International protection
(Brussels) Germany is still the EU country that is most open to immigrants, while other countries, especially in the east and north-east of Europe, are struggling to home the refugees. This has been shown by the figures posted by Eurostat about international protection in 2016. Statistics point out that last year, taken together, the 28 member states granted refugee status to 710,400 asylum seekers, doubling up 2015’s numbers. Germany alone took in 445 thousand applications (three times 2015’s number); Sweden gave protection to 69 thousand asylum seekers; Italy is at 35 thousand, the same as France. Austria, where the population is markedly smaller than in France or Italy, gave protection to 31 thousand people, and the Netherlands to 21 thousand. All the other countries are a long way down from there. Yesterday, the international organisation for migration stated that 43 thousand migrants came to Europe from January 1st to April 23rd this year, over 36 thousand of whom to Italy. Since the beginning of the year, 1,089 people have already died at sea. Also yesterday, the deputy president of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermans, indirectly took position on the controversy about the role of NGOs, to save lives in the Mediterranean. European agency Frontex had raised the problem of potential collusion between them and Libyan traffickers, though it eventually changed tack. Timmermans stated: “There’s no evidence of NGOs working with traffickers to help migrants get into the European Union”. Then, he added that the EU pursues a “zero-tolerance policy on human trafficking”. Timmermans then insisted on the role of the NGOs working “to save lives at sea”.
