Europe – Page 3 – News Behind The News

Refugees And ISIS, Explained

Joshua David Craddock Stoneham / November 25, 2015November 27, 2015 / Europe, Middle-East

After the recent Paris attacks, many British and international papers have linked the attacks to the refugee crisis, claiming that terrorists are travelling to western Europe by posing as refugees. But is this true? Where did this idea come from and how will it effect the migrant crisis?

The fact that seems to contradict these headlines is that some of the attackers in Paris were French. Much like the Lee Rigby attack in London and the Boston Marathon Bombing, some of the attackers weren’t actually from Iraq or Syria, where ISIS is based. However, the attackers M al-Mahmod*, Bilal Hadfi and Ahmad al-Mohammad are thought to have come to Europe with refugees.

This is a little tenuous though. After Ahman al-Mohammad detonated his suicide vest outside of the Stade de France, a Syrian passport was found, which was thought to be his. However authorities later said this was a fake passport.

Records from the border control of Leros, a Greek island that many refugees pass through, suggested Ahman al-Mohammad arrived there on the 3rd October and was fingerprinted and photographed. Leros authorities were reported as saying they simply do not have the resources to screen all the migrants effectively or even check whether passports are genuine. So this lends to the theory that al-Mohammad came to Europe as a refugee. The attacker M al-Mahmod is suspected of travelling with him.

Greece Flag — One of the attackers travelled through Greece to get to France

Bilal Hadfi had gone to fight in Syria alongside IS, but the Belgian government were not aware he returned. This again could mean he travelled to Europe similarly to Admad al-Mohammad. However he may he returned in a different way.

Samy Amimour was one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up at the Batclan. In 2014, French newspaper Le Monde published an account of a father who travelled to Syria to convince his son to leave IS and return to France. Fake names were used in the original article, but it has been updated to reveal that the son in question was Amimour.

So does this mean that there is a link between refugees and terrorists? Should we be cautious of refugees?

The short answer is no. Over one million people have been displaced by the situation in Syria and most refugees wish to escape IS and terrorism.

Making it harder for refugees to emigrate into Europe may cause some to join ISIS as they would have to return to Syria and be left with no choice.

A stricter system could solve the issue, as the official who allowed Ahman al-Momhammad into Greece said they don’t have the roscources to throughly check all migrants.

Canada has said it will not take single, male refugees as a precaution. Poland has said they will not take any refugees. Republicans in America are calling for the U.S to stop taking in refugees.

Whether their actions are justified is questionable, either way the attacks have changed the face refugee crisis significantly.

Photos by: HonestReporting, Leonora Enking

*The attackers real name has not been released by authorities. The name comes from the BBC.

The Migration Dilemma

Rachel Gascoigne / November 20, 2015December 4, 2015 / Europe, Middle-East, Uncategorized

The European Union has been struggling to respond to a surge of desperate migrants since the beginning of the year.

The flood of migrants and refugees, the largest movement of people Europe has seen since 1945, has raised doubt about open-borders and provoked a dispute over sharing the burden.

Seeking Asylum

Conflict in Syria continues to be by far the biggest driver of the migration. But the ongoing violence in Afghanistan, abuses in Eritrea, as well as poverty in Kosovo are also leading people to look for new lives elsewhere. Asylum applications from Syrians in Europe have surged this year, fuelled by the country’s vicious civil war which began more than four years ago and shows no sign of ending.

The vast majority of refugees have fled to neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and the number of Syrians there far outweighs those who have made the difficult journey to Europe.

Division between the EU

The huge numbers of migrants is sparking a crisis as countries struggle to cope with the influx, creating a division between EU member states over how is best to deal with the resettlers. And as more and more displaced people are seeking refuge in Europe, some are questioning the EU for their slow response.

After an emergency summit in Brussels on how the EU should handle the tens of thousands of refugees pouring into its countries, leaders from central and eastern Europe pushed back a quota system that requires all EU member states to take in as many refugees as they could.
At present, the EU has a policy known as the Dublin Regulation, which requires migrants to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive. The policy was designed to curb multiple applications in various countries and to ensure claims are dealt with efficiently. However, certain countries have been overwhelmed by the influx, Hungary, Italy and Greece. Germany, for its part, has lifted the Dublin Regulation and is predicted to take in as many as 800,000 migrants this year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked European nations to come together and help distribute 160,000 people who are seeking asylum across the continent. Although this number is only a fraction of the people who have fled to Europe this year.

Countries that have taken in the most migrants include Germany, Sweden, and Austria. While countries like Denmark and Hungary have hostilely pushed back proposals put forth to help ‘share the refugees out’. With many migrants making their way from Serbia, Hungarian officials have constructed a huge fence to deter migrant crossings. New Hungarian legislation has also been put in place that makes crossing the fence or damaging it a criminal offence.
Decisions about what countries would like to do about the crisis themselves, have been left to them to make individually.

Worries are being circulated by residents from EU countries that the refugees are in fact not those who are fleeing war torn countries, and are those coming from poverty ridden places instead – which makes dealing with the crisis, even more difficult.

Photos by: European C0mmission, Alexrk2.

Will Processed Meat Cause You To Get Cancer?

Natasha Taylor / November 17, 2015January 2, 2016 / Europe, North America, UK

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have recently claimed that processed meats such as bacon, sausages and ham can cause you cancer.

The report claimed that consuming more than 50g of processed meat a day – which equates to around 2 slices of bacon – increased the change of people developing colorectal cancer by 18%.

This is in fact a real finding but what should we make of it?

The main thing is to remember that although this is a real finding, it’s a narrow finding that hasn’t just come to the surface. In fact links between certain types of meat and some forms of cancer – notably bowel cancer – isn’t ‘new’ news. The evidence surrounding this study has been building for decades, and is supported by a lot of careful research.

First of all, it’s important to understand the definition of what the study is saying.

Cancer Research have highlighted the difference between the meats highlighted in the study, and their definitions are as follows:

‘Red’ meat is (as you might expect), any meat that’s a dark red colour before it’s cooked – this obviously means meats like beef and lamb, but also includes pork.

‘Processed’ meat is meat that’s not sold fresh, but instead has been cured, salted, smoked, or otherwise preserved in some way (so things like bacon, sausages, hot dogs, ham, salami, and pepperoni). But this doesn’t include fresh burgers or mince.

The WHO’s study didn’t claim that if you eat any sort of meat then you can cause yourself to get all or any kinds of cancer. And it also didn’t claim that processed meat is just as, or even more dangerous than smoking, or anything else linked to cancer. The conclusions from the study were a lot narrower in that they have to do with cancer (mainly colon and rectal cancers) and meat.

According to Cancer Research, in 2011 scientists estimated that around 3 in every hundred cancers in the UK were due to eating too much red and processed meat (that’s around 8,800 cases every year). This compares against 64,500 cases every year caused by smoking (or 19 per cent of all cancers).

They’ve also said that none of this means that a single meat-based meal is ‘bad for you’. What it does mean, however, is that eating large amounts of red and processed meat, over a long period of time, is probably not the best approach if you’re aiming to live a long and healthy life. Meat is fine in moderation. Cancer Research have said that it certainly is a very good source of some nutrients which you need – including protein, iron and zinc. It’s just about being sensible, and not eating too much, too often.

So fear not, you’re free to eat a bacon sandwich every once in a while without worrying about the long-term state of your health.

Photo by: Kjetil Ree