their job," he said.

Such opposing opinions are reflected across the EU, where the refugee crisis has stirred both generous humanity and ugly insularity. At the moment the Afghan was shot, EU leaders were meeting on the opposite edge of the continent in Brussels to discuss their refugee policy. Upon hearing the news, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov left the summit and headed home.

It meant that Mr Borisov missed the grand declarations at the summit's conclusion about new measures to deal with the crisis. The Prime Minister David Cameron and other leaders agreed to ease visa restrictions for Turkey's 78 million citizens and speed up EU entry talks as part of a deal aimed at securing Turkey's support in stemming the flood of refugees westwards.

With 2.5 million Syrians currently in refugee camps on Turkish soil, Ankara's co-operation is essential in preventing an exodus into the EU. The European Council President Donald Tusk, chairing the fourth Brussels summit on the refugee crisis in six months, said an agreement with Turkey "makes sense only if it contains the flow of refugees".

The broader refugee plan involves beefing up border controls, returning unwanted migrants, and giving the EU's border agency Frontex more power to expel rejected asylum-seekers. Patrolling the EU's external borders will be crucial. Bulgaria has built a 20-mile razor-wire fence along part of its porous 160-mile frontier with Turkey, and sent some 2,000 border guards, police and troops to guard the rest. Hungary, meanwhile, said it had finished building a barrier along its border with Croatia, a much-used migrant crossing point, and would seal the border to migrants at midnight.

But Turkey is the key to any successful refugee plan. While the leaders did not agree on any firm aid figure, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has faced a public opinion backlash for her pro-refugee stance, said afterwards that the EU was considering a 3 billion (£2.2 billion) package - which would still be less than half the 7 billion that Turkey has spent hosting Syrian refugees. "In the future we have to be stronger on burden sharing," she said.

Even so, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mocked the EU's contribution. "They announce they'll take in 30,000 to 40,000 refugees and then they are nominated for the Nobel for that. We're hosting two and a half million refugees but nobody cares," Mr. Erdogan said, referring to the EU's 2012 Nobel Peace Prize win.

Any agreement would depend on Ankara dismantling the criminal networks that smuggle migrants, and agreeing to take back migrants who transit Turkey but are denied EU refugee status.

The negotiations come as Turkey is gearing up for parliamentary elections on 1 November. The EU has criticised Mr. Erdogan's increasing authoritarianism and its leaders are wary of granting him a pre-election propaganda coup. Yet they feel they have little choice but to play his game: with more dead children washing up on Greek beaches, the prospect of still more Syrian refugees has concentrated their minds. A European Commission progress report, expected to be critical of developments in Turkey and due to be released this week, has been postponed until after the elections

Source: KUNA

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

hungary seals its border as afghan becomes hungary seals its border as afghan becomes

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

hungary seals its border as afghan becomes hungary seals its border as afghan becomes

 



GMT 13:42 2015 Saturday ,04 April

Libyan warplane targets camp in Gharyan town

GMT 15:14 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

UN documents nearly 1,500 child soldiers in Yemen

GMT 07:24 2017 Sunday ,01 October

Mexico unlikely to find more quake survivors

GMT 16:15 2015 Wednesday ,11 November

German intelligence 'spied' on Fabius, FBI, UN bodies

GMT 01:32 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Russia's Putin earns about 157,000 USD in 2016

GMT 16:30 2017 Saturday ,15 July

Minister of planning gives priority

GMT 19:45 2017 Wednesday ,05 April

President of Senegal Meets Attorney General

GMT 05:18 2017 Thursday ,21 September

Over 80 missing after migrant boat sinks off Libya

GMT 19:22 2017 Saturday ,01 April

UN: Number of Syrian Refugees Tops 5 million

GMT 15:16 2016 Thursday ,29 September

FBI to put up database on police use of deadly force

GMT 05:06 2016 Friday ,30 September

Indian markets open flat

GMT 01:57 2017 Tuesday ,10 October

Twin suicide bombs kill 13 near Mogadishu airport

GMT 02:25 2017 Friday ,08 September

UAE celebrates National Day at Expo 2017 Astana

GMT 06:19 2017 Sunday ,08 January

Bleaching poses the gravest threat to coral reefs

GMT 12:35 2017 Monday ,18 September

Elham Shahin happy for “Day for Women”

GMT 09:46 2017 Thursday ,22 June

US existing home sales unexpectedly rise in May

GMT 02:36 2017 Tuesday ,10 January

US embassy condemns Al-Arish suicide attack

GMT 10:34 2017 Sunday ,26 November

czar faces graft probe
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday