World: France lashes out at Britain's latest proposal on migrants

By msn
november 26, 2021

Poland says Belarus is taking away migrants at border camp

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish government official said Wednesday that migrants who have spent days in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of Poland's eastern border are being taken away by bus by Belarusian officials. Since Nov. 8 a large group of people from the Middle East has been stuck at a border crossing with Poland, hoping to enter Europe. Most are fleeing conflict or hopelessness at home and aim to reach Germany or other western European countries. © Provided by Associated Press Migrants settle for the night in the logistics center in the checkpoint "Kuznitsa" at the Belarus-Poland border near Grodno, Belarus, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021.

CALAIS, France (AP) — France reacted with fury Friday to Britain's latest proposals for dealing with the deadly flow of migrants between their shores. The French government said a British minister was no longer welcome at a European meeting to discuss the problem and portrayed the British prime minister as duplicitous.

A migrants makeshift camp is set up along the river in Loon Plage, near Grande-Synthe, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

© Provided by Associated Press A migrants makeshift camp is set up along the river in Loon Plage, near Grande-Synthe, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh) Life jackets, sleeping bags and damaged inflatable small boat are pictured on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

Life jackets, sleeping bags and damaged inflatable small boat are pictured on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

© Provided by Associated Press Life jackets, sleeping bags and damaged inflatable small boat are pictured on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

The angry response, delivered by government spokesman Gabriel Attal, came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked that France take back all migrants who cross illegally from its shores to Britain. Johnson proposed the deal in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron.

EU praises Bosnia for improved migration management

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The European Union praised as a sign of progress the opening of a new migrant facility Friday in Bosnia, which had been criticized over the plight of migrants stranded in the dysfunctional Balkan country during their long trek to richer destinations. The new, organized Lipa camp, in the northwestern Krajina region, can accommodate, screen and register up to 1,500 people, and includes safe zones for unaccompanied minors and vulnerable people.

Attal dismissed the idea as “clearly not what we need to solve this problem."

Life jackets, sleeping bags and damaged inflatable small boat are pictured early morning on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

© Provided by Associated Press Life jackets, sleeping bags and damaged inflatable small boat are pictured early morning on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

He said the letter “doesn't correspond at all” with discussions that Johnson and Macron had Wednesday after 27 migrants died while attempting to cross the English Channel.

Poland: Belarus eyes using Afghan migrants as border pawns

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Poland’s leader on Sunday warned against more possible migrant pressures on the European Union’s border with Belarus, this time coming from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke in Vilnius following talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte about ways of solving the “very difficult situation” at the borders of EU members with Belarus. He was on a one-day tour of meetings with the prime ministers of EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which have also been hit by the migrant pressures.

“We are sick of double-speak,” Attal.

Attal said France is withdrawing an invite for British Home Secretary Priti Patel to join a meeting of ministers on Sunday in Calais, one of the French coastal towns where Britain-bound migrants gather before attempting to cross.

Belarus says it has helped more than 100 migrants leave

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities say they have helped more than 100 migrants leave the country on Monday and more are prepared to leave Tuesday, a statement that comes after almost two weeks of tensions at Belarus' border with Poland, where hundreds of migrants remain stuck. Belarus' Interior Ministry officials said Tuesday that 118 migrants flew out of the capital, Minsk, on Monday to their home countries after the ex-Soviet country's authorities “assisted them with paperwork and passing through the state border.

Migrant crisis front and center in pope's Greece-Cyprus trip .
LESBOS, Greece (AP) — When Pope Francis visited the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016, he was so moved by the stories he heard from families fleeing war in Iraq and Syria that he wept and brought a dozen refugees home with him. Speaking to reporters on the way home that day, he held up a drawing handed to him by a child from the island’s sprawling refugee camp. “Look at this one,” he said, revealing a bird neatly decorated in colored pencil, the word “peace” scrolled in English underneath it. “That’s what children want: Peace.