Government & Politics

Barbed wire, curfews and wi-fi: EU touts ‘new generation’ migrant camp in Greece The sprawling facility — the first of five the EU is funding — has amenities like playgrounds and air conditioning, but is also heavily policed and remote.

(Politico) Fifteen minutes outside the town of Vathy stands a just-completed compound, surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence. The entrance, only open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., is equipped with turnstiles, magnetic gates and X-ray machines. Guards check both ID cards […]

Government & Politics

Austria must give gay refugee another shot at asylum, EU court rules Austria is known for taking a hardline approach to refugees, most recently refusing to take in Afghan refugees after that country fell to the Taliban.

(Courthouse News) Austria was wrong to not give an Iraqi refugee a second chance at asylum after he revealed he was gay, the European Union’s highest court held Thursday. The European Court of Justice found that an Iraqi man who applied for […]

Law Enforcement

9/11: 20 years on, Germany still grapples with militant Islamists On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban flag is flying over Kabul again. A German police expert fears that Afghanistan could once again become a gathering place for jihadis — including from Germany.

(Deutsche Welle) Sven Kurenbach still remembers the images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing and the spontaneous minute of silence at the Berlin police department that followed. When Islamist terrorists weaponized passenger planes on September 11, 2001 — killing […]

Government & Politics

Security dominates EU draft statement on Afghan migration Absent is any mention of how many refugees the EU might accept. The EU wants to first see how more countries respond, one diplomat said.

(Politico) The EU emphasized security and keeping Afghan migrants outside the bloc in a draft statement obtained Thursday by POLITICO. The two-page document — dated August 25 and slated for discussion at an EU interior ministers meeting Tuesday — used the word […]