This has been a Thursday 13 post [# 123] and is updated on some Thursdays.

ENDNOTES

(1):

Bills Insider, 29 Jan 2016,Sweden to deport 80000 asylum seekers, interior minister confirms

Sweden intends to expel up to 80,000 migrants who arrived in 2015 and whose application for asylum have been rejected, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said on January 27.

...

Finland meanwhile joined Sweden on Thursday in announcing plans to deport tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers. Norway last week began deporting asylum seekers to Russian Federation through the Arctic, while Denmark's new law enabling police to confiscate cash and valuables from refugees has drawn sharp worldwide criticism.

(2)

Jihad Watch, 6 Sep 2015, Muslim countries refuse to take Syrian refugees, cite risk of terrorism

Between 10 and 12 million Syrians have been displaced by the bloody civil war raging in their country. Most still remain within Syria’s borders, but around four million have fled over the borders into neighbouring countries, mostly Turkey Jordan and Lebanon, and beyond.

Lebanon, which has 1.1 million Syrian refugees, shut her borders to the Syrians in June of last year. Jordan, host to another 630,000, followed suit in August last year, preventing more Syrians from abandoning their country.

(3):

TheSleuthJournal, 4 Dec 2015, Saudi Arabia Refuses To Take Even A Single Syrian Refugee

While the United States and Europe argue over how many Syrian refugees to allow in, the richest Persian Gulf states have accepted exactly zero.

The Muslim countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council that include Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates steadfastly refuse to accept any Syrian refugees. Amnesty International, USA (AIUSA) tells The Daily Caller News Foundation they have not accepted a single refugee since the armed Syrian conflict erupted years ago.

(4):

Malta Today, 14 Nov 2015, Poland refuses to accept refugees after Paris attacks

Poland has said that it cannot accept migrants under new EU relocate quotas after the attacks in Paris on Friday, in a move that could seriously undermine Europe’s refugee policy.

In a commentary published in the right-leaning news portal wPolityce.pl on Saturday, Poland's European affairs minister designate Konrad Szymanski said that his incoming government disagrees with Poland's commitment to accept its share of an EU-wide relocation of refugees.

“In the face of the tragic acts in Paris, we do not see the political possibilities to implement [this],” he wrote.

(5):

Voice of America, HRW: Turkey Closing Border for Syrian Refugees

Turkey has all but closed its borders to Syrian refugees, according to a report by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. The group accuses Ankara of pushing refugees into the arms of smugglers as Russia intensifies its bombing campaign in Syria.

Human Rights Watch says Turkey has ended its open door policy of admitting Syrian refugees, and during the past few months has intensified its monitoring of unofficial crossing points for refugees.

(6):

The Guardian, 16 Oct 2015, Hungary closes border to refugees as Turkey questions EU deal to stem crisis

Hungary has closed its border with Croatia to refugees in a bid to block the path of streams of migrants desperate to get to northern Europe as a European deal to stem the crisis looked precarious.

After the last 1,500 or so migrants to arrive by train on the Croatian side trudged silently through mud over the informal Zakany crossing, Hungarian police and soldiers sealed it with barbed wire shortly before 1am (2300 GMT), said AFP reporters at the scene.

(7):

Time Magazine, 8 Sep 2015, Why Some Arabs States Refuse to Accept Syrian Refugees

In Egypt, state repression is part of what is compelling Syrians to risk the sea route to Europe. Following the military’s overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egypt demand Syrians apply for visas. Morsi’s Islamist government was sympathetic to the rebel cause in Syria, but the new military-backed regime is less sympathetic to Syrian migrants many more have been deported. Coinciding with a tide of Egyptian nationalism, Syrians reported being fired from their jobs, detained by police, and harassed by landlords.

Bassam al-Ahmad, an official with the Violations Documentation Center, a Syrian human rights group, said that tightening restrictions on Syrians’ entry across the region is helping drive the wave of migration to Europe.

(8):

International Business Times, 20 Aug 2015, Slovakia Refuses To Accept Muslim Migrants From Syria, Will Only Allow Christians

A Slovakian official said Wednesday that the country is prepared to accept only Christian migrants from Syria under a European Union relocation plan.

Interior Ministry spokesman Ivan Metik told the BBC that Muslim migrants wouldn’t be accepted, claiming that they “are not going to like it here." He added that Muslim migrants should avoid moving to the country, warning that they would find it difficult to integrate with the majority Christian population.

Slovakia is required to take in 200 Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece as part of an E.U. plan to resettle new migrants.