Still the refugees are coming, but in Europe the barriers are rising

Refugees gather at the border to Austria in Sentilj, Slovenia, last week. Photograph: Maja Hitij/DPA/Corbis

Thousands of refugees stream across the Croatian border just a few hundred metres from Jurja's small shop each day, but in her sleepy hillside village the passing strangers are invisible.

"They are taken on trains from the south into Slovenia, we never see them," she says, as she packs up milk and chocolates in a country where the continent's refugee crisis has been more a question of travel logistics than resettlement.

The hundreds of thousands of travellers who arrived in Greece without documents since the start of this year almost all want to travel north to countries they believe offer a better chance of safety and a new life. So officials in countries along the way have focused on helping them travel as quickly and safely as possible, providing food, shelter, medical help and transport before handing them across borders towards their final destination.

But the cracks in that strategy are starting to show as Germany reconsiders its welcome for refugees, and the onset of cold weather has brought not the expected fall in the number of travellers but an increase in desperate journeys.

Governments have replaced talk of closer cooperation with threats of a more visible separation, warning that they are considering blocking off their borders in a region meant to be growing closer under the EU, not pulling apart.

The tiny republic of Slovenia was the latest to give notice that it was considering a border fence, after more than 110,000 refugees and migrants streamed across its borders in two weeks. That is equivalent to about 5% of the country's entire population, and 20 times the size of its police force. Camps set up to handle a few hundred people were suddenly struggling to provide food and shelter for 10 times as many.

"This is one of the first camps we made, originally for 400 migrants, but we were handling 4,000 to 5,000 a day," said Boris Brinovec, assistant commander at the police station in Brežice, which has handled much of the influx, even turning its forecourt into a temporary camp.

The numbers grew so fast that violence broke out last week, with a group setting fire to more than 20 tents, in a protest against how long they had been held in squalid conditions. The country begged for European help and has been promised 400 police officers from other countries, part of a wider European Union plan agreed in late October to try to stem the surge in dangerous journeys and process and resettle those who do reach European soil.

If that plan doesn't work, however, the Slovenian government has given notice that it will resort to physical barriers to entry, following the example of neighbouring Hungary. A quarter century after Europe celebrated the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, its members are threatening to throw up a string of other barriers along the continent's southern edges.

"If necessary, we are ready to put up the fence immediately," said the Slovenian prime minister, Miro Cerar, as images of migrants struggling to enter the country in the south and travel onwards to Austria in the north flashed around news sites and television channels worldwide.

A column of migrants moves on a path between agricultural fields in Rigonce, Slovenia, on 25 October. Photograph: Darko Bandic/AP

Just a day later, Austria issued its own notice that it planned to throw up barriers along the border with Slovenia, although chancellor Werner Faymann insisted they would be to control the flow of refugees more effectively rather than stop anyone entering the country. "We want to be able to carry out controls on people, and for that one needs certain technical security measures," he told reporters last Thursday, while adding that he was not planning to copy Hungary's razor-wire barrier, which stretches hundreds of kilometres.

Those open doors could come under threat, however, if Germany retracts its welcome for refugees, which is under mounting political pressure. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has been a staunch defender of her country's ability and obligation to accept refugees, called crisis talks over the weekend amid widespread accusations that her grand coalition is so riven over the issue that its ability to act is being severely affected.

Germany is the main destination for many of those who risked the boat crossing to Greece this summer, and if the country called even a partial halt to the flow of new arrivals it could strand tens of thousands of refugees in ill-prepared countries.

A fence thrown up by Hungary to seal its border with Croatia triggered Slovenia's current crisis. It also provided a stark warning of how dangerous it can be to abruptly disrupt a route being travelled by thousands of people each day.Refugees heading for Hungary turned to Slovenia instead, but after being brought on trains to within sight of Slovenian fields there were no arrangements to get them across the border. Hundreds marched through farmland and waded chest-deep across an icy river, desperate to continue their journey before the weather got even colder.

"Many people had no winter clothes. There were children without socks, their feet red with the cold," said Niveska Stanic Buljan, a volunteer with the Christian charity Remar, who lives just inside the Croatian border. The group normally works with drug addicts, orphaned children and vulnerable sections of the local population, but shifted much of its effort towards aiding refugees when hundreds began stumbling out of trains into their town, looking for the border.

"We didn't expect the donations we got from people here, I was really overwhelmed," she said, in a house that doubled as a temporary dormitory for mothers with young children before Slovenian authorities arranged for trains to continue straight over the border.

Many who did cross on foot were corralled into open-air camps just inside the border, where some spent more than 24 hours. Slovenian police say that those traumatic journeys were caused by the Croatian authorities, in a hurry to unload refugees and migrants across their border as quickly as possible. "We filmed with police helicopters how the Croatians brought the train to the last stop, escorted them to the border and then pointed them towards Slovenia," said Brinovec.

The two countries later negotiated a deal to bring refugees across in trains, which means that they can be registered and sent on more humanely and efficiently, he said. But like many in Slovenia, he is concerned about what will happen when the bitter Balkans winter sets in properly.

Refugees wait at the border to Austria in Sentilj, Slovenia. Photograph: Maja Hitij/dpa/Corbis

"In winter we have snow, temperatures can fall to minus 10 or minus 15 degrees Celsius, we are worried about people arriving in sub-zero temperatures in future," Brinovec said.

Police in the north of the country resorted to cramming shivering children into their vehicles to ward off disaster last week, but the number of refugees flooding into the country and the rapidly dropping temperatures make that only the most makeshift of solutions.

Hopes that winter would slow down the flow of refugees and allow Europe to plan a response for next year have proved to be in vain.

"We didn't know we would be on the road so long when we set out," said 35-year-old Makhtab Mohammedi, at the bedside of her teenage daughter in a field hospital just inside Slovenia. Her family of five had been travelling for a month until her daughter's illness stopped them inside Slovenia. When she recovers they are heading to Germany or "any country that will welcome us, where we can be safe and not returned".

If anything, Europe's toughening stance may have propelled thousands to take even greater risks. Some fear that plans for a network of fences and long-term camps could effectively cut the route to countries like Germany forever, and others simply cannot afford to spend a winter in Turkey.

"There is a war back home, what choice do we have?" said 43-year-old Wajd Abu Sayed, waiting to be bussed to a Slovenian refugee centre after crossing Croatia by train. A chef who worked for years in Venezuela, he only returned to his home outside Damascus months before fighting broke out. "I did want to live in Syria," he said.

Related: I made an SOS call for the Aegean refugees. Now I'm lost for words | Justine Swaab

More people risked the sea journey from Turkey on an average day in October than at the height of the summer, despite rough seas claiming an ever higher death toll, said Ron Redmond, regional spokesman for the UN high commissioner for refugees in Greece.

"There is definitely a sense of urgency among people coming here, they are looking at this pretty much as a now or never situation," Redmond told the Observer in a phone interview from the Greek island of Lesbos, where many new arrivals land. "What we are seeing is people waiting for a day of slightly calmer weather before risking the journey, and the traffickers are happy to facilitate it," he said. "They also offer discounts to people willing to set to sea in worse weather."

Squabbling at the government level, however, has been matched by coordination on the ground in Slovenia, where Hungarian medics and volunteers have flooded in to offer services no longer needed in their own country.

"We have free hands and free heads, and a big storage full of donated supplies, so we brought it here," said Robert Bekesi, a 75-year-old Holocaust survivor who volunteers with Migration Aid Hungary. "I know what it is like to be a refugee."

Eastern Europe pulls up the drawbridge Germany

Expected to take up to 1.5 million people by the new year. Angela Merkel has come under increased domestic pressure to reduce the numbers arriving, with anti-immigrant group Pegida gaining in popularity. Germany has tightened its refugee policy, saying that Afghans should not seek asylum.

Hungary

Once a major transit country for migrants, it has closed its borders with Serbia and Croatia. It has been criticised for its treatment of refugees, including the use of razor-wire fencing to keep out migrants. It has fiercely opposed Angela Merkel's push for compulsory and permanent quotas.

Austria

Once a critic of fences, it has announced it will erect barriers at the Spielfeld border crossing with Slovenia. It has struggled to cope after Germany began slowing entries. Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the interior minister, said Austria was being overwhelmed "because Germany is taking too few" migrants.

Slovenia

Nearly 105,000 people have entered Slovenia in less than two weeks since Hungary sealed its border with Croatia. Miro Cerar, Slovenia's prime minister, said the country was ready to build a fence immediately and he has criticised Croatia for continuing to let migrants cross the border by train.

Croatia

The closure of Hungary's borders has led thousands of migrants a day to enter Croatia and Slovenia. In the four weeks to mid-October, about 200,000 migrants passed through Croatia. Most of them moved on to Hungary, which has since closed its borders, diverting refugees to Slovenia.

Serbia, others

Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia have warned that they are ready to close their borders if other countries do so, fearing that they will otherwise face millions of migrants being stranded throughout their territories. Bulgaria has already built a wire fence along its border with Turkey.

Greece

In 2015, 560,000 migrants and refugees have arrived by sea, out of 700,000 who reached Europe this way. Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, said he felt shame over "the inability of Europe to deal with this human drama". European leaders have called for reception camps to be boosted in Greece.

Turkey

It is now hosting 2.5 million refugees. EU leaders have attempted to secure Turkey's co-operation in stemming the flow of refugees by offering to consider giving more aid, speeding up visa liberalisation talks and resuming negotiations on Turkey's EU membership bid. No deal has been reached.

Source: Still the refugees are coming, but in Europe the barriers are rising

Ryanair Wants to Become the Amazon.com of European Travel

Airline merchandising and a la carte pricing policies can be annoying to people who just want to get to their destination with a minimum amount of drama. Other fliers, however, are always on the lookout for a deal. They take pleasure in in-flight duty-free sales and in avoiding those pesky added-on fees with loyalty club memberships or airline-specific credit cards.

The Amazon of European travel

There are changes on the horizon that may be welcomed by both deal-seekers and leave-me-alone fliers. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary was recently quoted as saying "We want to become the Amazon.com of travel in Europe, with a whole load of additional services: price comparison, cut-rate hotels, discounted football tickets, concert tickets...."   

Most people simply write off anything that the outspoken Irish airline exec says, but this particular statement may give an important hint about the future of airline merchandising. Whatever you think of O'Leary and Ryanair, they have changed the way the air travel game is played. 

Cutting out the middleman

Low cost carriers like Ryanair, Southwest and AirAsia have been trying to reduce commission costs for a long time. They have done this by focusing their ticket booking activities on their own web sites. To get the lowest prices, fare shoppers have to use these official sites, not a third party booking portal. 

Major booking engines like Expedia are still going strong, but Ryanair and its peers may start adopting practices that could syphon off budget-minded travelers from these major online travel agents. The "cut-rate hotels" that O'Leary mentioned could be a huge draw, especially if people are able to create their own personalized travel package using cheap flights and discounted hotels. 

If shoppers could then fill out their itinerary with event tickets, Groupon-like restaurant vouchers and other things, they could do all their purchasing on one site. This could be a time saver for them and, obviously, a money maker for the airline. 

Giving fliers more options

The other thing that could make airline web sites more Amazon-like is an increased number of fare choices. Instead of a la carte pricing, airlines are opting more and more for branded fares, which give fliers a package of perks for a set price. Southwest was one of the first airlines to do this with its "want to get away" fares (fliers trade flexibility and seat choice for super cheap flights). Other airlines have also been doing something similar, in a way, with Economy Plus or Premium Economy seats. These slight upgrades give passengers a little more leg room and slightly better food and entertainment for a higher price.  

Branded fares, and similar pay-for-perks schemes, are not new. What could be on the horizon is a wider range of choices. Australian carrier Jetstar has been offering something that it calls fare bundling. Passengers pay for a very specific set of perks. For example, some routes have bundles that allow passengers to pick their own seat and earn Qantas frequent flier perks for the flight. Others couple extra leg room with the ability to get a full refund for a canceled or changed ticket. 

More choices means more-personalized travel 

Having more of these very specific choices would be a welcome trend because people could pay for their entire flight with one purchase rather than being hit with multiple a la carte charges as they go along. Also, with five, ten or even a dozen different branded fare choices, fliers won't not have to pay for things they don't need or want. 

The ideas of airline merchandising and branded fares are evolving. What is certain is that you will soon be able to make more travel-related purchases on airlines' web sites, and you will have more choices when it comes to personalizing your flight experience and your travel budget. 

Source: Ryanair Wants to Become the Amazon.com of European Travel

Budapest Takes Its Place Among the World's Best Tourist Cities

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock

The Iron Curtain came down roughly 25 years ago. Since then, the eastern half of Europe has evolved in terms of tourism. At first, the region's countries were seen as cheaper alternatives to pricey destinations in the West. In the early days of democracy, these former socialist strongholds mainly drew adventure-seekers and backpackers. Then some spots, like Croatia's Dalmatian Coast, became Europe's "next-best" destinations. 

Yes, some of the places in the East's far-flung corners still feel off the beaten path. However, more centrally located spots are talked about casually in the same breath as long-time tourist favorites like Florence, Vienna and Barcelona. 

Budapest scores very well on new tourism survey

When Conde Nast Traveler polled its readers to find out what their favorite city in the world was, the results showed that the East has truly arrived on Europe's mainstream travel scene. 

Some of the rankings published by CN Traveler were not surprising: Florence occupied the top spot, and Paris, Sydney, Vienna and Rome were also highly rated. People who have already discovered Budapest might not be surprised to learn that it was second only to Florence in the reader-opinion-based rankings. But the fact that it beat out some of Europe's long-established tourist havens surprised many.  

The reemergence of a great city

Budapest has always been a beautiful city. It sits on the Danube River, and it is covered with Art Nouveau, Baroque and Neoclassical architecture. Because of its buildings and its bridges over the river, it is sometimes compared with Paris. The well-respected Hungarian National Museum even dates back to the same era as the Louvre. 

Reasonable prices probably helped the Hungarian capital score highly with travelers. Admittedly, Budapest does not have the food scene of some of Europe's other big name cities, but classics like pastries and goulash are of the highest quality, and you might even be surprised to find that Hungary has some tasty homegrown wines. There is a cosmopolitan restaurant scene that makes this arguably the best place to eat in Eastern Europe. The coffee shops are also worthy of a place on any flavor-seeker's itinerary. 

Budapest is quite user-friendly. The public transit system is more than decent and some of the main thoroughfares have become pedestrianized, so you can take a long sightseeing walk without encountering too much vehicle traffic.

Soaking it all in

Most experienced Budapest visitors will point you right to its thermal spas. The best of these venues, which are not unlike Turkey's bathhouses (the Ottoman Empire once included Hungary), are surrounded by classic architecture. The Gellért Baths and the Széchenyi Spa are must-visits for many, but you can soak in the same mineral-rich, naturally heated water in a more-modern setting in some of the city's hotel spas as well. 

Perhaps now that it is getting the press, Budapest will become more of a household name. Or perhaps taking the slower approach to tourism success has been better for this charming capital. This way, people can discover the Hungarian city on their own, instead of thinking of it as an alternative to Paris, Rome or Vienna. That is already starting to happen. Would an alternative to Paris or Vienna earn the second spot on a worldwide survey conducted by one of the world's most respected travel magazines?

Probably not. 

Source: Budapest Takes Its Place Among the World's Best Tourist Cities

Refugee Crisis Europe 2015: How Syrians Are Using Smartphones To Travel Through Western Europe

Mohanad Al Abdullah prayed for the first time in two years during the several hours he spent in a crowded smuggler's boat crossing the Aegean Sea in September. Stepping onto the shores of Greece on the way to Germany, he celebrated surviving his dangerous sea journey from Turkey with a selfie, posting the snapshot to Facebook using the same phone that would allow him to navigate through Eastern Europe and begin learning the language of his adopted nation.

Mohanad, 17, was one of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who braved dangerous boat crossings since January to enter Europe via the Aegean Sea after fleeing an escalating civil war in Syria. Forced to abandon most possessions, Mohanad, like many refugees, took an item that can be used for everything from navigation to communication: his smartphone. For people making a nearly 1,250-mile journey through Europe, Google Maps, Facebook and other methods of 21st-century mobile communication have often meant the difference between life and death, while innovative European tech firms are increasingly looking to streamline the travel and integration process through new apps designed for refugees.

An estimated 87 percent of Syrians in Europe have smartphones, and they often use Google Maps to plot their journey, while communicating with their family back home using apps like Viber, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Mohanad said he used an app called Maps Me that allows users to download world maps and use them offline. He also uses the technology in ways more familiar to average teenagers -- he can talk to family or friends and post selfies to Facebook and look up German phrases. He said he speaks frequently with family via the free calling and texting application WhatsApp.

"It always feels good when I talk to them," he said Tuesday, adding, "but then I only start to think about the future and how am I going to miss them more."

Mohanad Al Abdullah (left), pictured with friends after arriving in Greece from Turkey, fled violent conflict in Syria, traveling to Germany with help from his smartphone.  Facebook/Mohanad Al Abdullah

Smartphones Lighting The Road To Europe

More than 600,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Europe since January, with over half of them coming from Syria, as a raging civil war has displaced several million people since 2011. The vast majority of asylum-seekers arrive first in Greece or Italy in Southern Europe because of their proximity to the Middle East and North Africa, before continuing on to destinations in Western Europe, where the economy is stronger or where they may already have family. As the European Union struggles to come up with protocol for handling asylum cases, most refugees have fended for themselves, walking or taking buses to their final destination, often relying on information they can find on their own, especially through smartphones.

Transit camps managed by nonprofits and by national governments throughout the continent have tried to provide charging stations or solar chargers to ensure that refugees have access to information through their devices. Camps and local businesses also have provided Wi-Fi for travelers throughout the route.

One aid worker said the prevalence of smartphones and their creative uses combat stereotypes people might hold about refugees being primarily agrarian or impoverished. "It challenges the typical perception of a refugee in a poor sub-Saharan setting in a camp," said Oliver Money, a press spokesman for the International Rescue Committee, an emergency-relief nonprofit based in London.

Facebook and WhatsApp have proved two of the most crucial communication platforms for refugees traveling to Europe, as they only require Wi-Fi to function.  Getty Images

Facebook groups in particular have played a large role in all stages of traveling to Europe, from planning, to navigating, to finding ways of integrating upon arrival. Refugees who enter the EU through Greece and want to settle in Germany, for instance, have to cross through several countries, usually Slovenia or Croatia, to arrive at their final destination. People fear being intercepted by the police and forced to stay in one of the transit countries, pushing them to cross borders illegally. Word of mouth, often through Facebook, allows people to communicate where and when to cross. Some smugglers have even used Facebook to contact refugees directly to hawk their services in crossing borders. 

Some of this border crossing information has led to dangerous navigation mistakes, said one policy expert for the International Rescue Committee. The information about how to evade border police, though often false, has directed some refugees to wade through cold waters or walk through areas in Eastern Europe that contained land mines.

"Part of what we need to do is stop the rumor-spreading that leads people to take dangerous routes," Sanjayan Srikanthan, a policy expert for the nonprofit, said.

Refugees stand behind a fence near Horgos, Serbia, at the Hungarian border, in September. A lack of good information on borders and a general fear of police led to chaos in Hungary throughout much of August and September as thousands of refugees tried to cross through the country, leading one Hungarian couple to create an app for refugees that sends information alerts in real time.  AFP/Getty Images

New App Creation Closing Information Gap 

To combat the issue of poor information, several European companies and individuals have created apps to facilitate travel and integration for asylum-seekers. One Hungarian husband-wife team invented InfoAid, an app that provides accurate information for refugees on the move in their native language.

"It was not much help to get a sheet printed in Hungarian for someone coming from Syria," said Nina Kov, one half of the husband-wife duo, noting the cultural and linguistic divide between the government and the refugees.

The app works in several languages, sending out updates from reliable sources on the ground in various transit countries, providing up-to-date information on border closings, bus departures and other basic alerts, such as where to find potable water. The information is verified by researchers and sent out to refugees in SMS alerts. The app has spread to Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, with at least 1,000 downloads per day since it was released in September.

"We wanted something that could build some kind of trust between us and the refugees," said Enys Mones, the Hungarian-born programmer who coded the app. Mones said he catered to the asylum-seekers' needs in order to restore some of the trust that was lost after refugees were purposefully or accidentally misled by Hungarian authorities. In one well-documented case in September, Hungarian police told refugees they were boarding a bus for Western Europe, only to transport them to a nearby detention camp.

Mones said he first coded the app as he would any other, where users were prompted to put in basic information including full name and other details in order to register. Refugees arriving without legal status in Europe were wary of inputting personal data, however, and he soon changed the program to give them more security. 

"We thought that if information is told in an appropriate way and in their own language, and if they trust this information, we can somehow avoid some of the troubles and unfortunates scenes," he said.

Refugees recharge their mobile phones at a makeshift camp known as the "New Jungle" in Calais, in northern France, in September.  AFP/Getty Images

The International Rescue Committee last week launched a website similar to InfoAid in partnership with Google to combat the problem of poor information and provide facts in Greek on everything from emergency housing to transportation. Apps have also been used to connect people in need with humanitarian aid, especially in countries such as Germany or Austria that have some of the highest volumes of asylum-seekers in Europe, with Germany anticipating as many as 800,000 applications for asylum before the end of the year.

For refugees who want to settle in Germany, apps exist for everything from finding housing to applying for asylum. Many of these programs were advertised on different platforms and weren't very well integrated, however, meaning aid organizations couldn't find the people they were meant to help, and vice versa.

Place/Making, a German technology company, responded to this need by creating InfoCompas, a website that serves as an interface for these programs. "It's a meta-structure approach," said Jan Lindenberg, a partner in the company. "There were all these different, very interesting projects coming up in the last month, but we also noticed that there was not one infrastructure showing all these programs in an organized way," he said.

The site sees a few thousand hits a day and is looking to expand, with the municipal government in Berlin aiming to integrate InfoCompas into its own welcome sites for asylum-seekers. "There was this kind of social entrepreneurship before," said Lindenberg, "but now, the refugee topic, it's opening a new group of applications."

Social Media Misconceptions

Despite all of the practical benefits of bringing a smartphone on the journey to Europe, some social media users have criticized their prevalence, arguing that if Syrians are rich enough to have cell phones, their situation can't be that dire. Policy experts have slammed this idea, arguing that a cell phone is perhaps the single most useful object to bring.

"It really does have a more practical purpose than it does for teenagers in high school, because they are sending a message to people back home or in camps," said Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, assistant international director for the Migration Policy Institute, a U.S. think tank.

In one situation a young Syrian used WhatsApp, a free communication app, to call the Greek coast guard after the smuggler's boat he was on began to sink, Banulescu-Bogdan said Thursday. He was able to give the coast guard the boat's coordinates in the Aegean Sea, effectively saving the dozens of people on the sinking boat with him. 

"These are lifelines for people, they aren't toys," she said. 

Source: Refugee Crisis Europe 2015: How Syrians Are Using Smartphones To Travel Through Western Europe

Europe in the Fall: The Must-Visit Destinations

There are many reasons to choose Casa Camper, a stylish modern hotel located in a 19th-century Gothic tenement building. Firstly, the rooms: sleek and minimalist, they all either look out onto the street or onto a vertical hanging garden. Then there's the free 24-hour lobby snack station, regularly replenished with sandwiches, soups, salads, and pastries. The hotel also has a green philosophy that entails using solar energy and recycling water whenever possible. Lastly, the hotel's in-house restaurant is run by Albert Raurich, formerly of El Bulli, and his Asian-influenced tapas are exquisite.

Source: Europe in the Fall: The Must-Visit Destinations

Top UK and Europe destinations for summer 2016 revealed

Turkey, Slovenia and Malta are the up-and-coming summer destinations for Kiwis travelling to the UK and Europe in 2016, according to House of Travel.

Data released from Statistics New Zealand last week showed the European countries with the biggest growth in New Zealand leisure travellers between April and September this year were Austria, Slovenia, Malta, Poland, and Turkey.

More than half of Kiwis travelling to UK and Europe visited the UK, with 70,260 listing the UK as their main destination. France came next with 12,860 leisure travellers, closely followed by Italy with 12,020, Germany with 7,480 and Spain with 5,760.

House of Travel Commercial Director Brent Thomas says Kiwi leisure travellers appreciate European destinations that have some parallels with New Zealand, but with more information available and more airlines to travel with, we are becoming more adventurous in where we travel to.

"Key destinations such as the UK, It aly and France continue to be hugely popular with Kiwis, but we're seeing growth in other European countries too. Growth in leisure travellers to Turkey has been exponential in 2015, and Slovenian visitors tripled between 2014 and 2015," he says.

"We put this down to synergies between these countries and New Zealand. Turkey's popularity is a direct result of the Gallipoli 100 year commemoration, while Slovenia is an outdoorsy destination with stunning scenery - reminiscent of New Zealand. We're expecting to see continued growth in Kiwis travelling to both these destinations.

"Kiwis also tend to travel back to destinations they know and enjoy. Italy is a long-time crowd favourite, but we are now looking to travel past the well-known parts of Italy and enquiring more about the Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Italian neighbours such as Malta.

"In general, parts of eastern Europe are gaining momentum off the back of the incredibly successful cruise market. We're seein g a trend of Kiwis flying in to Amsterdam and cruising down to Budapest, then exploring countries nearby."

Mr Thomas says this time of year is when Kiwis move from dreaming about travel to planning and booking their trips for 2016.

"All airlines are now in market with their early bird flights for next year's UK/Europe summer. Our research shows it is around now that Kiwis begin firming up their plans for 2016 travel and booking flights," he says.

"139,100 Kiwis travelled to UK/Europe for the European summer this year, and we are expecting that number to continue to grow. We have introduced a UK & Europe 2016 Club for customers to unlock exclusive deals as a direct result of the number of Kiwis travelling to the UK and Europe each year.

"We have more information and more options for travel than ever before - the distance between New Zealand and the UK is becoming less and less of a barrier for travel."

House of Travel is the largest New Zealand own ed and operated retail travel company, with 73 stores throughout New Zealand, from Kerikeri in the north to Invercargill in the south.

For more information on the UK & Europe 2016 Club deals, visit www.houseoftravel.co.nz/the-club.

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Source: Top UK and Europe destinations for summer 2016 revealed

Etihad Airways wins injunction to continue Airberlin codeshare

Etihad Airways, welcomed the ruling by the Administrative Court of Braunschweig allowing it to continue operating all its codeshare flights with airberlin to destinations in Europe, the US and the UAE.

The injunction, which is valid until 8 November, provides an opportunity for the parties to resolve outstanding differences through ongoing consultation between the Governments of the United Arab Emirates and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Etihad Airways as well as Airberlin will continue to honour all flights and passenger travel arrangements will remain entirely unaffected.

Etihad Airways applied for the injunction to help protect the German carrier's 8,000 employees and provide the passengers who have booked more than 82,000 journeys with clarity and confidence.

The airline was forced to launch this legal action as Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure had still not approved Etihad Airways codesharing on the airberlin ser vices during the IATA Winter 2015/2016 schedule, which begins in just two days' time on 25 October 2015.

Etihad Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan, said: "The failure by the German Government to approve the codeshares in time, would severely, and possibly terminally, damage airberlin, Germany's second-largest airline, of which Etihad Airways owns 29.2 per cent.

"The codeshare routes in question, including flights to our hub in Abu Dhabi, were among 65 previously approved by Germany's civil aviation authority, the LBA, and a key reason that we invested in Airberlin.

"Since 2012, our codeshare partnership has enabled more than two million passengers to connect between the networks of both airlines, and contributed 252 million euros to Airberlin's earnings.

"Etihad Airways has delivered 1,365,487 passengers to Airberlin, while Airberlin connected 645,157 passengers onto flights operated by Etihad Airways."

Since 2012, th e LBA and the Ministry of Transport have approved seven Etihad Airways schedules, including all of the codeshares with airberlin, on the basis of the Air Services Agreement signed by the UAE and Germany in March 1994 and the Agreed Minutes and Revised Route Schedule signed in June 2000.

A dispute arose in August 2014 because of a unilateral change of opinion by the Ministry of Transport, concerning the codeshare provisions of those bilateral agreements.

Hogan said: "In addition to the damage it would cause to airberlin, the withdrawal of approval for codeshare services on 29 routes would critically reduce consumer choice within and beyond Germany, and cause massive inconvenience to passengers, including during the peak Christmas and New Year travel periods.

"More than 82,000 journeys have been booked on these flights during the next six months.

"The social and economic damage to Germany by this decision would be even greater.

"By suddenly disallowin g established and legitimate codeshare flights, the Government will endanger the jobs of 8,000 people directly employed by Airberlin, and many more jobs provided by the airline's suppliers and business partners in affected destinations."

Hogan said Germany's economic links to many countries would also be seriously damaged if Etihad Airways was forced to end the codeshare agreements with Airberlin.

"Connectivity will be lost or diminished to a range of destinations throughout the Middle East, Indian sub-continent, Asia and Australia, as these codeshare flights are directly linked to Etihad Airways' services beyond Abu Dhabi," Hogan said.

"Business people, tourists and families travelling between these destinations and Germany will be faced with less choice and higher costs," he said.

Wam

Source: Etihad Airways wins injunction to continue Airberlin codeshare

Illegal migrants risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe

Although they all have different stories and come from different countries, illegal migrants who make the mostly dangerous and risky journey from Turkey's Aegean coasts aim to make it to the same destination, Europe, with the hope of establishing a new life with better living standards and freedom.

As a Sunday's Zaman photojournalist, I joined some of these refugees during their 10-day-long journey from the popular Turkish holiday resort town of Bodrum on the Aegean to Budapest to experience the reality first-hand because, due to the large refugee influx from Syria which has been suffering from a civil war that has left millions of Syrians displaced since 2011, refugees are a much-discussed topic all around the world.

Tovarnik, CroatiaRefugees walk through cornfields to reach Croatia from Serbia in the wee hours of the day.

Most of the people taking the risky journey, full of many hardships, from Turkey to Europe are refugees who have fled conflict and upheaval in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. Not all of them manage to reach their destinations, though, because hundreds of refugees tragically get drowned in the waters of the Aegean Sea due to the unsafe journeys they take in inflatable boats.

Yet, these tragedies do not deter others from daring to make the same treacherous journey, and they even pay a lot of money to human smugglers who promise to take them to Europe.

Currently, there are around 2 million refugees in Turkey, according to official figures, and this country has the highest number of Syrian refugees in the world. Turkey has followed an open-door policy and has established modern refugee camps for the migrants, but not all of them are living in those camps.

Although Syrians are allowed to live in Turkey for an unlimited period of time, most of them are leaving the country due to the high cost of living here and a lack of educational opportunities for their children.

They may have set out for different reasons, but they all want to get to the same place: Europe. Austria, Germany and other European countries mean the beginning of a new life for them.Wars, massacres, unemployment and poverty: all these have made their homelands unlivable. Many of them pass through Turkey while on this journey towards peace, food and freedom. Refugees from Asia, the Middle East and Africa go through Turkey, sometimes staying only for a little while, sometimes for years, but always aware that the road they face as they leave Turkey is both dangerous and difficult.

Many of these refugees pay human smugglers large sums of money to board boats on the Aegean shores, headed for Greek islands. The young, the old; they all set sail, someti mes for what winds up being a deadly voyage. Some ride in inflatable rafts, others in broken-down motorboats; there are definitely no safety precautions on these vessels. If they can make it to places like Kos, Chios or Lesbos, they are registered there by the local police and then they take ferries to Athens. From the Greek capital, these refugees leave sometimes on foot, sometimes by bus and other times by train, hoping to make it all the way to their final destinations.

It is a journey that can last from between 20 and 40 days, and it is one that we spent 10 days on, along with some refugees on this route. We had the opportunity of hearing refugees yelling "I'm finally free!" on the shores of Kos, an important turning point in this journey, which for some refugees is thousands of kilometers. From Bodrum to the shores of Kos, from Thessaloniki to Belgrade, and then all the way to Budapest, we travelled with these refugees as they sought a path to Europe from wherever the y had come.

Hope… A new life, longing for a new personal world… Whether people are fleeing from wars, massacres, oppression, hunger or poverty, it doesn't matter: When they leave their former homes, they pray their journeys will lead them towards new lives with new hope in other places. Perhaps the most dangerous part of the journey for these refugees who come from all over the world is the Aegean Sea. The most common mode of departure from Turkish shores on the Aegean is by rubber dinghies or inflatable boats heading for either Kos or Lesbos. When they step onto the shores of these Greek isles, they at least know they've left the most difficult part of their journeys behind them.

We heard the story of Syrian Huda Matar, 24, who left Bodrum along with 23 other people, including his wife, after giving smugglers $1,400. Wiping tears of fear and perhaps relief from his eyes, he described the terrifying hours spent getting to Kos, including the moment when the Turkish Co ast Guard had to pull their boat onto rocks to save it after it was capsized by waves. Matar, who is from Damascus, said: "We couldn't even think about returning by that point. Because there is nothing for us to return to anymore."

Later, I encountered Matar and his wife for a second time during their journey, this time in the Serbian refugee camp at Preshova some 1,300 kilometers from where I first spoke to them on Kos. He told me that for them, Syria was finished as a country but that they hoped to return to Turkey some day in the future. He also related how after the clashes began in Syria, they had made their way to the Turkish city of Mersin and from there to Kayseri, where Matar had worked in the organized industrial zone for nine months trying to save money for this difficult journey. Matar noted that while Turkey was a good country, it was too difficult for refugees, saying: "There are neither rules nor laws. My wife and I couldn't even get legally married there. We were told that if we wanted to open a bank account, we needed $6,000. But how could refugees have that much money to begin with?" This was a new test put before Matar, who had already had a nightmarish previous few years.

The one-kilometer stretch of shoreline that lies near the Kos Police Center is littered with partially ruined rubber dinghies, tipped-over boats, life vests, clothing and shoes. Perhaps more noticeably, the shoreline is also dotted with tents and tired refugees. Everyone here looks absolutely worn out. The first signs that the exhausting journey towards Europe might be nearing an end are experienced here, on this shoreline. When they wake up here, they can see the Turkish coastline in the distance, the bridge between where they came from and where they hope to be heading. Some of these refugees used Turkey only as a transit point, while others stayed for years in Turkey. Most actually have spent some time in Turkey -- whether months or even years -- and many of them already speak Turkish by the time they reach the Greek shoreline. Everyone has their own unique problems, but the reasons for leaving both Syria and Turkey are quite similar: war, unemployment, too much work for too little pay, poverty, hunger and the high cost of living...

In the part of the journey for which we were present, going from Kos to the gateway of Europe, there were only two people in the group who had very different stories. One of these was 35 year-old Pakistani refugee Hussein Han, who told us he was happy with life in Turkey and would have preferred not to leave. With his wife and child, he waited in a tent on the Kos shoreline for 10 days before taking off for Athens on a ferryboat. He told us he had worked for three-and-a-half years in Turkey, noting that "my boss' name was Cebrail Orhan, and he was a fantastic person." He earned TL 1,800 a month and even got Bayram money as well. He added: "My boss even gave me 500 euros for this trip. Ce brail Bey is a Kurdish man from Diyarbakir. He never treated me any differently than the other workers. He was always so careful not to mistreat us." He also noted that he was sorry he didn't get the chance to thank his boss more for all he had done to help him, telling us that "Cebrail Orhan from Diyarbakir always reads your paper, so make sure you mention his name and he will see it." What was the reason that this family of three from Pakistan finally left Turkey, though? The high cost of living in Turkey. Hussein notes that "the poverty drove us under. We got ever poorer in Turkey." They headed out onto the road, knowing that in Turkey they had no health insurance and no path to education for their child, hoping for a better life somewhere in Europe.

Lots of work in Turkey, but no money

The most common complaint we hear from these refugees, many of which have worked in Turkey even if only temporarily, is about the cheap wages that are paid here. Fehim Han from Pakistan, who is now 5,000 kilometers from his homeland, notes, "Sometimes we would work for 40 days but only get paid for 30 days, or sometimes not at all." He continues to say that "I got paid regularly since I was working at a market, but some of my friends did not." Waiting in line for food under the cool shadow of a pine tree along with 19-year-old Bilal Hasan and Shakir Han, Fehim Han tells us that he is one of those rare refugees who didn't give any money to human smugglers. He says: "Along with five of my friends, we bought a dinghy for TL 1,200, and got ourselves to Kos without paying anyone. I've been here now for 20 days, and this evening, I'm getting on a ferryboat for Athens."

Fehim Han lines up with other refugees to bathe using the faucet opened specifically for their group on the shoreline; sharing with us how happy he and the others are that so many Europeans have volunteered to help them with food and other urgent needs. One of the most unexpected surprises he has encountered, he tell us, is that one volunteer even offered to iron his shirt; this was definitely something he did not think would happen during this difficult journey.

The moment refugees set foot on the shoreline of Kos, they step back and take a look around them. We meet 18-year-old Pakistani Ayse Kamil. She tells us her story, at least the part that took place in Turkey, noting that while she and her husband worked up to 12 hours a day there, the most they could earn in one month was TL 1,900. She notes: "Here, people live like humans. They work eight hours a day, but they have time to rest, to enjoy themselves." Kamil says that in Turkey she worked in a shoe factory and that at least she earned an extra TL 100 lira a month, as she had more experience than others. She says h er mother and older brother stayed behind in Turkey but that she is preparing to get on a ferryboat for Athens that evening and is impatient to get going.

Volunteers help refugees with their health problems

When these refugees arrive in Kos, they are registered by the local police and later sent on to Athens. While they stay on the island, the refugees' various needs are met by international volunteers who have come from all over the world to help out. Island locals also pitch in to do what they can. Some islanders don't have that much to give, but stop by with fresh fruit and vegetables from the local markets. Bananas are passed out by volunteers here. Some even bring used furniture to help out, hoping that when the temporary guests leave, they do so with good feelings about where they stayed for a while. As for the volunteers who come in from abroad, they do what they can, according to what their professional training might be. We meet Swede Anna Wernerliv and her Dutch friend Liesbet De Bouck, who work day and night to attend to refugee needs. Many of the refugees are in need of medical care; some are children. Volunteers do this, but they also help out with basic things like food lines and making sure everyone has clothing.

Friday afternoon prayers more crowded now in Greece

Most of the refugees we encounter in Kos are from Muslim countries. When they see the mosques on this island, leftover from the Ottoman years, they find it all very familiar. The senior imam at the island's Defterdar Mosque is Mehmet Şakiroğlu, who can't hide his pleasure at the fact that Friday prayers are now more crowded than they've even been due to the refugee presence.

Şakiroğlu, who recalls times in the past when there weren't even three people at Friday prayers, meaning the prayers couldn't be held, says "My son, when the refugees came, our mosque was enlivened again!" Born in 1937, Şakiroğlu is one of this mosque's two imams and has been here at his job now since 1969. The müezzin for this mosque is Süleyman Kavakçı, who also works as a municipal janitor. He notes that the excessive number of refugees on the island has created some cleaning problems, but that municipal janitors are working overtime to try and help.

Bodrum coach station

Refugees who live in a tent near the Bodrum coach station are looking for ways to immigrate to Greece.

Be quiet, the summer people are still sleeping!

It is only a few kilometers from Bodrum, which is one of Turkey's most famous summer spots, to Kos. The trip, when made by fast ferryboat, can take anywhere between 25 and 45 minutes. But of course, when a rubber dinghy filled with too many refugees makes this same journey, the conditions are different and it can last four or five hours, sometimes longer. The moment the exhausted refugees step onto the shore in Kos, though, screams of joy can be heard and suddenly all the difficulty washes away. The captains of these dinghies tend to stop their motors before the boats get to the shoreline, and so furious rowing starts as the refugees approach. Recently, when two dinghies carrying some 50 Iraqi refugees arrived at Kos, the shouts of "Freedom!" coming from the group prompted officials on duty to warn them to be quiet, as summer residents were still sleeping in their homes.

Kos is like a transfer headquarters now

At times, some 700 refugees a day arrive in Kos. The Greek government is now using the island like a sort of transfer headquarters for these voyagers. When leaving Bodrum, the refugees often use the Bodrum shoreline that lies between Ortakent-Yahşi and Turgutreis Mahallesi. The spot where they meet up with human smugglers prior to this is at the Bodrum Bus Station. In the meantime, in the marketplaces in Bodrum you can find all sorts of rubber dinghies, life vests and any other thing you might need on the high seas, though at incredibly high prices. It should also be noted that the general lack of hygiene at the Bodrum Bus Station opens the way to a whole new host of possible health problems for these people in transit. One local merchant who sells single cigarettes to the refugees notes: "They are all dirty. When they hand me money, I go wash my hands." Though his words are tough, this man actually helps some refugees; to wit, he has even hired an Iraqi to work as a guard fo r his business. It is also notable that the lack of portable toilets and running water facilities in Bodrum means that many of the refugees are also now using the bushes outside the city bus station to take care of their essential bathroom needs.

Migrants trekking from the Macedonian border to the northern border with Serbia.

A long journey to an unknown land; babies and grandfathers together Gateway Macedonia

After refugees arriving in the Greek islands have local people register them, the next step is a ferryboat ride to Athens. From the Greek capital, the next leg of the journey takes them to northern Greece, to the Idomeni border crossing, which is the gateway to Macedonia. Here, they are not allowed to use the same border crossing point that travelers with passports and visas use. Instead, they gather in a designated spot, waiting to be registered and then sent down a specially opened corridor to the next country and its police force. We encounter 18-year-old Gita and 22-year-old Hamid Qabadi with their tiny 2-month-old baby girl Benazir waiting in line at the Idomeni crossing point, unaware of much that is going on around them except for their own journey. The family apparently set out when their baby girl was just one month old. When we ask why they are traveling and what they are traveling for, the father Hamid, who is from Afghanistan, points to his baby girl, saying, "For he r future, so she can have a good life."

In the meantime, there is also the 17-person Caferi family from Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, with young and old members all finding the same difficulties on the road. First, this family traveled from Iraq to İstanbul, where they stayed in a hotel for some 20 days. After a tough sea journey from the Turkish coastline to Greece, they made it up to the border with Macedonia. When we ask them why they are on the road, the answer is: "There is an explosion every day in Kirkuk. There is terror every day. There is no peace, no serenity… Why shouldn't we set out for somewhere else?"

Iranian Leyla Sarayi, who is a teacher, is another who has set out on the road, with her husband. She explains, "We are looking for freedom."

Sarayi notes that their dreams for when then get to Germany are quite specific, but they are also big things, "Let there be work; let there be freedom and if we also had a child it would be wonderful!" She wipes away tears while saying this and her husband holds her hand and tries to comfort her.

Telephone calls from the border with Macedonia

After the refugees leave Greece behind, their first stop in Macedonia is the border town of Gevgelija. This little town is around two hours from the capital city of Skopje; oddly, one of the first things you notice here is the prevalence of signs advertising dentists. As it turns out, it's because the most prestigious dental faculty in the Balkans is located here, and lots of people come here for cheap and good dental care.

At the same time, this means there are also lots of hotels and social facilities in Gevgelija. Of course, this doesn't mean much for the refugees. The first people to greet them when they cross the border are the itinerate vendors who sell water and cigarettes and who are always on the run from the police. After about one kilometer of walking, the refugees arrive at a temporary shelter set up near the train station. When they get to this center, the refugees are given packages of food, some blankets for the cold nights and clothing for those who need it. In the tents that have been set up here by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), it is the plugs for cell phones that are most sought after. Everyone wants to plug in their phone and call those they've left behind to let people know they are all right, healthy and moving forward.

During the night, families cluster at one side of these tents, while the young and the single stretch out on the other side. The cold of the Balkans is beginning to become apparent. The night air is pierced by the crying of a child. With summer coming to an end, the journey has become more difficult for these refugees. And the deeper the winter becomes, the more serious a trip it becomes. Official data from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) tells us that 224 Syrians trying to reach Europe from Greece have already died due to drowning in the Aegean this past year. And the statistics get even more shocking if you include all the refugees who have died trying to get t o Europe via the Aegean: 2,224. And if you expand this to include all the refugees who have died in all the water crossings over the world, the number shoots up to 3,840 this past year. Up until now, around 500,000 refugees have made it to Europe. And nearly half of them are Syrian; 200,000. The number of refugees who entered Greece in 2015 is 340,000. And those who do make it here do so with the knowledge that the road ahead of them is still long and difficult.

A Syrian toddler, despite making it to Europe, lives in deplorable conditions.

A long road to an unknown country 'Do you hear me, Mother?'

There is no one visibly on duty at the Berkasovo crossing point between Serbia and Croatia, near the city of Sid. Volunteers from international agencies and citizens from the Czech Republic who have organized via Facebook arrive here to provide this mass of refugees with food, water and other urgent necessities. The police here show the refugees the way to get to another police station, another three kilometers or so of walking, and from there to the international refugee camp where they will be sheltered for a while. Walking in groups, the refugees pass through cornfields and agricultural farmland, some going from morning to evening trying to find where they are meant to go. We hear Kurdish musician Muhammed Hesso sing as he walks, "Do you hear me, Mother?Let the doctors and nurses come, MotherMy problem is big, MotherI am not free, how painful it is, Mother,Where are your white hands, Mother?"

Hesso tells us his story as he walks. "I composed that song. My family is from Al-Qamishli [northern Syria]. For five years I worked in Aleppo. I had three homes, three cars. I had loved ones. I had a country. But now?" He hits the ground with his hands. "Right now, this is my country. And tomorrow, somewhere else. No, actually, I have no country anymore… I have no mother, no father, no home. Actually, if you have money it's the same life, if you don't have money, still the same life. Maybe it's better like this," he says.

Hesso's dream is to make it to Berlin. To set up a new life there for himself. To start again, with the three children and wife he left behind. Maybe he'll continue with music, or maybe he'll do designing like he did in Istanbul for a year and a half.

Berkosovo, Serbia

Refugees who arrived at the Berkosovo border gate feel joyful after overcoming their weeks-long voyage from Syrian soils.

Suffering from hunger and thirst on the way to Serbian borders

A group of youths from the Czech Republic who organized themselves through Facebook, arrive to help the refugees at the border crossing. Jakup Kyr says: "This is actually the Serbian area, but there is no one from Serbia on duty, no police or border officials. The only people helping are some like us, and some from international agencies." These youths plan on being here for a few days to assist however they can.

One step left to freedom

The refugee camps in Croatia have tighter security than those in other countries. Journalists are not allowed into these camps. The refugees are first registered and then brought under tight security to train cars waiting at the Tovarnik train station. They head off now to either Austria or Hungary. Some of the refugees have been waiting for five hours at the train station and are hungry and thirsty. Complaints begin to rise from the crowds. People are surprised at one point when well-known Syrian composer Malek Jandali, dressed in a red jacket, starts to hand out food and drinks to the refugees while balancing himself on crutches. One Syrian at the train station notes: "I worked for one-and-a-half years in Istanbul's Ikitelli. I couldn't do it anymore, though; I headed for Bodrum. And from there, I made it here. Back in Syria, our homes were bombed, my younger brother died. There is no electricity, no water, no life in Syria. But life in Turkey, in Istanbul, is very difficult, very expensive. Everything is there, but it is so expensive."

Doctors, musicians, scientists

Jandali tries to calm everyone waiting on the train wagon through the night: "Just be patient, wait a little longer, there's only a little while left." This is the second time Jandali has headed out to try and help refugees. In 2012, he also visited refugee camps in Syria. This time, though, he's on a train wagon in Croatia, where men, women and children have been waiting five hours in the dark to move. He listens to their problems and tries to convey their questions and fears to officials. He says: "These people are my family. They are all my relatives. There are doctors, scientists, musicians on this train. There are journalists too. But we look at them, some look at them, and just call them 'refugees.' But they are people too."

Jandali is one of the first artists in Syria who began to openly oppose the regime, in 2011. He was actually living in the US city of Atlanta at the time, but the rest of his family was living in the Syrian town of Humus, which was caught in the crossfire of the civil war there. Jandali, who was only able to return to Syria for the last time in 2012, decided that his goal would be to help those who had set out trying to flee Syria for new lives elsewhere. These days, he is using all his energy and resources to try and draw attention to the crisis at hand, and in particular, to the fate of the children stuck on the road. He calls on people everywhere to donate to international agencies trying to help the situation. And his song "Ya Allah," which contains elements of both the Middle East and the West, draws attention to this war-torn country of his.

Jandali notes that Turkish treatment of the incoming Syrian refugees is something all Syrians are grateful for, and he expresses thanks for this.

These trains carrying the newest refugees towards the more western reaches of Europe start to move. The next border crossing will be into Hungary. Here, it is quiet and calm. But the tanks and soldier reinforcemen t in place at this border crossing give some important hints as to the security precautions in place. When the refugees arrive at the Mohaç plains, there is another cause for panic: there is a great deal of work under way here on these historic plains. Hungarian soldiers are busy installing sharp-wired fencing, undoubtedly the result of growing nationalist waves that have inspired Germany to announce that their borders are being tightened. Might this nationalism stop the flow from east to west that we are seeing now? It does appear that the journey from east to west, ultimately a journey of hope for so many of these people, is going to be tougher than ever in the coming times.

Refugees arriving at Budapest's Keleti train station are first registered by police, and then scramble to get on trains headed for Austria. Hadil, just 7 years old, cries as he looks for his mother and father and three siblings, lost in the crowds and chaos. After a while, when Hadil is unable to find t hem, it becomes clear that the rest of his family already left on the previous train for Austria.

(Graphic: Adnan Sarıkabak)

Source: Illegal migrants risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe

Germany toughens up asylum rules as migrants stream in

German will toughen up its asylum rules today, a week ahead of schedule, as it faces an unprecedented number of migrants arriving from Syria and elsewhere. The new bill, adopted by parliament at exceptional speed, had been expected to take effect on November 1. But it was published in the country's legal gazette yesterday, which means it will become operational today.

Peter Altmaier, the minister coordinating the government's asylum policy, told ARD television that the move was "a signal" to would-be asylum seekers. Germany has become Europe's top destination for refugees, most of whom travel through Turkey and the Balkans.

It is expecting to receive up to a million migrants this year, after around 200,000 in 2014. Chancellor Angela Merkel has attempted to rally Germans to the task of welcoming hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution. However she now faces a backlash for her open-door policy and has seen her approval rating fall in the process.

The new law seeks to restrict the right of political asylum to exceptional cases for nationals from Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. These three Balkan nations will be added to the list of "safe" countries, meaning their citizens will not normally be eligible for political asylum.

Furthermore the multiple cash allowances available to asylum seekers while their cases are being processed will be replaced by benefits in kind, in a bid to make Germany a less attractive destination for migrants.

In addition, expulsion procedures for those denied asylum will be accelerated. "We want to improve and we want to improve quickly, as early as this year, as regards expelling asylum seekers who do not the right to remain here," said Altmaier.

Meanwhile agreement appears to be emerging within Merkel's coalition government for setting up a string of "transit zones" on Germany's borders to allow would-be refugees who do not fulfil asylum criteria, such as economic migrants, to be moved out easily and quickly.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere spoke of "an agreement in principle" on the idea, while stressing that there were still details to be clarified. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), part of Merkel's left-right coalition, have long opposed the idea of refugee "camps" but have finally agreed to the scheme, while stressing migrants should be housed in existing buildings.

The SPD has had to take into account the growing unrest at the influx. The surge in arrivals has fuelled xenophobia and crimes against refugee shelters, including arson

Modified Date: October 24, 2015 5:23 AM comment
Source: Germany toughens up asylum rules as migrants stream in