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IMMIGRATION

Pro-refugee rally draws 10,000 in Gothenburg

Around 10,000 people gathered in Gothenburg on Wednesday to join a huge pro-refugee protest in Sweden's second largest city. Politicians and musicians took to the stage.

Published: 10 September 2015 10:31 CEST
Pro-refugee rally draws 10,000 in Gothenburg
Police estimate that 8,000 to 10,000 people were on hand at the Götaplatsen square in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg at the a 'Refugees Welcome Göteborg'demonstration.
 
 
Social Democrat chairman Mona Sahlin and Education Minister Gustav Fridolin (both pictured below) spoke to the crowd, and musicians performed on stage as well.
 
 
“There was a lot of love and humanity on display,” Petra Elf of the green youth organization (Grön Ungdom), which helped organize the event, told the TT news agency. 
 
 
The demonstration ended with the crowd lighting hundreds of candles for all the refugees who died on the way to Europe.
 
 
 
The Gothenburg gathering follows a similar event in Stockholm on Sunday, where thousands braved heavy rains to show their support. 
 
 
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was on hand, and gave a rousing speech.
 
“We need to decide right now what kind of Europe we are going to be. My Europe takes in refugees. My Europe doesn't build walls,” he said in Stockholm.
 
 
Stefan Löfven speaks at the Stockholm rally
 
Löfven on Wednesday called for Sweden’s entire public sector to unite to ensure the swift resettlement of the latest influx of refugees.
All pictures: TT news agency
 
 

IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

Published: 20 September 2023 09:06 CEST
France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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