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The Latest: UN Calls for Resettlement of 400,000 Syrians

The Latest: UN Calls for Resettlement of 400,000 Syrians

Friday, 04 March 2016 06:21 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the flow of refugees and other migrants into Europe (all times local):

12:00 p.m.

The United Nations refugee agency says that 400,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey should be resettled around the world to help ease the burden on the country.

UNHCR Europe bureau director Vincent Cochetel said Friday that the refugees could be distributed from Turkey over the next two years, and he called on Europe, Russia and the United States to do more.

More than 2 million refugees, most of them Syrians, are currently on Turkish soil.

Cochetel said that only 7,500 refugees were resettled from Turkey last year, including 1,100 Syrians.

His call comes as the European Union seeks to send more migrants arriving in Greece back to Turkey.

11:55 a.m.

Swedish police say a male asylum-seeker has been stabbed to death at a refugee center in central Sweden, adding three suspects, also asylum-seekers, have been detained.

Police spokesman Stefan Wickberg says they had no immediate motive for Friday's pre-dawn stabbing at an asylum center north of Lindesberg about 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of Stockholm.

Wickberg said the victim who was fatally stabbed in the neck, was in his 40s while the suspects were younger. He could not immediately give their citizenships.

Since the start of the year, at least three people have been murdered in asylum centers in Sweden, which has accepted the highest number of migrants per capita in Europe. The events are not believed to be related.

11:35 a.m.

A tiny trickle of Syrian and Iraqi refugees is being admitted into Macedonia at the Idomeni crossing on the border with Greece, as more than 11,000 remain camped around waiting for their turn.

Greek police say Macedonian authorities let in 320 people in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. Friday. A few dozen were being admitted later in the day.

Hundreds of brightly-colored tents cover the muddy ground around an overflowing official camp at Idomeni, stretching almost right up to the border.

Syrian Saswat Estif, 26, has been there for 15 days, waiting patiently as others jumped the queue to enter Macedonia.

He says "last night was cold and it rained a lot," adding that "there's not enough food."

In Athens, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was briefing opposition leaders on the immigration crisis that has left more than 32,000 people stranded in Greece.

11:20 a.m.

The United Nations refugee agency has criticized European Union leaders for warning migrants not to come to Europe when most people arriving are from conflict zones rather than looking for work.

UNHCR Europe bureau director Vincent Cochetel said Friday that "the inconvenient truth is that refugees are still coming to Europe because there are wars in the neighborhood of Europe."

He told reporters in Brussels that "91 percent of the people arriving in Greece are coming from those three major crises," in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. He said almost half were Syrians.

On Thursday EU Council President Donald Tusk warned "all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from: Do not come to Europe."

People fleeing conflict have the right to apply for asylum under international law.

11:15 a.m.

France's top security official says the population of the sprawling Calais migrant camp is now at 3,800 people, down from a peak last year of 6,000, after and the inhabitants were relocated and many of the shanties later dismantled.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told BFM television on Friday that France has set up 102 shelters across the country for migrants, and blamed a handful of extremists for inciting them to protests that have included some who stitched their lips together.

The migrants converge in Calais in hopes of slipping across the Channel to Britain. The shantytown has become a flashpoint in relations between France and Britain and has fed far-right backlashes in both countries.

© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Europe
The Latest on the flow of refugees and other migrants into Europe (all times local):12:00 p.m.The United Nations refugee agency says that 400,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey should be resettled around the world to help ease the burden on the country.UNHCR Europe bureau...
EU,Europe,Migrants,The Latest
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2016-21-04
Friday, 04 March 2016 06:21 AM
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