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As many as 26 young women may have been sexually abused at a festival in Germany, with the attackers employing pack tactics to surround and isolate girls before launching their assaults. The method of attack, which separates women from their friends and leaves them vulnerable to sex attacks and theft, has led German newspaper Die Welt to liken the attacks to the mass sexual assaults outside Cologne central station on New Year’s Eve. As of Tuesday morning, there were 18 official complaints made to police about attacks at the annual Schlossgrabenfest music festival in Darmstadt, Germany. That number had risen...

Norwegian authorities are set to pay about 10,000 kroner (US$1,200) to asylum seekers willing to leave the country voluntarily. Oslo says the measure is less expensive than keeping refugees in immigration centers in the country. The scheme starts this Monday and will run for six weeks, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet - UDI) said, as cited by broadcaster NRK. The money will be paid to the first 500 asylum seekers who apply for voluntary return to their home countries. “We need to entice more [people] to voluntarily travel back by giving them a bit more money on their way...

Christian camps being offered as shelter for asylum seekers are told by the authorities to remove all Christian symbols. Due to the large influx of asylum seekers to Norway, UDI (Immigration authorities) has found it necessary to lodge asylum seekers in more places than ordinary reception centres. The Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS), operates several Christian camp sites, which they offer to rent to UDI. UDI says yes please, but on one condition. All Christian symbols must be removed before the asylum seekers can move in, says UDI, according to the newspaper Dagen. - We want the accommodation offered to be...

Germany expects to receive up to 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, a new record, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday, as he urged action from the European level on the crisis. "This development is a challenge for us all," de Maiziere told reporters as he announced the new official estimate. Berlin had previously expected 500,000 asylum-seekers to arrive this year. Germany, the EU's most populous country and top economy, has struggled to accommodate a flood of asylum-seekers from war zones such as Syria but also from countries without military conflict in southeastern Europe, including Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. ......

Sweden boosts security for asylum seekers after IKEA attack "Police in central Sweden have increased security at asylum lodgings, fearing a backlash after two Eritrean asylum-seekers were suspected of murdering two people at an IKEA store. A man and a woman were killed in a knife attack at an IKEA store in the city of Vasteras on Monday. Two suspects were detained by police, one of whom was seriously injured.

Somalis have made Somalia a very pleasant place to live. Between the Muslim militias shooting at each other and the amateur hyena psychiatry sessions, it’s perfect. That’s why most Somalis are getting the hell out of there and moving to other countries that they can remake into Somalia.There are Little Mogadishus all across America, but few places have been hit as hard by Somali Muslim migrants as Maine whose generous benefits system is struggling to cope with the Somali settlers.Lewiston Mayor Robert E. MacDonald has written sharply about the Somali welfare invasion and its impact on Maine natives. Today in...

Some Swiss towns plan to keep asylum-seekers away from public places such as swimming pools, playing fields and libraries, in a move human rights groups say is racist. The curbs are aimed at preventing tensions with residents, officials say. ... Roman Staub, mayor of the town of Menzingen, said asylum-seekers should be banned from "sensitive areas" such as the vicinity of a school. "This is certainly a very difficult area, because here asylum-seekers could meet our schoolchildren - young girls or young boys," ... In June voters overwhelmingly backed a controversial move to tighten asylum restrictions, amid a spike in...

Sweden's immigration minister has told a newspaper that Sweden needs to tighten rules for asylum seekers and other would-be immigrants to reduce the number of people coming into the country. "Today Sweden is one of the countries that receives the most immigrants in the EU. That's not sustainable," Tobias Billström told the Saturday edition of the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. The minister's Moderate Party, a conservative group and the largest member of Sweden's centre-right coalition government, has tasked Billström with looking at ways to lower the "volumes" of immigrants entering the Scandinavian country, he said. The party wants the country's immigration...

The Church of Sweden has advised pastors to avoid christening asylum seekers that have converted to Christianity due to the risk of reprisals in the case of repatriation, reported news agency TT. One of the reasons for the recommendation is because it can cause danger and increase risks if a person who has converted to Christianity is later sent back to their home country. Another reason is that the motive for the christening can be questioned by some who suggest that asylum seekers convert to Christianity to increase their chances of staying in Sweden. The issue is being addressed in...

A BOAT carrying 22 people claiming asylum has been intercepted by HMAS Childers off the Western Australian coast. The boat, the 104th to claim asylum status since Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party took office, was stopped last night near West Island at Ashmore Reef. Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the latest arrival would not sway the government from its strategy for dealing with the problem of asylum seekers arriving by boat. "People smugglers seek out and exploit vulnerable persons who, having faced uncertainty, conflict and violence, pursue stability and safety,'' Mr O'Connor said in a statement issued today.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration says it will stop detaining asylum seekers who have a credible fear of persecution in their home countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton says beginning Jan. 4, asylum seekers can temporarily enter the U.S. if they meet certain criteria.

SRI Lankans are using civil war as an excuse to seek asylum abroad, the country's high commissioner to Australia says. Senaka Walgampaya said many Sri Lankan asylum seekers were actually "economic refugees" wanting a better life in Australia. "As far as we can see, all the people who are seeking asylum in Australia are seeking to come here for a better life," he told Channel 10. "Also, most of them have their friends and relatives here ... they are coming here to join up with them." Mr Walgampaya said the Sri Lankan civil war was being used by nationals as...

MORE than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night threatening to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port in Merak after the large cargo boat they were piloting towards Christmas Island broke down. "We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," said a spokesman for the asylum-seekers, who would only give his name as Alex. Alex said the Sri Lankans had each paid $US15,000 ($16,533) to board the wooden craft...

KEVIN Rudd and the architect of the Howard government's Pacific Solution, Philip Ruddock, yesterday clashed over whose administration was tougher on boatpeople, with Mr Ruddock claiming recent policy changes left Australia exposed to a "pipeline" of 10,000 unauthorised arrivals a year. As Coalition figures lined up yesterday to take advantage of the surge in boatpeople, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett slammed the decision to grant asylum to 42 Afghan men whose boat blew up following an act of sabotage. But the Coalition's criticism drew a counter-attack from the Prime Minister, who said yesterday the Howard government's tough rhetoric on asylum-seekers...

AUSTRALIA risked being 'swamped' by asylum-seekers, the Federal Opposition warned, if boat arrivals continued at their current rate, with three arriving this week alone. The interception of a third vessel in a week prompted the coalition to suggest there was a risk up to 10,000 asylum-seekers could start heading to Australia by boat each year. The Australian Greens accused the Opposition of dog-whistle politics. "The unfortunate thing here is the Howard government did make some capital out of dog-whistling on refugees seeking asylum in this country," Greens leader Bob Brown told reporters. "The whistle now has to get a bit...

A Swedish gay rights organisation has called on the government not to deport any homosexual Iraqi asylum seekers in the light of a shocking new report categorising an extermination campaign against gay men in the Middle Eastern country. The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) has now called on the Swedish government to halt all deportations to Iraq of people who have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. "We urge Sweden to investigate the possibility of evacuating homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people who are at risk of being subjected to 'sexual cleansing',"...

Speaking for the European Union presidency, Swedish migration minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that the EU supported requiring visas for Canadians travelling to the EU in response to Canada’s decision to impose visa restrictions on Czech nationals. "As the presidency of the EU, we are in favour of this reciprocity," Swedish Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Tobias Billström told AFP. "But it's up to the Commission to handle the proposal, because the Commission is responsible for the reciprocity mechanism," he added. Canada imposed visas on Czechs to stave off what it said was a steady influx of Roma asylum...

Fewer people are seeking asylum in Sweden, with the number of applications dropping 33 percent last year, according to new statistics. "During 2008, 24,342 persons sought asylum in Sweden, which is a decrease of 11,865 applications compared to 2007," Statistics Sweden (SCB) said in a statement on Friday. Two-thirds of applicants were men and one-third were women, a common proportion since 2000, it added. Over 100 nationalities were represented among the asylum seekers. The largest group was Iraqis who accounted for a quarter of applications. However, SCB noted that the number of Iraqi asylum seekers was down dramatically. "Iraqis represented...

The Dutch parliament has formally endorsed a general pardon for an estimated 25,000 illegal asylum seekers. A motion aimed at widening the amnesty was rejected. The proposal was designed to include immigrants who left the country, voluntarily or not, before being sent back to the Netherlands. The plan was put forward by the governing Labour Party together with the opposition Socialist Party Coalition, Green Left and the democrat party D66. Deputy Justice Minster Nebahat Albayrak, the driving force behind the amnesty, said an expansion was not feasible and undesirable. The scheme has been condemned by parties on the right. The...

HAGUE, 28/04/07 - Asylum-seekers who lied about their identity or background in their asylum application will be admitted to the general amnesty anyway. The cabinet has agreed on this, insiders in The Hague reported Friday. In their coalition accord, the Christian democrats (CDA), Labour (PvdA) and small Christian party ChristenUnie agreed earlier that there would be a one-time amnesty for rejected asylum-seekers who applied for asylum before 1 April 2001 and have since remained in the Netherlands. Last month, insiders already reported that they would be allowed to have a criminal record providing it showed no unconditional jail sentence of...