Vreemdelingenrecht.com - het weblog

From drownings in the Mediterranean to the mass movement of people across Europe's borders, 2015 was the year the migrant crisis dominated the headlines. Here we look back on that year T his was the year a million people mired in violence and poverty stopped waiting for help from the rich world, and instead set off to make a new life there. Europe was unprepared and largely unwilling to accept them and, challenged to live up to its lofty ideals, much of the planet’s wealthiest continent responded with fear, anger and efforts to move the new arrivals on or keep them out entirely. Thousands of people risked their lives almost every day to reach Europe, just as the stability and freedom they sought there were shaken by recrimination between neighbouring states, terror attacks, and a rush to rebuild border fences. As with the 2008 financial crash, and subsequent travai...

Kosovo population drain challenges Germany's refugee policies The number of Kosovars seeking asylum in the EU has drastically increased. It poses a challenge to recipient countries in the region, including Germany, and is on the agenda at Kosovo-Serbia talks in Brussels. Seven years after declaration of independence from Serbia, Kosovo is seeing a dramatic rise in the number of its citizens leaving to escape unemployment and poverty. According to the UN, 35 percent of people in Kosovo are unemployed and nearly 30 percent of the country lives in poverty. It is estimated that more than 30,000 people have left the country in the last two months, transiting illegally into EU member Hungary via Serbia. Exodus to Germany Many of those seeking more economic opportunities come to Germany. German figures released on Monday, February 9 show a significant increase in asylum applications from Kosovars - from 1,956 applications in December to 3,630 in January. The jump ...