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Police arrest refugee
The disruption at the shelter
was allegedly started by between 20 and 30 people and an unspecified
number of arrests were made. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty
Images
Reuters in Berlin
Hundreds
involved in mass brawl at Berlin refugee shelter
Disused
Tempelhof airport, home to about 800 refugees, descends into chaos as
more than 100 police officers called to scene
REUTERS
Sunday 29 November
2015 19.38 GMT
Hundreds of refugees
have been involved in a mass brawl at a Berlin shelter as lunch was
being served, with more than 100 police officers called in to restore
order.
The fight on Sunday
underlines the difficulties Germany faces in handling hundreds of
thousands of migrants. Although incidents in such centres are common,
the chaos in the shelter at Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airport was
more violent than normal.
“There were
apparently many hundreds of people involved,” a police spokesman
said. An unspecified number of arrests were made.
Michael Elias, who
is in charge of the shelter, said 830 people were housed at the
facility and that between 20 and 30 started the disruption. “It’s
the simple fact that there are a lot of young men travelling alone
here. We withdrew … because the situation simply exploded. It was a
complete blow-out,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday
morning police were called to another shelter in Berlin, where
similar violence forced 500 inhabitants to flee the building. Such
scenes feed scepticism among the German public about accepting
refugees. Angela Merkel’s popularity has slumped in a sign of the
public’s cooling attitude towards the influx of people fleeing
conflict in countries such as Syria.
Earlier this year,
the German police union and women’s rights groups accused the
authorities of playing down reports of sexual assault and even rape
at refugee shelters because they feared a backlash against asylum
seekers. Interior minister Thomas de Maizière has called on Germans
to avoid succumbing to blanket suspicion of migrants, hundreds of
thousands of whom have fled to Europe this year.
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EU
split over refugee deal as Germany leads breakaway coalition
Angela
Merkel holds surprise mini-summit in Brussels with nine EU countries
willing to take large numbers after meeting resistance to mandatory
sharing scheme
Ian Traynor in
Brussels
Monday 30 November
2015 02.07 GMT
Months of European
efforts to come up with common policies on mass immigration
unravelled on Sunday when Germany led a “coalition of the willing”
of nine EU countries taking in most refugees from the Middle East,
splitting the union formally on the issues of mandatory
refugee-sharing and funding.
An unprecedented
full EU summit with Turkey agreed a fragile pact aimed at stemming
the flow of migrants to Europe via Turkey.
But the German
chancellor, Angela Merkel, frustrated by the resistance in Europe to
her policies, also convened a separate mini-summit with seven other
leaders to push a fast-track deal with the Turks and to press ahead
with a new policy of taking in and sharing hundreds of thousands of
refugees a year directly from Turkey.
The surprise
mini-summit suggested that Merkel has given up on trying to persuade
her opponents, mostly in eastern Europe, to join a mandatory
refugee-sharing scheme across the EU, although she is also expected
to use the pro-quotas coalition to pressure the naysayers into
joining later.
Merkel’s ally on
the new policy, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European
commission, said of the mini-summit: “This is a meeting of those
states which are prepared to take in large numbers of refugees from
Turkey legally.”
But he added later
that any such agreement would be voluntary and not binding, while the
Dutch rejected German-led calls to resettle large numbers directly
from Turkey.
The frictions
triggered by the split were instantly apparent. Donald Tusk, the
president of the European council who chaired the full summit with
Turkey, contradicted the mainly west European emphasis on seeing
Ankara as the best hope of slowing the mass migration to Europe.
“Let us not be
naive. Turkey is not the only key to solving the migration crisis,”
said Tusk. “The most important one is our responsibility and duty
to protect our external borders. We cannot outsource this obligation
to any third country. I will repeat this again: without control on
our external borders, Schengen will become history.”
He was referring to
the 26-country free-travel zone in Europe, which is also in danger of
unravelling under the strains of the migratory pressures and jihadist
terrorism.
Juncker said he
would come up with a system for redistributing an annual “contingent”
of refugees from Turkey among the coalition of the willing countries.
Reports in Berlin put the figure at 400,000.
He was expected to
leave that until after the looming French regional elections for fear
of boosting the chances of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant Front National
of Marine Le Pen.
Earlier, Turkey
promised to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for
cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU.
The Turkish prime
minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, called it a “new beginning” for the
uneasy neighbours.
A key element is
€3bn (£2.11bn) in EU aid for the 2.2 million Syrians now in
Turkey. The money is intended to raise their living standards and so
persuade more of them to stay put rather than attempt perilous
crossings to the EU via the Greek islands.
The final offer of
“an initial” €3bn represents a compromise between the EU, which
offered that sum over two years, and Turkey, which wanted it every
year. The money will be paid out bit by bit as conditions are met,
French president Francois Hollande said, leaving the total payout
unclear.
“As Turkey is
making an effort to take in refugees – who will not come to Europe
– it’s reasonable that Turkey receive help from Europe to
accommodate those refugees,” Hollande told reporters.
He added that the
deal should also make it easier to check migrants arriving and keep
out those who pose a threat, like Islamic State militants who struck
Paris two weeks ago.
Also on offer to
Ankara, which wants to revive relations with its European neighbours
after years of coolness, is a “re-energised” negotiating process
on Turkish membership of the EU, even if few expect it to join soon.
Many Turks could
also benefit from visa-free travel to Europe’s Schengen zone within
a year if Turkey meets conditions on tightening its borders in the
east to Asian migrants and moves other benchmarks on reducing
departures to Europe.
“Today is a
historic day in our accession process to the EU,” Davutoglu told
reporters on arrival. “I am grateful to all European leaders for
this new beginning.”
David Cameron said:
“This summit matters because we need a comprehensive solution to
the migrant crisis in Europe and obviously that involves Turkey.
“Britain will
continue to play our role, which is about supporting Syrian refugees
in the refugee camps and in Turkey.
“In terms of the
discussions this afternoon, a lot of it will be about the Schengen no
borders zone that we’re not a member of. Britain in the European
Union will keep our border controls, vital to our security that they
are.”
After the summit,
Cameron held talks with Tusk on Britain’s renegotiation with the
EU. Downing Street said: “They agreed that we continue to make good
progress. While some areas are more difficult than others,
discussions are ongoing with member states to find solutions and
agree reforms in all four areas outlined in the PM’s letter to the
European Council president.
“These discussions
will continue in the coming days, including with bilaterals between
the PM and other European leaders in Paris tomorrow, and all EU
leaders will have a substantive discussion of the UK renegotiation at
next month’s European council as planned.”
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