Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum?
- 21 September 2015
- From the section Europe
Friday, September 25, 2015
Mental Health Information
More on Alex Gervais Tragic Death
Clark said the agency in charge of caring for 18-year-old Alex Gervais didn’t inform the Ministry of Children and Family Development that he was staying in a hotel.
The premier brushed off questions about a lack of confidence in Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux, saying both she and the minister agree the agency made a “real mistake” and should face repercussions.
“(The agency) did not follow policy. It was wrong. It had tragic, tragic outcomes, and there are going to be consequences for that.”
Clark said the province will take the time to understand what happened, report to citizens and then make sure appropriate steps are taken to prevent a similar occurrence.
She said that while it is sometimes necessary to house a child in a hotel, the ministry wants to ensure that happens as rarely as possible, adding that is why it requires notification from agencies.
“The reason we require that is because we don’t want — as a policy — we don’t want vulnerable kids to end up in hotels,” Clark said. “We want them in homes. Ideally, we want them in their own homes.”
Between November 2014 and September 2015, there were 23 reported instances of children staying in a hotel, said a Children’s Ministry spokesman who asked not to be named.
They stayed an average of about five days, he said.
Children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Gervais was living in a hotel for about two months.
Jeff Rud, a spokesman for Turpel-Lafond’s office, said they believe that between 30 and 50 kids in government care stay in hotels at some point every year.
Turpel-Lafond has said she believes the boy who fell from a fourth-floor window at an Abbotsford hotel took his own life.
The children’s advocate has said she was misled into believing that no kids in care were being housed in hotels, and has demanded the ministry assure her it won’t happen again.
Currently, the province’s director of child welfare knows of one youth who is staying in a hotel with a caregiver, the ministry spokesman said.
“The director is confident this short-term placement is appropriate given the circumstances, and that the young person will be moved to more suitable accommodations imminently.”
Opposition NDP Leader John Horgan has called for Cadieux’s resignation after yet another controversy to beset the troubled ministry this year.
In one case, a lawyer for a mother identified only as J.P. has filed an application to block the government from holding an internal review of the actions of social workers in her case.
The mom noted that a B.C. Supreme Court judge already determined that social workers behaved inappropriately when they seized her children and violated a court order banning the kids’ father from unsupervised visits, enabling him to molest their daughter in care.
The ministry is appealing Justice Paul Walker’s decision.
Clues to watch for in our Troubling World
I just wish to bring to your attention this compilation of information about the rise of Nazi Germany as it compares to today's troubling events. Survivors from the holocaust are recollecting changes in socialized medicare, removal of prayer from schools and many other important clues to watch for.
Day of Atonement Delayed?
Promise to the church (3:10-12)
When the world’s anti-God system collapses, the church will face terrible persecution and martyrdom. That’s because it will be called on as a faithful witness to the rule and authority of God in a godless world. But because the names of the faithful witnesses are written in the book of life, they will be delivered and saved for eternal life.
While the church will suffer persecution, it will not be destroyed. That’s because the hour of trial comes “upon the whole world” to try “those who live on the earth” (3:10). This does not include the church. In Revelation, the phrase “whole world” or “those who live on the earth” is always used for the godless world or enemies of the church (6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 14; 17:8).
credit, Grace Communion International.
In any case this day isn't over yet, and I am looking forward to God's perfect timing to rapture His church.
What did not make it to the news as I noted in an earlier blog is the double lunar eclipse on the Feast of Trumpets, likely representing Christ coming to the Jews as well as the Gentiles. This event has never been seen or heard of until the 13th of this September. The next item that went unnoticed is the invasion by Russia, Hezbollah, and Assad, in fighting ISIS. This could well be the beginning of the Gog and Magog war written about in the bible. Please stay alert. Today is also the final day of caution by the French Prime Minister regarding climate chaos. Today could be the day that Deborah's grave opens, hallelujah, \Maranata, come Lord Jesus.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum?
Credit to BBC News
Europe
is experiencing one of the most significant influxes of migrants and
refugees in its history. Pushed by civil war and terror and pulled by
the promise of a better life, hundreds of thousands of people have fled
the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives along the way.
The
scale of the crisis has put huge pressures on some destination
countries, particularly Greece, Austria, and Hungary. At least 350,000
migrants crossed the EU's borders in January-August 2015, compared with
just 280,000 during the whole of 2014. And that 350,000 figure - an estimate from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - does not include the many who crossed a border undetected.
Among the forces driving people to take such risks are the conflicts raging in Syria and Afghanistan, and human rights abuses in Eritrea. The majority - 62% - of those who have reached Europe by boat so far this year are from those three countries.
There are also people setting out from Libya, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kosovo, Iraq, Iran Darfur, Somalia and other countries in the hope of a new life somewhere like Germany, France or the UK.
What routes are people using?
The most direct routes are fraught with danger. More than 2,600 people have drowned in the Mediterranean this year trying to reach Greece or Italy in flimsy dinghies or unsafe fishing boats.Most of those heading for Greece take the relatively short voyage from Turkey to the islands of Kos, Chios, Lesvos and Samos - often in flimsy rubber dinghies or small wooden boats.
There is virtually no infrastructure on these small Greek islands to cope with the thousands of people arriving, leaving local volunteers providing vital assistance.
Many people travel by boat from Libya to Italy, a longer and more hazardous journey. Survivors often report violence and abuse by people traffickers, who charge thousands of dollars per person for their services. The chaos in Libya has given traffickers freedom to exploit migrants and refugees desperate to reach Europe.
Faced with a huge influx of people, Hungary has built a controversial 175km (110-mile) razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia. It has also urged EU partners not to send back migrants who have travelled on from Hungary.
Some of the worse tragedies in 2015 include:
- Two boats carrying about 500 migrants sank after leaving Zuwara in Libya on 27 August;
- The bodies of 71 people, believed to be Syrian migrants, were discovered in an abandoned lorry in Austria on 27 August;
- A shipwreck off Italy's Lampedusa island killed about 800 people on 19 April;
- At least 300 migrants are feared to have drowned after attempting to cross the Mediterranean in rough seas in early February
Where are they going next?
Under an EU rule known as the Dublin regulation, refugees are required to claim asylum in the member state in which they first arrive. But some EU countries, such as Greece, Italy, and Croatia, have been allowing migrants and refugees to pass through to countries where they have families and better prospects.Germany receives by far the most asylum applications in the EU and says it is expecting 800,000 refugees to arrive this year.
In order to match Germany's 2015 projection per population, France would need to accept more than 650,000 people and the UK nearly the same amount. But France has pledged to accept just 24,000 and the UK 20,000 over five years.
Between 2,000 and 5,000 migrants are camped around Calais, which is just 1% - 2.5% of the more than 200,000 who have landed in Italy and Greece.
Hundreds of thousands of people are somewhere along the route to Germany, in Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Serbia, and elsewhere.
Are EU countries doing their fair share?
Germany has been critical of France and the UK over the countries' relatively meagre commitments to take people in and called on all EU members to do more.Earlier this month, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker set out proposals for 120,000 additional asylum seekers to be distributed among EU nations, with binding quotas.
Mr Juncker's proposals were criticised by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania.
Championing the rights of poor migrants is difficult as the economic climate is still gloomy, many Europeans are unemployed and wary of foreign workers, and EU countries are divided over how to share the refugee burden.
More detailed joint rules have been brought in with the Common European Asylum System - but rules are one thing, putting them into practice EU-wide is another challenge.
How do migrants get asylum status in the EU?
They have to satisfy the authorities that they are fleeing persecution and would face harm or even death if sent back to their country of origin.Under EU rules, an asylum seeker has the right to food, first aid and shelter in a reception centre. They should get an individual assessment of their needs. They may be granted asylum by the authorities at "first instance". If unsuccessful, they can appeal against the decision in court, and may win.
Asylum seekers are supposed to be granted the right to work within nine months of arrival.
Nearly 104,000 got refugee status in the EU last year, nearly 60,000 subsidiary protection status and just over 20,000 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. (Austria was not included in the data.)
B.C. Teen in Provincial Care Dies in Fall From Hotel Window
September 23, 2015
B.C. teen in provincial care dies in fall from hotel window
Children’s representative denounces use of hotel to house 18-year-old
Alex Gervais, courtesy Dylan Pelly.
Photograph by: Dylan Pelly , Handout
An
18-year-old in the care of B.C.’s child welfare system fell to his death
last week from a fourth-floor window at an Abbotsford hotel, where he
had been living for at least a month after the province shut down his
group home, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Both the B.C. Coroner’s Service and the Representative for Children and Youth are investigating the death of the young man, whom the Ministry of Children and Family Development placed in the hotel instead of with a foster family or group home, sources have told The Sun.
None of those agencies would release the teen’s name, but The Sun has learned he was Alex Gervais. A family member and a friend have posted messages of condolence on Facebook.
There was a national outcry over placing foster kids in hotels after the 2014 death of Tina Fontaine, 15, who was murdered after she disappeared from the Winnipeg hotel where she was lodged by Manitoba’s child welfare system. That province has since phased out using hotels as overflow housing for older foster kids.
“I want to know why he was living in that hotel when he was a child in care and should have been living in a family setting. ... And what relationship did his living in that hotel have to his mental health and his well-being?” children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Tuesday.
“No parent in B.C. would place their child in a hotel to be raised. ... That cannot be a care system. That is not appropriate.”
The coroner’s service confirmed that an 18-year-old man fell from the window of his fourth-floor room at the Super 8 hotel in Abbotsford last Friday at 9 a.m., said spokesperson Barb McLintock. The death is being investigated as possibly being suicide, and the coroner is waiting for test results to determine if the teenager had been using drugs or alcohol.
Abbotsford police do not suspect foul play. “We did investigate, but after consulting with the coroner it was ultimately determined the death was not suspicious and no one else was in the room prior to the tragic event,” said Const. Ian MacDonald.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux said in a statement she was “deeply concerned” by the case but would not answer specific questions, citing privacy concerns and it being “a police matter.”
Starting in 2014, she said, ministry staff had to get high-level permission to place foster kids in hotels, and the provincial director of child welfare monitors such arrangements. The director is not aware of any other children in hotels, Cadieux added.
“It is the ministry’s stated policy and practice to place children and youth in care in foster homes and residential resources that match their needs and minimize the possibility of further moves. Hotels are — and should only be — used in rare occurrences and as briefly as possible in between or prior to other more appropriate placements,” her statement said.
The young man who died in Abbotsford was one of 33 teens living in group homes run by an agency whose contract was cancelled by the province earlier this year because of health and safety concerns raised by Turpel-Lafond and others. The representative said she sought a guarantee from the ministry when the group homes were closed that those kids would not be moved to hotels.
Both the B.C. Coroner’s Service and the Representative for Children and Youth are investigating the death of the young man, whom the Ministry of Children and Family Development placed in the hotel instead of with a foster family or group home, sources have told The Sun.
None of those agencies would release the teen’s name, but The Sun has learned he was Alex Gervais. A family member and a friend have posted messages of condolence on Facebook.
There was a national outcry over placing foster kids in hotels after the 2014 death of Tina Fontaine, 15, who was murdered after she disappeared from the Winnipeg hotel where she was lodged by Manitoba’s child welfare system. That province has since phased out using hotels as overflow housing for older foster kids.
“I want to know why he was living in that hotel when he was a child in care and should have been living in a family setting. ... And what relationship did his living in that hotel have to his mental health and his well-being?” children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Tuesday.
“No parent in B.C. would place their child in a hotel to be raised. ... That cannot be a care system. That is not appropriate.”
The coroner’s service confirmed that an 18-year-old man fell from the window of his fourth-floor room at the Super 8 hotel in Abbotsford last Friday at 9 a.m., said spokesperson Barb McLintock. The death is being investigated as possibly being suicide, and the coroner is waiting for test results to determine if the teenager had been using drugs or alcohol.
Abbotsford police do not suspect foul play. “We did investigate, but after consulting with the coroner it was ultimately determined the death was not suspicious and no one else was in the room prior to the tragic event,” said Const. Ian MacDonald.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux said in a statement she was “deeply concerned” by the case but would not answer specific questions, citing privacy concerns and it being “a police matter.”
Starting in 2014, she said, ministry staff had to get high-level permission to place foster kids in hotels, and the provincial director of child welfare monitors such arrangements. The director is not aware of any other children in hotels, Cadieux added.
“It is the ministry’s stated policy and practice to place children and youth in care in foster homes and residential resources that match their needs and minimize the possibility of further moves. Hotels are — and should only be — used in rare occurrences and as briefly as possible in between or prior to other more appropriate placements,” her statement said.
The young man who died in Abbotsford was one of 33 teens living in group homes run by an agency whose contract was cancelled by the province earlier this year because of health and safety concerns raised by Turpel-Lafond and others. The representative said she sought a guarantee from the ministry when the group homes were closed that those kids would not be moved to hotels.
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