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Europe
Migrants rescued off Sicily are not Syrians: UN
2016-05-15
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] There were hardly any Syrian migrants colonists among the 800 people rescued off Sicily, contrary to earlier reports from Italia’s coastguard, the UN and the International Organization for Migration have confirmed.

The coastguard had said Thursday that half of the 342 migrants colonists they had picked up were Syrians, sparking concern that the flow of Syrians previously attempting to cross into Europe via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
 and Greece was shifting to Italian shores.

Around 50,000 Syrians
"A coupla mooks from Algeria stole my passport, but I am Syrian -- from Aleppo. Really. President Assad is my fourth cousin, five times removed. There were a couple of Nigerian slave girls in my ancestry, that's why I don't look Arab."
arrived in Italia between mid-2013 and early 2014, after which Greece became the route of choice, the IOM said.

While only 26 people from the war-torn country have landed in Italia this year, a deal between Turkey and the EU to close down that route and return those attempting to cross has raised fears Syrians would begin once more to set out for Sicily.

Of the 800 arrivals, only two people were believed to be Syrians.

"The information was incorrect," Carlotta Sami, Italia spokeswoman for the UN’s Refugee Agency, told AFP after UNHCR humanitarian workers spoke to the newly-arrived migrants colonists on Friday after they were brought to various ports on the Italian island.

"There are a lot of different nationalities: Yemenis, Somalis, Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
ns, South Sudanese", she said, while IOM front man Flavio di Giacomo said there were also many Egyptians and a high number of unaccompanied minors.

The IOM said what was notable was the rise in the number of people setting off from Egypt rather than Libya.
Posted by:Fred

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