Home Office data reveals impact of end of free movement and raises questions over Border Force hostility
The number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK since Brexit has increased fivefold, Home Office figures show.
In the first three quarters of 2019 just over 2,200 people from the EU were turned away at the border – compared with 11,600 in the first three quarters of 2023.
Continue reading...Wilders’ far-right party won the most seats in Dutch election, though many in this diverse city say they can understand why
In this tiny plaza, still plastered with posters urging voters to back the minority rights party Denk, the yawning divide between voters in Rotterdam’s diverse Feijenoord district was on full display.
On one side stood Nas Kosa, a Muslim who fears what might lie ahead after Geert Wilders’ far right, anti-Islam party surged to win more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s election.
Continue reading...Burials can go ahead of men who never returned from bombing mission over Germany in 1943
Eighty years after they were shot down by the Germans over Dutch waters, British airmen Arthur Smart, Raymond Moore and Charles Sprack can be laid to rest after the Dutch defence ministry confirmed their remains had been identified.
Two silver-plated cigarette cases were found with the initials of the 27-year-old flight engineer Smart and 21-year-old wireless operator Moore.
Continue reading...Talks begin with liberal leader warning people not to be fooled by Wilders’ ‘Mother Teresa’ act
The party of the Netherlands’ outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte, has ruled out forming a government with the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders, as coalition talks began following this week’s shock general election result.
Their decision removes the first building block of a potential partnership government with Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV), which caused a political earthquake after winning more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s vote.
Continue reading...Trade unionists from US and Europe stand with staff at Coventry hub over local pay dispute amid global day of action
Hundreds of strikers outside Amazon’s Coventry warehouse were joined on Black Friday by trade unionists from Europe and the US as part of a global campaign calling for better working conditions at the internet retailer.
Wearing orange beanie hats branded with the GMB union logo, activists from Germany, Italy and California, on strike at their respective Amazon workplaces, expressed solidarity with the Coventry strikers, who have taken 28 days of industrial action since January.
Continue reading...Drew Harris says radicalised people exploited ‘terrible crime’ of knife attack to unleash mayhem on streets
Ireland’s police chief has warned that far-right radicalisation will continue to disrupt the country after a night of arson, rioting and looting left parts of Dublin resembling a war zone.
The capital was tense on Friday as significant numbers of police remained on the streets and Dublin counted the cost of an anti-immigrant protest that turned into anarchy, leaving the political establishment shocked.
Continue reading...European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits
Dirty air killed more than half a million people in the EU in 2021, estimates show, and about half of the deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to the limits recommended by doctors.
The researchers from the European Environment Agency attributed 253,000 early deaths to concentrations of fine particulates known as PM2.5 that breached the World Health Organization’s maximum guideline limits of 5µg/m3. A further 52,000 deaths came from excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide and 22,000 deaths from short-term exposure to excessive levels of ozone.
Continue reading...Dutch general election results show how populist and far-right parties are advancing into political mainstream
Geert Wilders’ shock victory in the Dutch general election confirms the upward trajectory of Europe’s populist and far-right parties, which – with the occasional setback – are continuing their steady march into the mainstream.
There is no guarantee that Wilders, whose anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in Wednesday’s ballot – more than twice its 2021 total – will be able to form a government with a majority in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.
Continue reading...Two years on, families and refugee charities seek explanation and call for more help for refugees wishing to come to UK
The relatives of 27 people who died in the worst mass drowning in the Channel for decades have marked two years since the disaster by issuing an open letter demanding answers over what happened.
Signed together with dozens of refugee NGOs, the letter states that the families still have no explanation as to why French and British authorities failed the people onboard a sinking dinghy who repeatedly called for help.
Continue reading...Crowd chanting anti-immigrant slogans clashes with police hours after stabbing incident outside school
Buses and trams have been torched and a shop looted during riots in Dublin city centre after a stabbing attack outside a school left three children injured.
Police and politicians called for calm amid warnings against misinformation as violence escalated from a demonstration that began on Thursday afternoon at the scene of the incident.
Continue reading...Far-right leader also says he wants EU exit referendum, as other parties meet to consider joining coalition
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), has vowed to try to become prime minister and has said he is in favour of a referendum on the country’s EU membership after his party scored an unexpected and emphatic victory in Wednesday’s general election.
The PVV – whose manifesto included calls for bans on mosques, the Qur’an, and the wearing of Islamic headscarves in government buildings – won 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, more than double its previous number.
Continue reading...Arrival of hundreds of people at Finnish and Estonian borders claimed to be ‘fully state-orchestrated’ operation
Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.
Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.
Continue reading...Pedro Sánchez says all civilians must be protected in Israel-Hamas war and reiterates call for two-state solution
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has urged Israel to rethink its offensive in Gaza, telling its president and prime minister the number of dead Palestinians is “truly unbearable”, and that the response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks last month cannot include “the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children”.
Sánchez’s blunt pleas came during a visit to the Middle East with the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, during which he called for a peace conference and reiterated that the creation of a Palestinian state remained the best way to bring peace and security to the region.
Continue reading...Correspondence taken from 130 captured ships reveal details of the stories of seafarers and their families in the 1700s
A letter from a reproachful wife to the husband who seemingly abandoned her after travelling to the Americas, which remained unopened for nearly 300 years, is among thousands of papers from 18th-century Spanish ships captured by the British that are now being made available online.
Francisca Muñoz in Seville wrote to her husband, Miguel Atocha, in Mexico on 22 January 1747. The letter was among 100 others from Spanish women to their husbands detailing the emotional and economic challenges faced in their partners’ absences, and found on La Ninfa, a registered ship trading between Cádiz and Veracruz, Mexico that was captured by the notorious British privateer squadron known as the “Royal Family”.
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As the Netherlands – and European capitals – assess the unexpected outcome of the Dutch election, Geert Wilders is celebrating with cake.
The Austrian Freedom Party’s Harald Vilimsky said he is proud of his political friends, posting a photo with Italy’s Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.
Continue reading...As Seoul claims Russia helped Pyongyang carry out spy satellite launch, North Korea warns of stronger armed forces on border
North Korea has warned it will deploy new weapons and stronger armed forces along its heavily armed border with South Korea, as officials in Seoul claimed that Russia had helped Pyongyang carry out a satellite launch.
In a sign of rising tensions on the peninsula, North Korea said on Tuesday it would restore “all military measures” it had halted under a 2018 confidence-building agreement with South Korea.
Continue reading...Timothy Snyder argues that ‘dropping five more queens on the board’ would allow Ukraine to prevail
Ukraine has not reached a stalemate in its war with Russia because the west can help Kyiv by “dropping five more queens on the board”, according to an influential historian of eastern Europe.
Timothy Snyder, a Yale professor, argued that continuing high levels of military aid could allow Ukraine to prevail, in response to a recent interview given by Kyiv’s top military commander, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, suggesting that the war was deadlocked.
Continue reading...Council’s commissioner for human rights says some people prosecuted in the Hague for war crimes ‘return to their communities as heroes’
The failure of the countries of the former Yugoslavia to address their violent past has had devastating consequences for human rights and could ultimately lead to a return to conflict in the region, according to a new Council of Europe report.
The report, published on Thursday by the council’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović, said the region has been backsliding for many years on seeking justice and accountability for the brutal wars of the 1990s in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, which killed more than 130,000 people.
Continue reading...Proposed law to create ‘sovereignty protection office’ is designed to undermine opponents, civil society groups warn
Hungary’s leading civil society groups have accused Viktor Orbán of trying to “silence all critical voices” in the country after proposing legislation to create a “sovereignty protection office” investigating foreign influence.
For years, the Hungarian prime minister has promoted a narrative that external forces are trying to undermine his government and prop up his opponents.
Continue reading...The Irish PM has accused the party of trying to take away democracy through threats as press freedom organisations raise concerns
In Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin, is suing the national broadcaster RTÉ for defamation, while her husband, Martin Lanigan, is suing the author of a biography of McDonald. Chris Andrews, a Sinn Féin member of Ireland’s parliament, is suing the Irish Times and one of its reporters.
In Northern Ireland, Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Féin member of the Stormont assembly, is suing two media commentators. John Finucane, a Sinn Féin MP, is suing a unionist councillor over Twitter claims. Michelle O’Neill, the party’s deputy leader, recently sued another unionist councillor over a Facebook post.
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