EU to step up migrant deportations while Germany calls for unity

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EU to step up migrant deportations while Germany calls for unity

European Union states will step up efforts to repatriate thousands of migrants fleeing poverty rather than war by speeding up deportations and exerting pressure on their home countries to take them back, an EU document says. In a new attempt to clamp down on economic migrants, ministers responsible for migration policies will meet on Thursday in Luxembourg to agree to measures to discourage illegal migration. To ensure the cooperation of migrants' home countries, ministers want to offer more aid to African or Asian states who take citizens back while threatening retaliation against those that don’t, possibly through a visa crackdown.

A fine balance of incentives and pressure should be used.

EU document conclusions

Coinciding with these efforts, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare joint address to the European parliament alongside French President Francois Hollande, saying Europe needs to rewrite its “obsolete” asylum rules to tackle the migrant crisis. The Dublin Regulations, which force frontline states like Italy and Greece to process and welcome most migrants, are no longer sustainable, says Merkel. Instead, she advocates for a “new procedure” that would spearhead fair distribution among EU member states. To date, EU countries have deported less than 40 percent of the migrants staying illegally in their territories, EU Commission data shows.

It is exactly now that we need more Europe. We need courage and cohesion, which Europe has always shown when it was necessary.

Chancellor Merkel

Photographer Sparks Outrage with Refugee-Themed Fashion Shoot

thebkgdiamond:

Photographer Sparks Outrage with Refugee-Themed Fashion Shoot

Hungarian photographer Norbert Baksa is at the receiving end of Internet outrage this week after publishing a series of fashion photos that he says are inspired by the ongoing refugee crisis.

The project is titled “Der Migrant,” German for “The Migrant,” and it shows a model dressed in high-end outfits and posing as a migrant by a barbed wire fence. Here are some of the photos in the series:

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(via thebkgdiamond)