New batch of US-trained fighters enter Syria to fight ISIL: report

A group of 75 fighters, recently trained by U.S. and coalition forces in Turkey, have entered northern Syria to join the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a monitoring group reported on Sunday.

The fighters entered Syria in a convoy of a dozen cars with light weapons and ammunition, under air cover from the coalition that has been carrying out strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British human rights group, said on Sunday. 

"Seventy-five new fighters trained in a camp near the Turkish capital entered Aleppo province between Friday night and Saturday morning," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory, told Al Jazeera.

U.S. officials on Sunday did not issue an immediate response to the report. On Wednesday, Gen. Austin Lloyd, who oversees the U.S. campaign against ISIL, told Congress that four or five U.S.-trained rebels were fighting in Syria. On Friday his spokesman, Col. Patrick Ryder, told reporters that four more had re-entered Syria since Austin spoke.

Abdel Rahman said the new group of U.S.-trained fighters crossed through the Bab al-Salama border point, the main gateway for fighters and supplies heading into Aleppo province.

That supply route has been increasingly targeted by ISIL fighters seeking to cut off support to rival rebel groups who are also fighting against the Syrian regime.

Abdel Rahman said the group was deployed to support two other U.S.-backed units, with most assigned to Division 30, the main unit for US-trained fighters, and others to a group called Suqur al-Jabal (Falcons of the Mountain).

Before this new batch of fighters, the U.S.-led “train-and-equip” program had only managed to vet and train about 60 rebels to fight ISIL.

The $500 million program, based in Turkey, has been fraught with problems. More than a dozen of those already deployed with Division 30 have been killed or detained by the Nusra Front, an armed group affiliate with Al-Qaeda.

Some of the fighters have been released and returned to Turkey. The Nusra Front is still holding Nedim Hassan, the commander of the fighters who were detained in late July.

The Syrian Observatory also said that pro-government forces and opposition fighters had agreed to begin a ceasefire from midday on Sunday in three battleground districts.

The truce covers the two remaining Shia villages in Idlib province that are still in government hands and the opposition fighters' last stronghold near the Lebanese border, the town of Zabadani.

The cease-fire, the third such agreement negotiated since August, comes after intense fighting between rebels and pro-government forces in the areas, including at least seven suicide bombings in the villages.

But that truce didn’t stop the bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city by population. The capital, Damascus, largely remains in government control. 

At least 14 civilians, including seven children, were killed Sunday when rebels in Syria shelled a government-controlled neighborhood in the northern section of the city, the Syrian government said. The state news agency said the shelling took place in Aleppo's al-Midan neighborhood, once a center for the city's thriving Armenian community.

The Observatory also reported that 14 people were killed in the shelling, which it said took place early Sunday from a nearby rebel-controlled area. The group said government air raids on an adjacent neighborhood killed a child. The Observatory relies on a network of activists on the ground in Syria.

The group said civilians comprise at least 71,000 of the 220,000 people estimated killed in the Syrian conflict. Fighting began in 2011, as Arab spring protests spiralled into a rebellion across the country. 

Separately, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down, but not necessarily immediately, upon reaching a settlement to end the country's civil war.

Speaking after talks in London with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Saturday, Kerry said he was prepared to engage in talks to achieve a solution, but he questioned whether Assad was also ready to negotiate.

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Demographics, not xenophobia, inform EU asylum decisions

As Europe grapples with a refugee crisis that has seen 350,000 people enter the continent so far this year, the variety of responses from individual governments expose not just political differences but demographic ones too.

In recent days thousands of refugees have arrived by train, bus and car in Austria from Hungary —  the latest leg of a journey that for many involved climbing under razor wire fences or boarding unsafe boats. In many cases, the destination is Germany. Most come from Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea and are fleeing conflict in unprecedented numbers. 

Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Tuesday it would take in 500,000 refugees per year and is expecting to resettle up to 800,000 refugees this year. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has committed to taking in only an additional 4,000 refugees over the next five years by offering humanitarian protection to those living in camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon through established U.N. refugee agency channels, granting them temporary protection for five years rather than permanently resettling more people who have made their way to Britain. 

“Their argument is that you should discourage people from moving on their own,” said Susan Fratzke, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

The difference in approach is, in part, informed by the countries’ demographics. The U.K.’s working population is younger and is made up of a larger share of immigrants who have migrated to the country throughout the years, according to Carlos Vargas-Silva, an associate professor and a senior researcher at Oxford University’s migration observatory team. A 2004 decision by some EU countries, such as Germany, to temporarily bar immigrants from new members such as Poland — from which, many feared, lower-skilled laborers would flood European labor markets — from getting work permits has sent many to look for jobs in the U.K., where such provisions were not enforced.

“It means there is not the same aging of the population as in other EU countries,” Vargas-Silva said. “In other EU countries, having a younger labor force is a priority, and they are being more receptive.”

In the coming years, “Europe’s population will turn increasingly gray,” according to a 2015 report by the European Commission. Demographic trends in Germany mean that public pension expenditure will rise from 2 to 3 percent of the country’s GDP, among the highest levels of EU states, the report found.

Next to humanitarian considerations, Germany’s aging population helps explain officials’ enhanced willingness to resettle huge numbers of refugees, said Fratzke. The positive attitude toward migration is reflected in a recent employers’ push with the German government to invest in training programs, language classes and processes that would certify Syrian refugees’ skills acquired at universities abroad, she added.

“Many of the Syrians who are coming do have more education, and that’s something they’re really trying to capitalize on, to the extent that’s possible,” she said.

Having refugees join the workforce is regarded as key to offset the tremendous cost associated with providing shelter, food and education before they are granted asylum. A new EU-wide rule, passed in July, shortened the period during which they are not allowed to work, from a year to nine months, even if their application is pending, she added.

More EU countries are warming up to the idea of a mandatory resettlement quota to more equally distribute the burden — and benefits — of resettling refugees across member countries. Germany and recently France advocated for its swift adoption at the upcoming refugee crisis summit in Strasbourg, France, on Sept. 14.

“There has been a greater emphasis on the humanitarian aspects than the cost of asylum seekers,” Vargas-Silva said. "There is always going to be some opposition, but if you compare the attitudes now to six months ago, it’s going to be very different.”

With wire services

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EU nations told ‘no alternative,’ they must resettle 160,000 refugees

The president of the European Commission has called on EU member nations to take in 160,000 refugees, outlining a compulsory plan that would see people fleeing conflict resettled across the bloc.

State. Why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?” he said.

Noting that many Europeans were refugees at one time or another, Juncker continued, “It is high time to act, to manage the refugee crisis, because there is no alternative. No rhetoric — action is what is needed for the time.

In his proposal, Juncker wants member states to accept another 120,000 refugees, on top of the 40,000 already agreed upon, bringing the total to 160,000.   

He did not, however, release specific numbers that each EU member state must take. Member states have been split over how to deal with increasing numbers of people fleeing conflict and arriving in Europe, with many objecting to a quota system. 

Hungary in particular has been singled out by other member states — notably France and Germany — for what has been described as its harsh policy toward refugees. It is in the process of completing a 13-foot-high steel and barbed wire security fence along the entirety of its 109-mile border with Serbia in a bid to keep refugees out.

Last week Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his country “did not want a large number of Muslim people.”

Tackling such sentiment in Wednesday’s speech, Juncker said, “There is no religion, there is no belief, there is no philosophy when it comes to refugees. We don’t distinguish.”

Before his speech, Juncker released a statement offering better protection for refugees but also proposing to improve the EU’s frontier defenses and deport more “illegal migrants.” He also called for “a swift, determined and comprehensive response to the refugee crisis.”

Germany, which hosts the most refugees, has already backed the idea, as has Sweden, which takes the most refugees in relation to its population.

Italy, which is one of the main arrival points for thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean, is also in favor. France supports the plan, as does Spain, which AFP reported agreed to take in 14,931 refugees, as proposed by the European Commission, in addition to 2,749 who were accepted in July, bringing the country’s total to 17,680. 

Under the proposal, countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.

But the plan is expected to meet stiff opposition among the poorer EU nations in the east and south.

The Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have joined Hungary in saying that mandatory and permanent quotas would be unacceptable.

“The compulsory quotas are not a good solution,” Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in a statement. “To continue with a discussion about their establishment all across Europe only prevents us from taking really important and necessary steps.”

Czech State Secretary for European Affairs Tomas Prouza told Czech public television Wednesday, “We consider the quotas nonsensical. They don’t solve the problem.”

An estimated 400,000 refugees are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year, with many arriving in Greece, specifically the island of Lesbos, which has received almost 100,000 refugees this year.

In response to appeals for help from an increasingly strained Europe, Australia said it would take an additional 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq, and several South American countries also agreed to help, including Brazil and Chile. Venezuela said it would accept 20,000 refugees.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged greater flexibility in EU refugee quotas. Speaking alongside Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in Berlin on Tuesday, she said that all countries in Europe have to take responsibility for the values on which Europe was founded in dealing with the refugee crisis.

Germany, which has said it would take in 800,000 asylum seekers this year, would continue accepting “a greatly disproportionate share” among EU members “because we are an economically strong country,” the country’s Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Tuesday. He added that Germany was prepared to resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees in the years to come.

On Tuesday, EU President Donald Tusk warned that the refugee crisis affecting Europe was part of an “exodus” from war-torn countries that could last years.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has defended its response to the Syrian refugee crisis in the face of criticism that oil-rich Gulf states should be doing more to address the issue.

In a statement provided to The Associated Press, the UAE said it has provided residency permits to more than 100,000 Syrians who have entered the country since 2011 and that more than 242,000 Syrian nationals currently live in the country. 

In addition to the visa extensions, the UAE said it has provided more than $530 million in humanitarian aid and development assistance since 2012 in response to the Syrian crisis. Part of that aid goes to fund a camp in Jordan that houses more than 4,000 refugees.

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Pope Francis says Mass in Havana, hailing humanity over ideology

Pope Francis urged thousands of Cubans who filled Havana's evocative Revolution Plaza to care for one another, and not judge each other, as he opened his visit to the country amid great hopes that the key role he played in bringing about detente with the U.S. will result in changes on the island.

Believers and non-believers alike streamed into the square before dawn for Francis' Mass, and they erupted in cheers when history's first Latin American pope made his first drive through the crowd in his open-sided popemobile. Francis didn't disappoint, winding his way slowly through the masses and stopping to kiss children held up to him.

The crowds endured hot, humid weather, but the sun stayed behind clouds as the assembled multitudes fanned themselves with anything available. Spirited Cuban music floated around the gathering.

While most Cubans are nominally Catholic, fewer than 10 percent practice their faith. The crowd was not as big as when St. John Paul II became the first pope to visit the island in 1998, but it drew people who seemed to genuinely want to be there and listen to Francis' message.

Several children from parishes around Havana took their first communion from the Pope while a small army of priests and lay Catholics distributed communion among the crowd.

"This is very important for us," said Mauren Gomez, 40, who travelled some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Villa Clara to Havana by bus, spending her time reciting the Rosary.

In his homily, Francis urged Cubans to care for one another out of a sense of service, not ideology, and to refrain from judging one another by "looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is doing or not doing."

It wasn't immediately clear what Francis was referring to. But many Cubans complain about the rigidity of a system in which nearly every aspect of life is controlled by the government, from cultural institutions to block-level neighborhood watch committees. Cubans can be excluded or lose benefits if they are perceived as being disloyal or unfaithful to the principles of the revolution.

"Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it," Francis told the crowd. "That is why Christians are constantly called to set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those who are most vulnerable."

Maria Regla González, a 57-year-old teacher, said she appreciated Francis' message of reconciliation and unity for all Cubans, and said Francis was particularly able to convey it given he is Latin American and speaks their language.

"This is a crucial moment, and the pope's support for us is very important," she said. "He made a call for unity, and that's what we want."

The morning Mass kicked off a busy series of events for Francis, including a formal meeting with President Raul Castro and a likely encounter with his 89-year-old brother, Fidel. Francis will finish with an evening vespers service in the San Cristobal cathedral and meet with Cuban young people.

In an important aside, Francis ended the Mass with an appeal for Colombia's government and rebels, who have been holding peace talks in Havana for over two years, to put an end to South America's longest-running armed conflict.

"Please, we do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path of peace and reconciliation," he said.

The appeal followed the historic call he issued to Presidents Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro to end their half-century of estrangement that resulted in the restoration of diplomatic relations this summer. Since then, the two leaders have reopened embassies in each other's countries, held a personal meeting, had at least two phone calls and launched a process aimed at normalizing ties in fields ranging from trade to tourism to telecommunications.

Jose Rafael Velazquez, a 54-year-old worker, arrived with his wife at the plaza three hours before Mass began. He said he isn't religious, but came more out of curiosity to witness a historic event.

"We also are very hopeful for this visit, because the pope was key in the deal with the United States," he said. "Ever since the announcement, there have been changes and this visit gives me more hope that it'll get better."

The Vatican has long opposed the U.S. trade embargo on the grounds that it hurts ordinary Cubans most, and is clearly hopeful that detente will eventually lead to a lifting of sanctions.

But only the U.S. Congress can remove the embargo. Francis will visit Congress next week at the start of the U.S. leg of his trip, but it's not known if he will raise the issue there.

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Refugees in Hungary hang back in tent city, fearing detention camps

NEAR RÖSZKE, Hungary — Amid muddy farm fields, buses waiting for refugees and first aid centers were dozens of tents on the Hungary-Serbia border. One of them was Mohammed Shadi's home for the foreseeable future.

He arrived Thursday with his wife and two kids and did not know how to get away without being sent to one of the official camps set up by the Hungarian government, which have become a source of fear for many refugees who worry about getting stuck in poor conditions with little chance of moving on.

"I'm staying here until I find a way of leaving without having to leave my fingerprints," he said.

Like many refugees, he was afraid that if he registered as an asylum seeker in Hungary, he would be sent back there after entering another country. (He and many other refugees hope to settle in the more prosperous countries of Western and Northern Europe.) That meant he was stuck in what has become an tent city on the border, with other refugees who are trying to figure out a way of escaping registration or are waiting to be taken to a refugee camp.

The mix of informal tent cities and official camps at Röszke are becoming yet another symbol in the ongoing crisis of largely Syrian refugees moving across Europe as they flee war-torn homelands and seek countries where they believe they can find safe havens and build new lives. At Röszke, footage recently emerged of refugees being thrown bags of food, as Human Rights Watch described people being held like "cattle in pens."

Amid the scenes of chaos in Röszke and elsewhere are thousands of individual stories of escape from conflict — as well as a desperate desire to get out of Hungary, as the country’s right-wing government has desperately tried to keep the refugees moving through the country and officials have been accused of stoking fears and prejudice.

Shadi, 30, left Syria and wants to go to Sweden, where he hopes to open a tailor shop and see his children go to school.

But living in these bleak conditions has made him question if all that is possible. "All of my hopes and [goals] ... were broken," he said.

About a 10-minute walk from the tents, train tracks run through the border. In a steady flow, refugees walked on the tracks into Hungary, carrying the few belongings they still have. Children held on to the their parents' shoulders. Volunteers waited with raincoats. Along the tracks were discarded shoes and a broken-down tent, and farmers rode their tractors on the fields.

By next week, that journey might become a lot riskier. The Hungarian government plans to finish a fence along the border with Serbia, and people who climb over it could face incarceration.

For those who choose to get registered and take the buses to unclear destinations, the decision does not make their long journey any easier.

Abdalrahman Sayed, 23, was part of a group of 14 people from a suburb in Syria who walked through the border in the afternoon. "It was too hard. We had two children and very heavy bags," he said.

He asked if there was a doctor, because he had a sore throat, saying it felt as if there were a knife in it, and he started to cough. "Because I shouted in the boat, I [fell off] two times," he said. "The boat is filled by water. We had children in the boat."

Sayed was studying English literature in his third year at a university in Damascus but could not deal with the conflict anymore. "Living was difficult for us. So hard, so hard," he said.

He said he left Syria because the government forces young people like him into military service and he was afraid the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant will continue to take territory in the country.

Now he sat in a blue tent with aluminum foil spread on the ground and water dripping inside while he dreams of a new life in Sweden to continue his studies.

"We are searching for a good life," he said. "Our life in Syria is not good."

Unlike others there, Sayed was ready to take a bus that would likely send him to a formal refugee camp. "All my journey was horrible, so I won't be afraid of [another] camp ... It's all horrible here."

Before he could visit a doctor, a bus arrived, and he got into the crowd of people wanting to board. Chaos reigned about who would get on and when. One man yelled out, "Family, family," to the police to stress he was with children. One policeman asked another group how many children they had with them. Sayed waited with one backpack under his coat to shield it from the rain, with another bag slung over his right arm. The police told people to back up. Sayed missed the bus and had to wait for the next one.

Amid the steady flow of people crossing into Hungary was Naim Alkordi, 25, who was walking along the train tracks with his girlfriend, uncle, aunt and cousins. He said he was a rebel fighter near Damascus but fled after driving to Aleppo, then walking to Turkey.

"In Syria, I don't have house … The war is very [dangerous]," he said. "[I was] a sniper in Syria, but I don't love war." He worked as a cook for a year in Istanbul with his parents, but they stayed behind.

"I want to go to Germany. I want a new life," Alkordi said.

He was afraid of getting his fingerprints taken, but he waited for one of the buses. But amid confusion, he — along with the rest of the crowd — decided to start walking, believing that no bus would come.

By 8 in the evening, dozens of refugees were walking down a country road farther into Hungary, not knowing what city they were heading for. Dogs barked in driveways, drivers honked their horns as they sped by, and police in cars with flashing lights caught up to the refugees and warned them to stay on the side of the road so that they would not get hit.

After about four hours of walking, often in the freezing rain, they arrived on the outskirts of the town of Szeged. Men started to approach them, yelling "Taxi, taxi," saying they could get them to the capital, Budapest, or even Austria. One of the refugees turned to another and said, "Smuggler."

Fearful of going to the town's train station, where police often are, Alkordi and his family talked to a man who offered to drive them to Budapest for 200 euros ($227) each. They decided to walk on. By midnight they arrived at Szeged's train station. The group as a small fraction of its original size. Alkordi said many decided to pay to be driven.

After the remaining people got tea and sandwiches from volunteers, police started shouting for them to get into a waiting bus.

Alkordi said he did not want to get on the bus but resigned himself to his likely fate.

"To camp, right?" he said. "[At least] I will sleep." 

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Macedonia mulls border fence as Central Europe FMs meet over refugees

Macedonia is contemplating following Hungary in building a border fence to stem the number of refugees entering the country on their way to Western Europe.

Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki spoke of the barrier proposal Friday as his counterparts from four European nations prepared to meet in Prague to discuss the ongoing crisis, which has created a rift between EU members in the east and the more prosperous west.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have all voiced objections to compulsory quotas proposed by the EU Commission to resettle 160,000 asylum seekers across 22 member states. Many are fleeing war in Syria and are entering Europe via Italy and Greece. On Thursday thousands of refugees battled torrential rains as they crossed Greece’s northern border with Macedonia. Police formed a human fence and at times resorted to using batons or shields to push back people seeking to cross.

In an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo, Poposki suggested a more permanent solution was being mulled. "We too will need some kind of physical defense to reduce illegal border crossing ... either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two," he said.

He said his country was currently forced to let the 3,000 to 4,000 migrants who arrive in his country daily continue their journey to Serbia and Hungary unimpeded.

"There is no European consensus on how we can handle this question," he said.

As of Friday morning, an estimated 7,600 refugees had already crossed into Macedonia from Greece in a 24-hour period, according to the UN refugee agency.  

Peter Salama, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said millions of people in Syria could become refugees and head to Europe if there is no end to the war.

Despite efforts to hold them back, hundreds more refugees were observed crossing into Macedonia Friday morning. They are reportedly being organized into groups of 50 people and being bussed to the border with Serbia to continue their journey.

Syrian refugees Bassem, his wife Marwa, and their child Ali, were among those in the crowd on Macedonia’s southern border. They left Syria 25 days ago, entering Greece through the island of Rhodes.

Bassem and Marwa told Al Jazeera that they had feared Ali would not make the Mediterranean crossing.

"We know it's going to be difficult here, we know some don't want us, but it's still much better than Syria," Bassem said.

Along with neighboring Serbia, Macedonia has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of refugees who trudge up from Greece, after risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea crammed into makeshift boats.

The majority is heading for Germany, which has pledged to welcome hundreds of thousands more refugees having already taken in 450,000 to date since January.

So far this year, an estimated 160,000 have already crossed through Macedonia on their way to Serbia and then Hungary.

Last month, the small Balkan nation declared a state of emergency as it struggled to cope with the relentless stream of people.

Reports overnight said that Hungary's government is considering declaring a state of emergency within the next week. 

Authorities there completed a razor-wire barrier along its 175km border with Serbia in late August, but it has failed to stop distraught refugees from scaling the barrier.

The central European nation is building another fence four meters high that it aims to complete by late October or early November, and the government has said it will be manned by the military.

On Friday, the wife of an Austrian politician said Hungarian police have been feeding refugees "like animals in a pen" inside a border camp.

Michaela Spritzendorfer filmed the footage of the refugees surging forward against the fences surrounding them as officers toss food packets to them.

It reportedly happened at a makeshift camp in the Hungarian town of Rozke.

The incident was filmed on the same day the UN commissioner on refugees said conditions were getting worse there.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the country.

The United States has taken in just 1,500 Syrians since the civil war began in 2011.

Al Jazeera and wire services

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Grassroots response to Calais refugees outpaces governments, aid groups

Grassroots efforts to provide relief to thousands of refugees at a camp in the French port town of Calais have outpaced those of governments and large aid organizations, according to activists, who say their success shows that concerned people don’t have to wait for officials to respond to Europe’s growing refugee crisis.

The Jules Ferry camp, located near the Eurotunnel that connects France to England, is home to around 4,000 refugees and migrants who fled war and other hardships in countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea.

The camp offers little relief. Described as “third world” by activists, the site is plagued by water and sewage leaks, and has few shower or toilet facilities. Many of its residents also lack such basic necessities as shoes, warm clothing and tents. Men, women and children often sleep on the ground.

Jules Ferry is one of many camps across Europe where some of the nearly 400,000 refugees and economic migrants will arrive after a dangerous land and sea voyage. Those who make their way to Calais hope to sneak through the Eurotunnel and claim asylum in the United Kingdom, where many have friends and family, and where job prospects seem better. But heightened security along the border has prevented many from completing the final leg of their journey.

Recognizing the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Jules Ferry camp and frustrated by what is widely seen as an inadequate official response, activists in nearby countries — including Ireland, England and Belgium — have mobilized grassroots campaigns to collect and distribute supplies to the refugees.

“Often people just sit back and wait for the NGOs (nongovernment organizations) and the government,” Rachael O'Sullivan, a Cork-based organizer with the Ireland Refugee Solidarity Movement (RSM), told Al Jazeera. “But our government has been weak in this respect and I think I’m witnessing a real sense of empowerment … suddenly we’re like, ‘Oh God, we can do it ourselves.’”

O'Sullivan said RSM started as a few friends wanting to collect donations and easy-to-build shelters to be sent to Calais. They put up a crowd-funding appeal online about three weeks ago with a modest target of around $450, and weren’t prepared for the overwhelming response it received. 

“It got to about 60,000 euros ($67,000) in five or six days, and as it’s going we will soon have over 100,000 euros ($112,000),” O'Sullivan said, adding that the group’s single depot in Cork to collect donated goods has since expanded to 70 drop-off locations across Ireland.

“We’ve had donations of trucks. It has just basically ballooned, and it feels like we’ve become the focal point for an outpouring of support and people wanting to help,” O'Sullivan said.

London-based Calais Action began in a similar fashion — with a few friends who wanted to help refugees by driving a van of supplies to Calais, founder Libby Freeman told Al Jazeera.

On her first trip in August, Freeman met refugees from war-torn countries whose stories inspired her to continue collecting aid for the Jules Ferry camp. 

“There was a boy about 20 years old who I spoke to. He had come from Syria and he’d been separated from his family and recently found out they were in the UK,” Freeman said. “He was trying to get there.”

She said another refugee from Ethiopia told her, “I know what everyone thinks — that we’re animals and terrorists — but we just want peaceful lives.”

Shortly after Freeman returned to England, Calais Action’s efforts were reported in national media and “it just exploded,” she said.

“We have an absolutely ridiculous amount of donations. We could have a fleet of lorries. It’s brilliant,” Freeman said.

Brussles-based Solidarity for All — another group that started as a few friends that wanted to help — attracted thousands of supporters within days of publishing an appeal for donations on Facebook, founder Peter Terryn told Al Jazeera.

“Instead of one car we went with 120 vehicles, amongst which were two 10-ton trucks, five to six other trucks and a lot of vans,” Terryn said.

Most of the refugees Terryn met in Calais were escaping from countries “that have been bombed by us,” he said. “We know our air force within the coalition has bombed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and is now planning to do so in Syria — that’s exactly the countries where most of the refugees come from."

Solidarity for All has received so many donations that the group is now facing the problem of where to store the items, Terryn said.

“There are no depots or distribution structures, so we plan to use donated money to rent out a warehouse,” Terryn said, adding that his group aims to create a distribution system that will allow aid to reach the people who really need it, not just those at the camp’s entrance.

The activists said that governments and large aid organizations have so far been absent from Calais, and are only now starting to address the crisis.

Calais Mayor Natacha Bouchart in July appeared to be trying to shift responsibility for the refugees from the city and onto other governments.

“For too long, Calais and its population have been handling a situation which they are not responsible for,” Bouchart said on Twitter.

Bouchart did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication.

And while large aid organizations — including Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross — have mobilized to aid refugees in Greece, Italy, Turkey and other popular entry points to Europe, it has so far been grassroots organizations that have come to the aid of refugees in Calais.

In August, however, The European Commission agreed to allocate $5.8 million to “set up a tent site offering humanitarian assistance to around 1,500 irregular migrants” and “to support the transport of asylum seekers from Calais to other locations in France,” Milica Petrovic, press officer for the European Union’s Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship body, to Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

The commission’s announcement received mixed reactions — with many activists and politicians welcoming the move, but noting that it would not adequately meet the needs of camp residents.

“It’s a gesture but a pretty feeble gesture. It’s 25 million (euros) that would be needed,” Mayor Bouchart said.

Ifty Patel, a volunteer with Leeds-based YorkshireAid.org, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Why can’t some people send help now? Yeah, it’s alright promising, but we need help now,” said Patel, lamenting how long he thought it would take the EU to build such a facility.  

“The toilets haven’t been emptied for days, so they can’t be used. Sewage is leaking — we’ve been digging drainage holes all day. How can people think about building things when basic needs are not being met?” he said.

As government actions catch up to grassroots efforts, activists who spoke to Al Jazeera said the experience has shown them that many of the people in their countries want to help — despite the often-disparaging views propagated by some media and by right-wing nationalists.

“I think we reached a lot of people you hardly ever hear from who are looking for ways to help and show solidarity with the refugees,” Terryn said. “We have a network of 45,000 people who want to help, and I believe it’s just the beginning.”

With wire services

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As refugees battle rain and heat, EU nations battle one another

Exhausted refugees heading across Greece’s northern border with Macedonia were forced to battle torrential rains Thursday, as EU nations continued to bicker over how to accommodate growing numbers of people fleeing conflict.

Thousands of people, including families with young children, trudged through muddy fields to get to Macedonia in what Greek police described as the largest movement of refugees it had seen so far. It comes after authorities managed to register 17,000 migrants on Lesbos over the last few days — alleviating, to some degree, tensions on the island that had seen locals clash with refugees, many of whom arrived having endured an arduous journey from conflict zones in the Middle East.

The caretaker government in Athens chartered two extra ferries and sent additional registration staff to Lesbos to ease overcrowding there — more than 20,000 refugees have been living on the island in what NGOs have described as deteriorating conditions.

It is part of a refugee crisis to which Europe has scrambled to find a coherent response.

On Wednesday, European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker told EU member states that they must share the burden, noting that Greece, Italy and Hungary — the main entry points for refugees, many of whom hope to travel towards richer countries in the mainland’s north and west — cannot cope with the numbers arriving on overcrowded, rickety ships.

Juncker cautioned that a compulsory quota system would have to be imposed, a response praised by some but strongly opposed by other EU nations, notably in the bloc’s east.

The European Parliament on Thursday backed Juncker’s to spread out 160,000 refugees across the other member states, but the support of the legislature had been expected and has little impact compared with the power of the member states, which also need to back the plan.

EU ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on the issue next Monday but given the opposition of several eastern EU nations to mandatory quotas, it’s unclear what might be achieved absent a change in policies.

Romania's president on Thursday said there is “no way” his country will accept the extra number of refugees the European Commission has proposed. Romania has been asked to accept 6,351 people. Leaders say that's too much after they initially agreed to accept some 1,785.

President Klaus Iohannis said Romania would send its interior minister to a special meeting Monday in Brussels to discuss the issue.

“I had a discussion with him today and his mandate is to declare that there is no way Romania will agree to the obligatory quotas.”

Iohannis said the EU is seeking to distribute refugees in a bureaucratic way without consulting member states.

In Hungary, which has been criticized for its heavy-handed response to the refugee crisis, police are rejecting allegations that they mistreat refugees as a record high of more than 3,300 entered the country in just one day.

Police said Thursday around 1,000 officers were on duty on the border with Serbia, where 3,321 refugees had been detained Wednesday.

Allegations of heavy-handedness were also present further south. Macedonian police formed a human chain on its border with Greece to stem the numbers entering.  Occasionally, they resorted to using batons and shields to push people back.

Parents held their children aloft in the rain, to make sure the Macedonian police would see them. Mud-splattered children dragged luggage and stumbled into rain-filled potholes, climbing out soaked and crying.

For some, the chaos, cold and rain were unbearable. One Iraqi man was asking anyone he could find how he could return home. He wanted to fly back to Iraq, he said, he couldn't bear the conditions any more to reach Europe.

Abas Jizi, a 30-year-old supermarket employee from Deir ez-Zor in Syria, huddled around a fire with his wife and three children at the Idomeni train station, cradling his 1-year-old son.

“I was hit by the police” in Lesbos, he said. “The situation was very bad. We waited for 10 days to get our papers. We got to Athens yesterday and we set off straight away for here.”

Whereas refugees on the Greek-Macedonian border are battling rain, on the Serb-Hungarian border the problem is the heat.

“They are blocked here, they are suffering in the heat, we see children all over the place collapsed in absolute exhaustion,” said Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch's emergencies director, of those refugees in the country.

“Hungary cannot cope with this influx of asylum seekers, they're not properly treating these people, and they either have to meet their international obligations and their obligations towards the EU or they have to let these people go to where they want to go, which certainly is not Hungary.”

Amid such chaotic scenes on EU members’ borders, Juncker appealed to European compassion.

“The numbers are impressive. For some they are frightening,” he said, referring to figures suggesting half a million may have arrived in Europe this year. “But now is not the time to take fright. It is time for bold, determined and concerted action.”

His appeal to “historical fairness,” reminding east Europeans of their own past welcome as refugees, had a mixed reception.

Alongside Romania, the Czech and Slovak leaders stood firm against quotas, which they say will attract more refugees and disrupt their homogenous societies.

But with Germany and France throwing their weight behind Juncker, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said she too had got his message.

“Calls for Polish solidarity is no blackmail,” she said after her opponent in next month's election said the biggest ex-Communist member state should not give in to EU pressure.

“Acting jointly and efficiently in the EU is in our interest,” Kopacz said. "Let's be decent … President Juncker has reminded us that once we were also refugees."

Meanwhile, Germany's vice chancellor said Juncker’s plan to relocate 160,000 refugees around Europe was a good “first step” but the numbers show clearly more is needed.

Sigmar Gabriel told Parliament in Berlin on Thursday that Germany had registered some 450,000 refugees this year, including 105,000 in August and 37,000 in September through Tuesday.

“That shows that the redistribution of 160,000 refugees in Europe is a first step,” Gabriel said. “One could also say a drop in the ocean that won't solve everything.”

Germany and Sweden have led the EU in taking in the largest number and percentage of refugees, respectively.

With no let up in violence in Iraq and Syria, four million of whose citizens are now refugees in neighboring countries, the European crisis has piqued consciences globally. Australia said it would accept another 12,000 Syrians and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was committed to take more.

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Refugee crisis may force EU to rethink, update open-borders policy

A showdown over Europe’s refugee crisis response looms. On Monday, ministers from squabbling EU nations will hold crunch talks to discuss a proposed quota system and try to smooth over disagreements as to how to provide shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war for European sanctuary. But going into the summit some are questioning if the refugee challenge, and the split national interests it has exposed, could threaten the continued existence of the bloc’s open-border policy — and with it, the very idea of Europe.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker presented a State of the Union address in which he made an impassioned appeal for member countries to step up to the challenge of resettling 160,000 refugees. In what he described as the first step of what he hopes can become a more comprehensive migration policy, he told EU nations that a “compulsory” plan to take in those fleeing bloodshed in the Middle East was necessary.

But experts are skeptical that a quota system can paper over the deep flaws that they say have contributed to the escalation of the crisis in the first place. The unprecedented numbers of refugees — more than 430,000 since January — has prompted some EU members in the east of the bloc to restrict access across their borders and even float the idea of re-introducing border patrols — both anathema to the so-called European dream. Specifically it puts at risk the free movement of people enshrined in the creation of the Schengen Area in 1995.

Under EU law, as codified in the Dublin Regulation, refugees are required to request asylum in the first country of entry. That has created a particular burden on those EU member countries close to the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea — passageways to Greece and Italy — and nations along the Baltic route. Such nations have so far bore the brunt of the current refugee crisis, with boats arriving daily on Europe’s southern shores.

There is one alternative: a clause of the regulation allows for the redistribution of people from overcrowded camps in Hungary, the Greek island of Kos, and Lampedusa, an island off the Italian coast, to other EU nations in the case of an “emergency.” But the language defining what conditions qualify as an emergency remains vague.

But in the face of massive migration from predominantly Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea, some EU countries have started to disregard those established processes. Austria temporarily suspended border checks, letting refugees pass through Vienna on their way to Germany regardless of their first point of entry. And many managed to first cross Hungary and Greece, where they avoided being fingerprinted by the authorities who were overwhelmed by the mass influx of people, or unwilling to accommodate newcomers. In recent months, officials have started 32 infringement procedures to reprimand member countries for not abiding by a series of common EU asylum procedures, Juncker said.

Juncker's plan, outlined Wednesday, added another 120,000 refugees to the total needing to be resettled within the EU. An earlier proposal announced in May called for the redistribution of just 40,000 from Syria and Eritrea. A permanent emergency trigger mechanism, which would come into play once a certain number of refugees request asylum or cross a border — would avert future crises by allocating refugees to member countries according to a distribution key, weighing a country’s GDP, unemployment rate, population and past efforts to resettle people.

Still, the implementation of such a relocation system remains elusive. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to “European solidarity” in his appeal for a quota system, but EU members in the east are not responding.

“The big challenge is now having the member states accept a proposal like that,” said Olaf Kleist, research fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic already rejected the plan Friday, despite it receiving strong German and French support. “Enforcement,” Kleist added, “will be a big challenge,” but a provision to give countries the option to "buy off their responsibility" of resettling refugees by donating 0.002 percent of their GDP to the EU budget might go a long way toward reaching this consensus, he said.

Still, the plan under debate could usher in a much-needed update to the Schengen Convention, which was never designed to allow for the equitable distribution of refugees, says Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, assistant director of the international program at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “This is a recognition that the EU is in deep need of solidarity to address the unprecedented number of arrivals that have overwhelmed the capacity of individual asylum systems,” she said.

So far, the only sign of “European solidary” has come from ordinary people. Residents in Berlin, Budapest, and Brussels have opened their homes to Syrian refugees, served coffee to families queuing at registration points, and volunteered to drive Syrians from Budapest's train station to Austria.

The principles that built the EU helped raise a generation of young people who speak multiple European languages and have never felt constrained by borders, said Ewa Krzaklewska, a sociologist at Krakow's Jagiellonian University. Even in Poland, which so far has agreed to only take in about 2,000 refugees and has declined to resettle more, this attitude compelled volunteers "to be engaged in initiatives that welcome refugees," she said.

“It’s a civil society that's emerging there that stands for human rights and the protection of refugees,” Kleist said. “Rather than assuming that the electorate is anti-immigrant and anti-refugees, there is actually a large portion of European citizens who are more willing to protect and help refugees.”

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