Croatia: Refugee’s challenges
Sandra, a 23-year-old Syrian refugee has lived in Croatia for nearly two years. She has done her best to integrate into her host country - learning Croatian and attending university in Zagreb. Still she feels like an outsider. ‘From my experience, Croatian people will always treat me as a foreigner and you will always be 'the other’. It is not easy for me to deal with it every day. Some days I am OK with it, but most of the time I am sick of it.’ Social isolation she is experiencing, coupled with lack of job opportunities, have made Croatia an unpopular destination for people in need of protection. In 2014 the EU registered a rise in asylum seekers but Croatia saw a decrease of 58%. Many who escape Middle East and Africa don’t choose Croatia because integration into a homogeneous society that has very few migrant communities is very challenging. To read the rest of this article as it goes on to describe how NGOs are helping refugees in a new culture click on the ‘more’ link.
Bulgaria: US to deploy marine unit in effort to reassure NATO allies
A Marine Corps unit equipped with tanks, light armoured vehicles and artillery will be sent to Bulgaria as part of US efforts to reassure NATO allies worried by Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. Brigadier-General Norman Cooling, the deputy commander of the US marines in Europe and Africa, said on Thursday 2 July that 155 troops equipped with four Abrams battle tanks, six light armoured vehicles and three howitzers were scheduled to be deployed at the Novo Selo training area by early September. ‘It’s certainly our intent to convince the Russians and Mr Putin to refrain from aggression and return to the community of peaceful nations,’ Cooling said. The US defence secretary said that more US military equipment would be positioned in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Germany as NATO seeks to bolster its forces in Eastern Europe.
Bosnia: The cradle of modern jihadism?
In the 1990s something happened in central Bosnia-Herzegovina that inspired people to this day and helps explain why that country now has more men fighting in Syria and Iraq (over 300), as a proportion of its population, than most in Europe. The formation of a ‘Mujahideen Battalion’ in 1992, composed mainly of Arab volunteers in central Bosnia, was a landmark. Today the dynamic of jihad has been reversed and Bosnians travel to Arab lands. ‘There is a war between the West and Islam,’ says Aimen Dean, who, as a young Saudi Arabian volunteer, travelled to fight in central Bosnia in 1994. ‘Bosnia gave the modern jihadist movement that narrative. It is the cradle.’
Belgium: Government rescues over 200 Christians from Syria
Over 230 people were taken out of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo and transported to Belgium where they have been granted asylum and can start to rebuild their lives. The Belgian government said the operation took over two months and happened in great secrecy. The refugees were mostly Christian and had faced human rights abuses in Aleppo. Once settled in Belgium, the government will help them rebuild their future. They’ll provide training in order to help them to find jobs. Theo Francken, Secretary of State for asylum policy and migration, said they will receive permanent protection status allowing them to rebuild a future in Belgium; adding, ‘the last thing they want is to be dependent on social security.’ The Belgian government has welcomed 5,500 Syrian refugees since 2011 and has provided asylum to 98% of all Syrians who request it.
