Slovakia: Asylum dumping
17 Jul 2015
Because of the poor living conditions in one of the overcrowded refugee centres in Austria, they are planning to send hundreds of people to neighbouring Slovakia, in a move that has been criticised as ‘asylum dumping’ and a ‘disgusting horror.’ The plan of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior is to send 500 refugees to Slovakia because of the overcrowded conditions at Traiskirchen processing centre . The sanctuary currently houses around 3,200 people and lacks 900 beds. From the outset Traiskirchen was not designed to accommodate more than 480 people.The migration of refugees will start this month (July) and continue through to September. Those transferred are to be housed in university dorms in the Slovakian town of Gabcikovo. The first 50 people are to be moved shortly, another 200 in August and 250 in September. The agreement is to last two years. Relocation only shifts responsibility of care to Slovakia; asylum application processing will continue in Austria. Once awarded asylum, refugees will return to live in Austria.
Serbia has a history of violence but now Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, speaking in Brussels, said, ‘We should not engage in conflicts and exchange of hard words, but make peace in the region.’ Serbia has roots of turmoil; World War I began when a Serbian nationalist assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, leading to Austria's declaration of war against Serbia. Within months, much of Europe was at war. In 1998 the Yugoslav army and Serbian police began fighting against the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. An estimated 1,000 Kosovars were killed in the fighting, and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes without adequate food and shelter. But nationalism and ethnic violence continued . In 2003 a new state was created, called Serbia and Montenegro. Today Serbia stands alone and separate from Montenegro and this week, after a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday, Vucic said the EC president ‘supports Serbia on its European path.’ See http://www.infoplease.com/country/serbia.html?pageno=1
San Marino: Forest fire prevention campaign
17 Jul 2015
A Section Fire and Civil Defence document states that forest fires each year put too much strain on emergency relief agencies, the environment and the economy while posing a threat to infrastructure and urban settlements. San Marino has found that to extinguish forest fires they have often had to resort to the external aid of personnel and equipment available to the Provincial Command of the Fire Brigade of Rimini. The main risk factors are both intentional and negligent: fires caused during cleanup of agricultural, burning of stubble, straw and other debris getting out of control, carelessness and neglect in wooded areas, cigarette butts, matches or fireworks. In this regard, the Civil Protection Service, Police, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Managements have prepared a brochure to be delivered to all households with instructions how to behave in the event of a forest fire. See also https://ca-sanmarino.civicplus.com/144/Fire-Department
‘Russia is the biggest threat to US national security and America must boost its military presence throughout Europe even as Nato allies face budget challenges and scale back spending’ said Deborah James, US Air Force Secretary, on Wednesday after a series of visits and meetings with American allies across Europe, including Poland. She said Washington was responding to Russia's recent ‘worrisome’ actions by boosting its presence across Europe and would continue rotational assignments of F-16 fighter squadrons. ‘This is no time to signal a lack of resolve in the face of these Russian actions.’ she said. Given the tensions, the air force is continuing its effort to reduce US reliance on Russian RD-180 rocket engines for military and intelligence satellite launches. She said the air force was also working hard to defend its weapons systems and networks against growing cyber-attacks.
Children and women left behind by men who have gone to find work abroad turn into thugs and prostitutes, a Romanian minister has said. As many as three million Romanians have migrated to western European countries in a bid to escape poverty in their homeland, triggering debate and concern over the consequences of the exodus from one of Europe's poorest countries. Ioan Rus, transport minister (until his resignation on Thursday night), said men working abroad could earn €1,500 (£1,000) a month, an amount to ‘turn children back home into thugs and wives into whores’. The anger triggered by Mr Rus's comments and his subsequent resignation dealt another blow to the government of Victor Ponta, which has been reeling since Friday when Mr Ponta came under a criminal investigation into corruption. The prime minister stands accused of a number of offences including forgery and money-laundering in the most high-profile corruption case in Romania since the fall of communism. (See Prayer Hub 18 June article)
Portugal: State of Nation debate
17 Jul 2015
On 8 July, Portugal's Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, opened the State of the Nation debate in parliament - taking place barely three months before the legislative elections. The last State of the Nation debate was on 2 July 2014 when the prime minister called for a national commitment on employment and asked the leader of the opposition Socialists about his position in regard to the European Union budget treaty. This time, Passos Coelho took a message of confidence in the euro zone and the Portuguese economy. The Socialist leader, António Costa, wanted to give a voice to citizens disillusioned with ‘false promises’ in the 2011 general election campaign, adding, ‘three generations have been decimated in three harrowing years.’
Poland: IVF bill divides senators
17 Jul 2015
Senators spent 11 hours debating a bill on IVF on Wednesday 6 July in what has proved one of the most divisive issues in current Polish politics. The bill was passed in the lower house of parliament in late June and regulates state funding for couples seeking the treatment, but has been flatly opposed by chief opposition party Law and Justice. During Wednesday's Senate session representatives of various parties called for amendments to the bill, while others said that as Roman Catholics the prospective law is wholly unacceptable. Law and Justice Senator Dorota Czudowska claimed that ‘we are opening the gates of hell with this act’. Several senators from the ruling Civic Platform/Polish People's Party coalition suggested an amendment that would only allow the treatment for married couples.
Norway: Diocese inflating membership figures
17 Jul 2015
The government of Norway is demanding $5.1 million from the Oslo diocese in compensation for what the government sees as fraud in the inflated reporting of church membership figures. The government charges that the Oslo diocese obtained nearly $6 million in state subsidies by routinely registering immigrants as Catholics if they came from predominantly Catholic countries, without obtaining any evidence of the immigrants’ actual affiliations. The government charges that of the 65,500 new Catholics registered by the Oslo diocese between 2010 and 2014, more than 56,000 were not confirmed as Catholics. After a government raid on diocesan offices, Church officials conceded that they had used ‘unsatisfactory’ methods of identifying members of the Catholic Church, but denied ‘any conscious or intentional fraud.’ The diocese has indicated that it plans to appeal the assessment of $5.1 million, saying that the case is ‘legally complicated.’