German anti-Islam protesters slam 'dangerous' Merkel
DRESDEN (GERMANY) (AFP) - Germany's anti-Islam party PEGIDA stepped up its attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, slamming her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe" and demanding she resign.
PEGIDA leader Tatjana Festerling told a rally of thousands of supporters in the eastern city of Dresden that Merkel's policy of welcoming refugees had turned Germany into a "gigantic camp in the jungle".
Festerling, who came fourth in Dresden's mayoral elections in June with 10 percent of the vote, denounced Merkel as "irresponsible" describing her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe".
Germany, Europe's largest economy, is expected to take in up to a million people fleeing war and poverty this year, sparking anger among anti-foreigner groups and the PEGIDA movement ("Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident").
At the latest in a series of weekly rallies, Festerling accused Merkel of deliberately refusing to "protect Germany's borders".
Hungary Steps Up Arrest And Deportation Of Muslim Migrants
On a road weaving through a forest on Hungary's southern border with Serbia, police lie in wait.
Migrants who manage to squeeze through holes cut in a barbed-wire border fence and walk north eventually have to cross Route 55 — where Hungarian police are ready for them.
Backed by agents from Frontex, the European Union's border control agency, the cops stop dozens of migrants and refugees as they emerge from the forest. They point guns and shine bright lights into the faces of frightened Iraqis and Syrians.
The refugees, mostly men, are instructed to sit cross-legged in the grass, at the side of the road. Then police use dogs to corral them into a police van and take them to jail.
Officials say an average of 100 foreigners a day are arrested here. That number is relatively low because last month, Hungary sealed its Serbian border with a 10-foot-high fence topped with razor wire.
Migrants must now enter at official border crossings, with proper visas — or cut through the barbed wire and crawl through.
The chaos and confusion of Europe's migration crisis is perhaps best reflected here in Hungary, where treatment of migrants is drastically different depending on which border they cross, and how.
Hungarian troops are building a second fence along the border with Croatia, but that frontier is not yet closed — and some 6,000 migrants arrive there daily.
Migrants who enter Hungary from Croatia are the lucky ones: They get free train rides across the country and then cross into Austria on foot in less than a day.
It's an entirely different story on the Serbian frontier, where migrants are immediately arrested. Within a few days, most are put on trial at a special tribunal in the southern Hungarian city of Szeged. Each morning, groups of migrants climb out of police vans and trudge into the courthouse, under guard.
Instead of evaluating their asylum claims, Hungary puts these migrants on criminal trial, under a law that took effect last month making it illegal to breach Hungary's border fences. Migrants can be punished with up to three years in prison.
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Norway's PM wants to take in as many as 50,000 Muslim migrants
The prime minister of Norway says the oil-rich Scandinavian country would be willing to take its share in the European Union's relocation of refugees from countries hardest hit by the migration crisis.
Erna Solberg says non-EU member Norway has not yet decided how many people it will take.
Solberg says the number of asylum-seekers in Norway could reach 23,000 this year, up from previous estimates of 16,000. In 2016, it could reach 33,000.
Speaking before the Storting, or Parliament, she said Tuesday that should 40,000 to 50,000 people be granted asylum in Norway, costs over the next five years could be up to 50 billion kroner ($6.2 billion).
