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IMMIGRATION

OSCE calls for ‘humane treatment’ of migrants

The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has called for countries to treat migrants "humanely", as the EU struggles to cope with tens of thousands of people arriving in rickety boats.

OSCE calls for 'humane treatment' of migrants
Photo: UNHCR/I. Prickett

“Ahead of World Refugee Day, we have to be aware of our responsibility to treat refugees and migrants humanely,” said Michael Georg Link, head of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

“States should continue to work to ensure that the human rights of all individuals — including refugees and other migrants — are respected within their countries, as well as to find ways to prevent discrimination against these vulnerable groups.”

Recent events “have raised the question of the treatment of refugees to the top of policy agendas,” he was quoted in a statement as saying in Hungary, where the government this week announced plans to erect a fence along its border with Serbia to keep out migrants.

Saturday's World Refugee Day comes as Europe struggles to cope with a flood of migrants and refugees arriving from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, many crossing the Mediterranean in ramshackle boats to Italy and Greece.

The journey is perilous, with the UN's refugee agency saying on Thursday that it has received information of more than 3,500 women, men and children reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea during 2014.

On Tuesday, EU interior ministers failed to agree on European Commission proposals to redistribute 40,000 Syrians and Eritreans in Europe and to resettle 20,000 Syrians living in camps outside the bloc.

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FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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