Islamic invasion of Europe update (December 3, 2015)

Muslim invaders set up roadblocks in Europe

Migrants from Pakistan, Iran and other countries who Macedonian authorities are not allowing to cross into the country from Greece have set up roadblocks near the border, preventing refugees from crossing.

Groups of migrants on Thursday used empty barrels, pieces of wood and metal to make a barrier about 120 meters (feet) from the Greek-Macedonian border and are stopping all Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis from entering the area.

Macedonia has been allowing only people from the three countries to cross. The rest they consider economic migrants.

Scuffles broke out between migrants and refugees on the border earlier Thursday, and a refugee camp set up in the area was looted of food and water during the melee.

"Why aren't they allowing us to cross?" asked Eli, a 30-year-old Pakistani who has been living in Greece for six years and said he wanted to go on to Germany. "We're waiting until they open (the border). Why is there this discrimination going on? The border must either open for all or close for all." Eli would not give his surname for fear of reprisals for manning a roadblock.

Scuffles have broken out between migrants and refugees at Greece's northern border with Macedonia, after hundreds of people blockaded the crossing in protest because they were not being allowed to cross the border.

In recent days Macedonia has stopped allowing anyone except those from countries at war such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are considered refugees, to cross into the country from Greece.

Small groups of people from countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been blockading the crossing since Wednesday. On Thursday morning, groups of Afghans demanding to be allowed to cross scuffled with the protesters.

Greek police say there are around 2,500 refugees in the Idomeni border area who have been waiting in the nearby camp, and roughly 3,000 migrants.

Paris attacker 'recruited team' from Muslim migrants passing through Hungary

Vienna (AFP) - One of the "main organisers" of last month's Paris attacks travelled to Hungary where he "recruited a team" among migrants passing through, a senior Hungarian government official said Thursday.

"One of the main organisers of the Paris terror attacks was in Keleti station in Budapest, recruiting a team from immigrants who had refused to register with Hungarian authorities," said Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar, referring to migrants.

He then left "the country with them," Lazar told a regular news conference in Budapest.

Hungary

Hungary's prime minister says the country is filing a lawsuit against the European Union objecting to a mandatory plan to distribute migrants among members of the bloc.

Viktor Orban said the suit would be filed later Thursday at the European Court of Justice. The EU is looking redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers already in the bloc among its 28 countries.

Parliament last month approved legislation obliging the government to challenge the EU quotas, while Orban has repeatedly said that Brussels overstepped its authority when it approved the scheme despite opposition from a handful of mainly Eastern European countries.

Orban earlier also described the migrant quotas as "illegal, unreasonable and unfair" and said it was wrong to force countries to take in migrants against their will.

Robert Fico, the prime minister of neighboring Slovakia, said Wednesday that his country had filed its own complaint against the EU quotas.

Sweden struggles to house refugees as harsh Nordic winter looms

MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) - Plastic bags containing clothes and a few belongings are placed along the walls of a chilly, dimly-lit church in Malmo, Sweden, where 20 refugees from Syria and Afghanistan join around 30 Roma beggars seeking shelter for the night.

Donated sleeping mats and blankets make do for beds as they huddle up close to the radiators or on church benches.

This is the reality for some of those who come to seek a new life in Sweden - a self-styled 'humanitarian superpower' - as the record number of asylum seekers overwhelms the country's capacity to cope.

"Sweden is cold and this is not what I expected but I'm glad to be here anyway," said Tarek, a Syrian in his late twenties who spent nearly $3,000 on a three-week trek to Sweden. His wife and two children remain in Syria for now.

Sweden has taken in about 145,000 asylum seekers so far this year, more than any other European country proportionate to its population. They have been drawn by its generous asylum rules, its wealth and stability and reputation for social justice.

Refugees have mostly been met by kindness, but Sweden has also seen a wave of arson attacks on asylum centers. A sword-wielding man killed two people in a racist killing spree in October at a largely immigrant school in south-west Sweden.

Meanwhile, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats have surged in the polls to around 20 percent while the mainstream parties have moved to clamp down on immigration.

UK

British authorities say a Palestinian man suspected to be the leader of an organized criminal gang that smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe faces extradition to Greece.

The National Crime Agency says 26-year-old Jamal Owda will appear in a London court Thursday.

Owda was one of 23 suspects arrested in Britain, Greece, Austria and Sweden in early morning raids Wednesday. Authorities say the gang, based in Greece, is believed to have earned nearly 10 million euros ($ 10.6 million) since 2013 by charging migrants for transportation, forged documents and housing.

Owda was detained in a Liverpool asylum seekers' shelter.

Greece

Pressure is mounting on Greece to ensure better control of its borders and register arriving migrants or face the prospect that passport checks could be reintroduced for Greek citizens in Europe.

The European Union urged Greece on Thursday to step up controls on its sea and land borders, and EU interior ministers will discuss on Friday the state of border controls in the country.

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Thursday "there are a certain number of improvements that need to be done."

He said that "we have two weeks to make sure that this is seen, it's tangible, it's happening," before the Commission submits a report on borders and migrant movements to EU leaders on Dec. 17.

Some 600,000 migrants have flooded into Greece this year, many fleeing conflict in Syria or Iraq and who entered the country from Turkey.

EU's Frontex agency to help guard Greece-Macedonia border

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European guards will help Greeks manage their frontier with Macedonia, the EU border agency Frontex said on Thursday after a deal that addresses concerns in the bloc over Athens' commitment to control migration.

Other EU states had been piling pressure on Greece to accept help for registering and documenting migrants trying to head north across the Balkans towards Germany and other wealthy states, and had wanted to see a deal by the time interior ministers meet in Brussels on Friday to review efforts to stem migration flows.

Frontex said it would help to register migrants at the Macedonian border and would deploy more personnel there next week. Greek officials confirmed Frontex's role and insisted that Athens had not previously refused help.

"Migrants at Greece’s northern border will be checked and those found not properly identified will be registered," said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri in a statement that also noted that EU states had so far provided Frontex with only 447 of the additional 775 staff it asked for in October.

Pakistan refuses to accept some migrants deported by Greece, sends them back

Pakistan refused to allow 30 migrants deported from Greece to leave a plane at Islamabad on Thursday, a week after talks with the European Union to settle a dispute over forced repatriations.

The charter plane later took off with the 30 still aboard, though others that Pakistan deemed legitimate deportees were allowed to disembark.

A top EU official said last week Pakistan would stick to an agreement to take back citizens deported from mainland Europe, days after Pakistani Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said Islamabad was suspending a deal under which thousands per year are repatriated.

An estimated 50,000 Pakistanis travel legally to Europe for work each year. Last year, about 21,000 living there without permission were ordered to return to Pakistan, according to EU statistics.

But the Interior Ministry said the 30 arriving on Thursday were "unverified deportees".

"On the interior minister's orders, the FIA has not allowed these illegally deported people and the aircraft crew to leave the plane," the ministry said in a statement, referring to the Federal Investigation Agency.

"Despite having settled all issues with the European Commissioner, Pakistani laws have been violated, which absolutely cannot be allowed," Khan said.

He did not specify the reasons for not accepting the 30. Nineteen "verified" deportees were allowed to disembark, a ministry spokesman said.

The EU mission in Pakistan had no immediate comment on Thursday.

Clashes erupted on the Greek-Macedonian border on Tuesday when Macedonian riot police fired tear gas to repel up to 1,000 mostly Pakistani migrants trying to force their way across a newly erected border fence, a Reuters witness said.

Migrants later blocked the crossing for Syrians and others who would be let in as refugees. "If we don't cross, no one does!" they chanted. Police stood guard. Buses full of people who have landed elsewhere in Greece kept arriving.

So far, 886,662 people seeking safety have reached European shores this year, about four times the total in 2014, William Spindler, of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in Geneva this week.

Half of those arriving are Syrians fleeing war. The vast majority reaching Europe arrive by sea.