The Guardian’s Middle East editor has spoken to people living in Damascus who are desperate to leave for Europe. You can read his story here.
We are going to put our live coverage on hold for now. Thanks for reading.
Updated
French officials have travelled to Munich to prepare to accept 1,000 of the refugees who have arrived there to be transferred to France, writes our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis.
The refugees, who include Syrians, Iraqis and Eritreans, will be taken to France to relieve pressure on Germany, the French government has said.
A further 24,000 refugees will be welcomed to France over the next two years, the president François Hollande said on Monday. The government is to hold talks with mayors and local officials this weekend to work out housing for refugees.
But there is debate in France about public opposition to taking more refugees. A poll conducted by Odoxa for Le Parisien, after the images of the drowned 3-year-old boy Alan Kurdi had shocked the world, found that a majority of French people, 55%, were opposed to France acting in the same way as Germany by loosening its conditions for refugee status. A total of 62% of French people felt those fleeing Syria should be treated as migrants like any others. Only 36% felt Syrians should be given a better welcome as refugees from war.
The historian Benjamin Stora, who heads the board of France’s Museum of the History of Immigration, warned that the reasons for French public reticence went beyond France’s current economic crisis and millions of unemployed. Writing in Le Monde, he argued that far-right ideology had permeated debate in the country and more must be done to reverse negative stereotypes in France, which was historically a country that had welcomed asylum-seekers.
Several thousand people demonstrated across France in solidarity with refugees this weekend.
Updated
Thousands of people are still trying to cross from Greece into Macedonia, after a record number of 7,000 Syrians arrived in the last few days. A selection of images from today provides a glimpse of the scene.
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has repeated his government’s objections to a Europe-wide system of refugee quotas imposed.
Echoing an argument that has also been made by David Cameron, Duda said:
“In Europe the talk is all the time about fighting the systems, and not the causes of the crisis. Europe is in a kind of a closed circle.”
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said last week that the European Union must help people who flee wars and Poland is ready to discuss its role but does not want to accept automatic quotas.
Hassan Abu Walied, a 45-year-old father of two from the war torn northern Syrian city of Aleppo has made it to a refugee camp in Nuremberg, after a journey of bribes and beatings via Macedonia and Hungary.
He told the Guardian’s Mona Mahmood why he shunned refugee camps in Turkey.
If I had the choice, I would have chosen to go to Netherlands to apply for asylum, but the German police arrested me right after I stepped onto German soil and took my fingerprint.
The camp in Nuremberg is congested with more than 750 Syrian, Iraqi, Sudanese and Albanian refugees. The queue for the breakfast in the morning can take two hours for a single man. The Turkish staff always give preference to families. “You have to wait till the families have their breakfast or you will be sent back to Syria,” they say.
My main concern was to take my family out of Aleppo before we were killed by a random shelling or bullets from snipers. But I didn’t want them to risk the journey to Greece.
I thought about registering with the UN in Turkey to help get settled in Europe or the US, but the wait was too long. The UN said it might be 2022 before I could leave Turkey. I couldn’t survive that long in Turkey without having any income.
So I went with my two brothers who had lost their houses and businesses in Aleppo, and travelled on a shaky cracked boat filled with 50 refugees. The trip from Azmir cost us $1,150 each.
We only got to the Greek coast after help from the coastguard. The boat’s motor broke down after six hours at sea.
I then used GPS to guide me to the Macedonian borders. I and many other refugees were kicked by the Macedonian police. They held us overnight and then started to release 10 refugee every hour.
The situation at the Serbian borders was better but we had to pay to get there. The train ticket was €5 from Belgrade, but we had to pay €25, and when we got in the train, the inspector charged us another €50.
We walked along corn fields and were then seized by the Hungarian police who would only release us after we paid €200. Then, we took a taxi for €650 to take us to Budapest. There we met a smuggler who transferred us by a van to Germany after paying another €475. The van was supposed to have only eight passengers but there were 20 of us inside.
I used to live as a king in in Aleppo, with a thriving wood business, but there is no future in Syria. The war might last for another 20 years. I don’t want my little kids to turn into beggars or thieves. I want them to have a good education in Germany and that’s why I left Turkey for Germany.
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
- Germany could take 500,000 refugees each year for “several years”, according to the country’s vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel. “I believe we could surely deal with something in the order of half a million for several years,” he told ZDF public television.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her backing to the EU quota plan to accept an extra 160,000 refugees, but suggested the quotas were just a first step. She also called for an open asylum system to replace the Dublin III arrangement under which asylum applications have to be processed at the point of entry to the EU.
- Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, warned of a refugee “exodus” lasting for years. “The wave of migration is not a one-time incident but the beginning of a real exodus, which only means that we will have to deal with this problem for many years to come,” he said.
- A record number of 7,000 Syrians reached Macedonia on Monday and a further 30,000 Syrians are in Greece, according to the UNHCR. It called for a “guaranteed relocation” system.
- Europe’s border agency Frontex has offered to help Greece to increase the number of immigration screening officers on the islands of Lesbos and Kos. Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri, said: “Greece is facing a critical migratory situation.”
- The UN has warned that the Schengen system of free borders faces collapse if Europe continues to fail to come up with a coordinated response to migration. Peter Sutherland, the secretary general special representative for international migration, said: “Schengen most definitely could fall apart, and probably will fall apart if we don’t get a common European policy in respect of migration.”
- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to European leaders “to be the voice of those in need of protection” and to quickly find a joint approach. Ban spoke by telephone with several European leaders to discuss the migration crisis.
- Denmark has placed adverts in Lebanese newspapers announcing tighter regulations and cuts in provisions in an attempt to warn off asylum seekers. The advertisement published on Monday said that social assistance for newly arrived refugees was being reduced by up to 50% Al-Jazeera reports.
In her press conference Merkel also called for an open asylum system to replace the Dublin III arrangement under which asylum applications have to be processed at the point of entry to the EU.
She said the Dublin system “no longer works” as it means that both Italy and Greece are left to take in the bulk of Europe’s refugee influx.
“We must discuss a new asylum policy,” AFP reported her saying.
Berlin has already stopped applying the rule for Syrians, and is allowing citizens of the war-torn country to apply for asylum in Germany irregardless of their first port of arrival in the EU.
“I’m seldom so convinced that this task will also determine Europe’s future and whether the continent really accepts the value ... of individual freedom,” Merkel said.
“On this question, the whole world is watching. And we’re not just saying Syria is so far away from us. Rather, we’re simply taking care of the problem,” she added.
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The House of Commons is about to debate Britain’s response to the refugee crisis. You can follow the debate from 1.30pm on this live feed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her backing to the EU quota plan to accept an extra 160,000 refugees.
She said the quotas suggested under the scheme, including Germany’s allocation of 31,000 refugees, were a minimum.
“This joint European asylum system cannot just exist on paper but must also exist in practice - I say that because it lays out minimum standards for accommodating refugees and the task of registering refugees,” she told a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Berlin.
Earlier German’s vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Germany could take 500,000 refugees for several years.
Merkel said that European Union states needed to find a joint solution to the refugee crisis, rather than threatening each other if they did not collaborate.
“I personally, and we spoke about this, am of the opinion that we should not now outbid each other with threats,” she said. “We should speak to each other in a spirit of mutual respect.”
At Roszke, Hungary’s border town with Serbia, there have been more reports of scuffles between asylum seekers and the security forces.
Migrants made two attempts Tuesday to break free from a police line at a collection point for migrants in Roszke but were pushed back, according to AP. Some migrants said it was so bad that they wanted to return across the border to Serbia, but Hungarian police wouldn’t let them.
One Syrian who only gave his first name, Ali, was angry at the treatment by police.
He said: “We’ve been here for two days and the Hungarian government only brings one bus? We’re asking to go back to Serbia and they are not giving us this right. We’re asking to go to Budapest and they are not giving us this right. Why? Why?”
But another reporter in the area, NBC’s Carlo Angerer, said police appear to have given up trying to stop people running through fields at the border.
Many have just run into nearby corn fields away from Röszke camp pic.twitter.com/ospIQqiGS5
— Carlo Angerer (@carloangerer) September 8, 2015
The BBC’s Imelda Flattery confirmed the report.
Scene on Serbia Hungary border where migrants have broken police lines and are running across fields. https://t.co/XoeYeXuIGT
— Imelda Flattery (@Imeldaflattery) September 8, 2015
Updated
Frontex offers double screening teams on Lebos
Europe’s border agency Frontex has offered to help Greece to increase the number of immigration screening officers on the islands of Lesbos and Kos to tackle the unprecedented number of people arriving from Turkey.
Annoucing the move, Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri, said: “Greece is facing a critical migratory situation. By increasing the number of officers who help identify and register the people coming to Lesbos and Kos, our objective is help the Greek authorities by easing the pressure on the islands.”
Frontex has offered to more than double the number of screening teams on Lesbos.
Updated
Asylum seekers on Lesbos face a massive queue for registration.
Updated
Here’s a video report on the latest from Hungary’s border crossing with Serbia near the town of Roszke.
The International Organization for Migration says 58 migrants have drowned in the last four days trying to cross the Mediterranean.
The latest deaths, including an infant in Greek waters; takes the death toll to 2,760 people in September alone.
Flavio di Giacomo of IOM Italy warned that his teams continue to encounter overloaded boats. “We have seen that lately rubber dinghies, which used to carry up to 100 or 110 people, now cram 130, sometimes 140, migrants on board,” he said.
The IOM said it was encountering “growing difficulties” on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Over 12,000 migrants reached the island between September 1 and 5. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 migrants on the island remain unregistered.
During the weekend, conflict flared between the migrants and the authorities in the port of Lesbos and as a result registration procedures stopped. This aggravated an already tense situation. Police operating in the Moria processing centre could not provide the migrants, many of whom had walked long distances to be registered, with accurate information.
IOM staff on the island noted that the registration process appears disorganised and consequently many Arab-speaking migrants are claiming to be – and are therefore recorded as – Syrian, in order to improve their chances for asylum.
UN warns that Schengen faces collapse
The UN has warned that the Schengen system of free borders in Europe faces collapse if Europe continues to fail to come up with a coordinated response to migration.
Peter Sutherland, the secretary general special representative for international migration, said: “Schengen most definitely could fall apart, and probably will fall apart if we don’t get a common European policy in respect of migration.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he said: “Schengen is under threat - one of the great achievements of the European Union and one of the most beneficial aspects of public policy to the vary states who are refusing to be part of a common European policy - particularly central and eastern Europe.”
He added: “I find it quite incredible that there is a failure to recognise that retiring behind borders in Europe is a fool’s paradise. It can provide no answer to the migration crisis. There has to be a combined unified European response and those who thwart that policy are going to see the price paid in the restriction of movement.”
A hastily refurbished government building last night opened its doors to 500 people opposite a refugee camp that has sprawled across Brussels’ Parc Maximilien, writes Arthur Neslen.
Around 1,000 people are camped out in the mushrooming tent city, which now has a school, hospital, canteen and sanitary facilities, all provided by an ad hoc alliance of social networks and NGOs.
Many of the travellers from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Afghanistan are traumatised.
“I fled from Aleppo after planes dropped barrel bombs around my home,” said Ziah Ramadan, 50. “Our building was destroyed and whole families were killed. There were rivers of blood in the streets. I had to walk on the the dead bodies of my neighbours.”
Two of Ziah’s children were injured in the bombing and she was desperately seeking medical assistance for a son with shrapnel injuries to his back and arm, she said. After two months of waiting, she also wanted her asylum application dealt with urgently.
Belgian officials say they are facing the country’s worst ever refugee crisis, with more than 4,600 people making asylum requests in August alone. But the authorities have limited the amount of asylum applications they can process to 250 a day, as the crisis has escalated.
A week ago, the Parc Maximilien camp only housed 150 people.
Ibrahim, a 22-years-old economics student from Baghdad with earphones dangling from his neck, said that he had arrived in the camp via Hungary and Austria, just two hours before.
“It was crazy in Hungary. For two days, we were running from the police in the forest,” he said. “They chased us with taser weapons, shouting ‘stop motherfuckers!’ The police beat you if they catch you. We were in a group of more than 46 people but only four of us got through. All the others were caught”
Ibrahim, a Sunni, said that he had left Baghgdad after Shia militias strafed his house with bullets and shot at him in the street. The attack was led by sectarian relatives of his girlfriend, he claimed.
Both Ibrahim and Ziah said they had been packed like cattle into refrigerated lorries en route to Europe, in transits during which they feared they might die. Ziah said that some travellers had perished on her journey.
“Most of these people are post-traumatic and experiencing paranoia and real difficulties,” said Eloise Francart, a camp coordinator. “Many were also injured in Hungary and Austria. Our medics tent is open 20 hours a day but we just can’t fit any more people in.”
Around the park, refugees and migrants are staging spontaneous demonstrations led by drummers that block the streets, in a bid to speed up their asylum applications.
The camp buzzes with life and donations from local residents but it has been targeted by local thieves and drenched with rain.
Even so, refugees rights groups say that last night, only 20-30 people checked into the government building, which has few showers and requires refugees to leave the building with their belongings every morning.
Updated
UNHCR calls for 'guaranteed relocation' system
A record number of 7,000 Syrians reached Macedonia on Monday, according to the UNHCR in press briefing.
It added that 30,000 migrants are now in Greece, including 20,000 in Lesbos alone.
Calling for “guaranteed relocation” system a spokeswoman Melissa Flemming said: “Discussions in Europe this week are taking on even greater urgency because it obviously cannot be a German solution to a European problem.”
She welcomed separate offers announced by Britain and France on Monday to take in Syrian refugees, but said reception centres must be set up in countries including Hungary and Greece.
“Those can only work if there is a guaranteed relocation system whereby European countries saying yes will take X number. We believe it should be 200,000 - that’s the number we believe need relocation in Europe countries,” Fleming said.
Germany could take 500,000 people per annum for years
Germany looks set to take even more refugees, as its vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said it could take half a million people each year for “several years”.
“I believe we could surely deal with something in the order of half a million for several years,” the vice chancellor told ZDF public television, AFP reports.
“I have no doubt about that, maybe more,” the leader of the centre-left Social Democrats said, as Germany expects to receive 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times the 2014 total.
However, Gabriel stressed that other European countries must also accept their fair share as refugees keep fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa and head for the 28-nation EU.
“We can’t just take almost one million people every year and seamlessly integrate them” into German society, he said.
Germany would keep accepting “a greatly disproportionate share” among EU members “because we are an economically strong country, without doubt”, said Gabriel.
But it was unacceptable for the EU to keep relying on just a few countries, such as Austria, Sweden and Germany, he added, saying that “that’s why I am certain that European policy needs to change”.
Tusk: Europe facing 'exodus'
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, has warned that Europe is facing the start of “a real exodus” of people.
In a speech at the Bruegel annual dinner in Brussels, he called for a response that the balanced solidarity with refugees and containment at Europe’s borders.
He said:
Today, it is truly a paradox that the biggest countries in Europe, like Germany and Italy, need solidarity from others.
At the same time we should seriously address containing the uncontrolled migration by strengthening the borders and getting the keys to our continent back from the hands of smugglers and murderers. The two approaches of solidarity and containment need not be mutually exclusive. It would be unforgivable if Europe split into advocates of containment symbolized by the Hungarian fence and advocates of full openness voiced by some politicians as the policy of open doors and windows.
Today, I call on all EU leaders to redouble their efforts, when it comes to solidarity with the members facing this unprecedented migratory wave. Accepting more refugees is an important gesture of real solidarity but not the only one. An enormous effort is also demanded of the European institutions. Humanitarian efforts to contain migratory flows will require much greater engagement from Europe. It means a major increase in spending. When we talk about new reception centres, better protection of the borders or development aid for the countries outside the EU, much more money will be needed ...
But let us have no illusions that we have a silver bullet in our hands to reverse the situation. The present wave of migration is not a one-time incident but the beginning of a real exodus, which only means that we will have to deal with this problem for many years to come. Therefore it is so important to learn how to live with it without blaming each other.
Also, we should not feel ashamed of our emotions. Compassion is one of the foundations of solidarity, but in order to be able to help others we ourselves must be pragmatic at the same time. We are now experiencing one of the most classical political dilemmas, that is a conflict between the protection of our borders and solidarity towards the refugees. Wise politics doesn’t mean having to choose one value over the other, but to reconcile the two to the degree possible. In this case pragmatism should be the First Commandment.
After overnight clashes in Lesbos the focus of the crisis in Greece has moved north to the country’s border with Macedonia, our correspondent Helena Smith reports from Athens.
Greek television this morning reported scenes of mayhem on the frontier with Macedonia where thousands of migrants and refugees have now gathered.
And at first light police resumed a search and rescue operation in the hope of finding a 23-year-old Syrian father last seen struggling in the fast moving waters of the Axios river that separates the two states.
Meanwhile, more than 3,000 newcomers, most brought in on cruiseships from Lesbos, arrived in Athens’ port of Pireaus on Monday according to authorities.
The Red Cross has rushed to set up medical facilities in a central square in the capital where it could be seen handing out food and water to new arrivals. Speaking on behalf of the organisation, Angeliki Fanaki who is coordinating the drive, said every effort was now being made to ensure that refugees were received with a level of dignity they may not have experienced so far.
In Lesbos, where the vast majority, have been forced to sleep rough or in tents, with almost no access to running water or public toilets, conditions have become increasingly squalid.
The minister of migration, Yiannis Mouzalas, himself a physician with Doctors of the World, described them as “miserable” after visiting the island on Sunday. An estimated 20,000 Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have converged on the island’s capital, Mytilini where some 27,000 locals live.
“It is an intolerable situation,” said the island’s mayor Spyros Galanos who has appealed to residents to boycott the country’s upcoming general election and threatened to not open schools later this week if relief measures and emergency action aren’t taken quickly. This morning many locals told Greek TV that after several days of street clashes between refugees and riot police, it had reached the point where they were afraid to leave their homes. The government has responded by opening a second reception centre to speed up processing of the newcomers – who have also fallen victim to crisis-plagued Greek bureaucracy - and laying on more ships to transit them to the mainland. But with ever more new arrivals from the shores of Turkey, no amount of emergency action appears to be adequate.
On Monday, the Greek government appealed to the EU commission for 2.5 bn euros in emergency funding – usually reserved for natural disasters - to deal with the crisis.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is meeting officials in Strasbourg to finalise a quota plan to resettle refugees across Europe. Juncker is expected to announce on Wednesday how 160,000 people will be helped under the plan, but there have been calls for the EU to go further.
Under the quotas, Germany had been expected to take more than 31,000 refugees, but a report in the German paper Die Welt, suggests Germany will be asked to accept 39,400 under the scheme.
Verteilungsschlüssel: So will die EU-Kommission Flüchtlinge verteilen. http://t.co/4UsNQIAtRi pic.twitter.com/71nEGebQkf
— DIE WELT (@welt) September 8, 2015
Guy Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium and president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, said EU countries should accept many more refugees.
Commission`s proposal to give shelter to 160K #refugees doesn't even represent 0,3 % of our population. And we can't cope with that ?
— Guy Verhofstadt (@GuyVerhofstadt) September 8, 2015
The governor of Finland’s central bank has pledged to donate a month’s salary, or €10,000, to help the Finnish Red Cross cope with migration crisis.
In a Facebook post Erkki Liikanen urged individuals to do what they could to help. Explaining his donation he said: “I know that the money will get through to those suffering the greatest distress.”
Updated
The pope has again urged every parish and religious community to host a refugee family. A tweet, issued by the Vatican in several languages, echoed a call the pope made on Sunday.
May every parish and religious community in Europe host a refugee family. #Jubilee #refugeeswelcome
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) September 8, 2015
Updated
Hungary’s anti-immigration prime minister, Viktor Orban, says he wants to speed up construction of a fence meant to stop migrants on the southern border with Serbia, AP reports.
Orban was quoted in the pro-government Magyar Idok (Hungarian Times) daily newspaper as saying that he was persuaded of the need for more workers on the fence being built by the Hungarian army after an unannounced inspection of the barrier on Monday with his chief of staff, Janos Lazar.
Hungary initially said that a 4-meter (13-feet) high fence would be built on the 174-kilometer (109-mile) border with Serbia by the end of November, but in July Orban called for it to be completed by the end of August.
A government statement implied that Defense Minister Csaba Hende resigned Monday because of the unsatisfactory pace of construction.
Meanwhile, Hungary is reported to have issued flyers warning asylum seekers that they face imprisonment if they cross Hungary’s border without permission.
#Hungary starts information campaign along #migration route with this flyer #refugeescrisis pic.twitter.com/gJpy9e3sJq
— Konsiczky Zoltán (@KonsiczkyZ) September 7, 2015
Despite such warnings almost 3,000 people crossed into Hungary on Monday, according to the BBC’s Matthew Price.
An estimated 5000 people crossed into Serbia from Macedonia on Monday. 2706 crossed into Hungary yesterday, 660 of them children.
— Matthew Price (@BBCMatthewPrice) September 8, 2015
Updated
Summary
Welcome to our continuing coverage of the refugee crisis across Europe.
We’ll start with a summary of the latest flash points and differing responses to the crisis:
- Fresh clashes have erupted overnight between police and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, which authorities warned was “on the verge of explosion”. Coastguards and riot police armed with batons struggled to control around 2,500 people, screaming “Keep back” at the crowds as they surged towards a government-chartered ship bound for Athens. The Greek government and the UN refugee agency have brought in extra staff and ships to tackle the problem.
-
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to European leaders “to be the voice of those in need of protection” and to quickly find a joint approach. Ban spoke by telephone with several European leaders to discuss the migration crisis.
- Hundreds of migrants have broken through police lines on Hungary’s border with Serbia and are walking towards the capital, Budapest, the BBC reports. The migrants had earlier broken out of a registration camp at Roszke.
- A Syrian man who was pictured weeping as he and his family reached the Greek island of Kos last month has arrived in Berlin. The family – Laith Majid, his wife Nada Adel, their sons Moustafa, aged 18, Ahmed, 17, and Taha, nine, along with seven-year-old daughter Nour – travelled for weeks to reach Germany.
- The German town of Landshut has rebuilt a beer tent to house a new wave of refugees. The Bavarian town tracked down showers, beds and cooks at short notice to make arrivals from seven countries feel at home.
- Denmark has placed adverts in Lebanese newspapers announcing tighter regulations and cuts in provisions in an attempt to warn off asylum seekers. The advertisement published on Monday said that social assistance for newly arrived refugees was being reduced by up to 50% Al-Jazeera reports.
- Britain is to respond to the refugee crisis facing Europe by taking 20,000 refugees from the camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years. David Cameron told the House of Commons the UK would “live up to its moral responsibility” towards people forced from their homes by the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the Islamic State terror group.
- An Australian senator has criticised the Aylan Kurdi’s father for fleeing Turkey. Claire Phipps has more details plus Brazil’s “open arms” offer to refugees in her roundup of responses to the crisis across the world.
- More details have emerged about an EU proposals to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers across Europe. The new system comes in the face of opposition to quotas from some member states, Alberto Nardelli reports.
Updated
