21-may

Brussels migrant plan : EU

1)      Brussels may have to water down controversial plans for quotas to spread Mediterranean refugees around Europe amid growing opposition led by France, Spain and Britain.

2)      European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled the plan last week in a bid to make the rest of the 28-nation EU share the burden of frontline states like Italy, Greece and Malta.

3)      EU ministers approved an EU naval force to fight people smugglers and possibly destroy their boats in Libyan waters.

4)      The plan would see binding quotas for redistributing asylum seekers based on national criteria such as economic size, population, unemployment and the number of refugees already taken.

5)      10 EU nations out of 28 say they oppose the quotas. It includes Britain, France, Spain, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

6)      The quotas are part of a wider package rushed through by Brussels after nearly 800 migrants died in April in the deadliest shipwreck since the Syrian war triggered the refugee crisis.

7)      In an unprecedented crisis on Europe's southern shores, around 5,000 people have died in the past 18 months attempting to cross the Mediterranean in flimsy dinghies and rickety fishing boats in a bid to flee war and poverty.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Migrant crisis in South-East Asia

1)      Malaysia and Indonesia would no longer turn away boat-people, a breakthrough in the region’s migrant crisis.

2)      Myanmar, whose policies toward its ethnic Rohingya minority are widely blamed for fuelling the human flow, also softened its line by offering to provide humanitarian aid to stricken migrants.

3)      Both the countries also agreed to offer them temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community.

4)      Thailand did not sign on to the offer but the government said that they are still considering the plans.

5)      The Crisis :

                                i.            Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand had sparked growing international outrage for driving off boats overloaded with exhausted and dying Rohingya, as well as Bangladeshis.

                              ii.            Nearly 3,000 boatpeople have swum to shore or been rescued off the three countries over the past 10 days after a Thai crackdown on human-trafficking threw the illicit trade into chaos.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/boat-migrants-to-get-temporary-shelter/article7228895.ece

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------