Category Archives: France

European Union, France, Germany, Government, Immigration, Italy, Politics

The desperate migrants’ route across Europe

EU IMMIGRATION

IN the freezing passes of the Italian Alps, migrants march slowly up an icy incline as they head for France.

The mountains have become an unlikely route for Africans looking for a new life across the border.

Thousands are thought to have tried to traverse the range over the last few months alone, wearing clothing that is unlikely to protect them from the extreme conditions.

Faced with the policies of Italy’s Right-wing government, asylum seekers who arrive by boat on the country’s Mediterranean shores have headed north instead to reach France.

From there they can move on to Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland and – ultimately, for many – Britain.

The latest route used by desperate migrants is increasingly coming to the attention of populist Right-wing political groups that have risen to prominence on the back of Europe’s migrant crisis.

Already, Italy has swung heavily to the right, with interior minister Matteo Salvini turning migrant boats away from harbours. Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has made stopping immigration a cornerstone of his philosophy, and young conservative Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called for an “axis of the willing” to strengthen borders. Anti-immigrant MEP Christelle Lechevalier – of the renamed French right-wing National Front, now National Rally – last week tried to make political capital out of African migrants crossing from Italy into France at the ski resort of Montgenevre.

Some 26 European nations are in the supposedly border-free Schengen zone, which makes it possible to cross between member states without border controls. But faced with the prospect of mass immigration, police at several border posts are increasingly turning away new arrivals and sending them back to Italy.

As a result, migrants are turning to mountain passes, ski resorts and hiking trails to avoid official checks.

Snow-free in the summer, the Alps are a far less dangerous hike. And even if migrants are caught and sent back to Italy, they can always try again.

Earlier this year there were reports of migrants using the Col de l’Echelle mountain pass into France through thick snowdrifts. At the end of their eight-mile journey, African migrants would simply knock on the first door they saw.

Up to half a million migrants are thought to be in Italy, despite the fall in the number arriving – usually from lawless Libya – in boats across the Mediterranean.

Widespread public reaction to Europe’s migrant crisis has prompted EU nations to belatedly close off entry points and movement routes (as well as proposed detention centres in the Med to process asylum applications). German chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the migrant summit agreement as a success, with its vague talk of promises of cash for Third World countries to help them control population flows and loosen proposals to tighten border controls within the EU.

But no European country, let alone any African one, has yet agreed to host a migration centre. Mrs Merkel’s firm grip on Germany, which she has led since 2005, has weakened in recent months. Interior minister Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian CSU party, was so incensed with last week’s deal that Mrs Merkel’s governing alliance was in serious jeopardy of collapsing. There were fears he was on the verge of ordering German police to start turning new arrivals away (in direct defiance of Mrs Merkel’s wishes).

Last Friday’s summit agreement failed to nail down any firm agreements on exactly how migrants arriving in EU countries on the Mediterranean coast could be dispersed elsewhere.

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Britain, France, Military, Syria, United States

Debrief: Syrian strikes on Assad’s chemical storage units

SYRIA

BRITISH military commanders were so concerned about Russian retaliation during the missile strikes on Syria that two RAF fighter jets were kept back at high readiness to guard the airbase in Cyprus.

As RAF Tornado GR4s flew to help launch cruise missiles against the Assad regime, two Typhoon fighters stayed behind, poised on the runway at the base in Akrotiri.

. See RAF Tornados to be withdrawn in 2019

British commanders feared Moscow could (and it remains possible) launch an immediate act of revenge and so kept the Typhoon jets at high readiness to scramble and shoot down any incoming missiles.

The Pentagon included the two jets in a list of assets that took part in the assault under the cover of darkness last Saturday, even though they remained at the British base.

The military operation unfolded early, with British, US and French forces co-ordinating extremely precise strikes on Assad’s chemical stockpiles.

At about 2am UK time, RAF warplanes helped wipe out a chemical weapons storage plant in just 120 seconds without even entering Syrian airspace.

Four British Tornado jets fired a total of eight Storm Shadow cruise missiles, each worth £750,000 at the Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage facility, 15 miles west of Homs. It was struck by a further 14 missiles fired by the French and the US and razed to the ground.

The RAF Tornados were protected by a further two Typhoon fighter jets that flew in escort to an area north of Cyprus designated as a ‘firing box’.

A total of three suspected chemical weapons facilities were hit by 105 missiles fired from warplanes and jets from the three allies.

The other facilities have been confirmed as the Barzah research and development centre in greater Damascus, which was hit by 76 US missiles, and the chemical weapons bunker facility at Him Shinshar – four miles from the storage facility – which was hit by seven missiles fired from French Mirage fighter jets. Rafale fighters from France were also involved in the operation.

Tornado GR4

RAF Tornado GR4s from Akrotiri in Cyprus launched Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Syria that has set back Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities by many years.

The mission was set in motion at 10:30pm last Friday in a telephone call between Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and his counterparts in Paris and Washington. The Prime Minister was then informed that the mission would soon be under way.

At 1am four Tornado jets and two Typhoon jets took off from RAF Akrotiri. They returned to base safely and landed at about 2:15am. Russia did not use its missile defence system to fire back, despite claims from the Kremlin it had shot down weapons in response.

It can also be confirmed that Syria fired 40 surface-to-air missiles but none of them hit the incoming missiles and most of them were fired after the last Syrian target was already destroyed.

In a Cabinet meeting held last Thursday, the Defence Secretary talked through the procedure and the efforts made into minimising the risk of civilian casualties and protecting troops.

Theresa May travelled to Chequers on Friday, where at about 11pm she filmed a video message announcing she had approved the mission. The RAF was then duty bound to act.

Mrs May’s video message was broadcast at 2:10am on Saturday, just after she received a call confirming RAF jets were back on the ground and safe.

Images seen showed the tense final preparations at Akrotiri before the operation was launched. One showed a Flight Lieutenant carrying a pistol holder and inspecting a missile attached to the wing of the Tornados.

Each GR4 was flown by a two-man crew drawn from the RAF’s 31 Squadron, known as the Gold Stars. These airmen form part of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing based at Akrotiri. Crews have been conducting air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2015. All eight British missiles found their targets.

Early indications suggest that President Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities have been set back many years. The target choices have been described as being ‘very methodical’.

 

THE USE of an Astute-class submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles was ruled out in the hours leading up to the strike. Despite this, Russia was duped into launching a naval operation to find a British attack submarine that was excluded from the mission.

It was decided that the Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the RAF Tornado jets were the best assets available.

However, intelligence suggests that one kilo-class Russian hunterkiller left its position at Tartus in Syria to find the British submarine. Two Russian frigates and an anti-submarine aircraft were thought to have also been pointlessly searching for it.

The final plans drawn up for the strikes did not include a UK submarine. The Russians were simply outsmarted.

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Britain, France, Russia, Syria, United States

Britain must now act against Syria’s regime

SYRIA

THESE are extremely dangerous times, more so than even during the years of the Cold War. Then, superpower tensions could be eased and constrained by hotline calls and summits such as those used to deliver arms reduction. The omnipresent threat of nuclear confrontation helped to concentrate the minds of the world’s leaders on peace not war.

Many of the old certainties have now gone with the complete erosion of the ideological battle-lines. These have been replaced with regional flash points, each with the potential to spill far beyond their own boundaries. The capacity of the Syrian civil war to draw other nations into its ghastly vortex has been apparent for some time. The risks are greater than ever.

. Related Lord Hague: We must act now to stop chemical warfare

The conflict now has NATO, Russia, Israel, Iran, Turkey (a NATO member but acting unilaterally and more in sync with Russia) and Saudi Arabia all involved to a greater or lesser extent, just at the very time when diplomatic communications with Moscow have irretrievably broken down for many other reasons – including electoral interference, cyber espionage and the chemical poisoning attack in Salisbury.

The apparent chemical weapons attack on Douma, a suburb of Damascus, has brought matters to a head. The U.S. had previously warned Assad to expect retaliation for breaching international law in this way and President Trump has already said there will be a heavy price to pay. He needs to make good on that threat otherwise it is meaningless. The American response needs to be surgical and proportionate.

It looks as if Israel has taken the opportunity to attack the Tiyas airbase in central Syria, which it has targeted before. This is by no means Israel’s first incursion into the civil war on self-defence grounds, but matters are complicated by Russian and Iranian backing for Syria’s despot leader. Tehran has already claimed that four Iranian nationals were killed in the raid on the airbase.

 

ON a visit to Denmark, the British Prime Minister said that, if chemical weapons were used, then the Syrian regime and their proxy backers must be held to account. But, how exactly? Russia denies a gas attack has even taken place and has threatened to retaliate if direct action is taken against Assad’s regime. With diplomatic missions being stripped down in the tit-for-tat expulsions of recent weeks, the scope for misunderstandings leading to a military clash is growing by the day. An end to the bloody civil war would clearly help calm matters; but, since Assad is winning, for what reason does he need to brook a political solution when he can use brute force to crush remaining rebel strongholds?

President Trump’s eagerness to pull out American forces has given the impression that the US has no long-term strategy for the region. Beyond pummelling ISIS and punishing Assad for breaching “red lines” over the use of chemical weapons, Washington does not wish to get involved in the Syrian imbroglio and Russia clearly knows it. The role of power-broker in Syria was ceded by Barack Obama in 2013 when he backed away from a threat to take military action in response to a sarin gas attack carried out by Assad’s air force.

America’s backtracking then was the baleful consequence of a vote in the British parliament against military action in Syria. Some may argue that Theresa May’s tough talking is unlikely to be backed up by British military action unless she can reverse that position.

It is telling, however, given this background that the first leader President Trump contacted to discuss the West’s response was not Theresa May but Emmanuel Macron of France, whom Washington presumably sees as a more reliable partner. France was also the lead country calling for the UN security council to meet to debate the Douma attack and its consequences. When Paris is the first port of call for an American president seeking an ally, the Syria conflict has shifted the balance of power in more ways than one.

Given the parlous state of UK-Russian relations, it might be tempting to let other European countries take the lead. But if the US and France are to act, Mrs May needs to ensure that the UK is not left on the sidelines unwilling to join in the punitive action she has rightly identified as being necessary.

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