Europe's Migrant/Refugee Crisis Has Become Socially and Politically Destructive

The refugee problem continues to divide and perplex Europe. ~~~~~ After the New Year's Eve sexual attacks, Cologne Mayor Reker, a woman, wrote a code of conduct for women, to prevent sexual assault. But it angered many citizens with its advice to women to remain at "an arm's length" from strangers, causing outrage on social media, with the phrase as a hashtag - #EineArmLaenge. Thousands of messages have been posted accusing the mayor of blaming the victims for the behavior of the attackers. Some noted the impracticality of the mayor's ideas. Christopher Lauer, a politician, wrote tongue-in-cheek : "I wanted to mug this woman and molest her, but...she's an arm's length away!" Others referred back to October when Mayor Reker was stabbed and seriously wounded while campaigning for mayor on a platform supporting Merkel's refugee program : "Maybe it could have been avoided if she'd kept him at an arm's length?" ~~~~~ Bavarian Minister for Justice Winfried Bausback and 800 German judges, prosecutors and judicial officers are teaching newly arrived asylum seekers the basics of law in their new host country. The legal primer classes for refugees in the southern state of Bavaria include lessons about freedom of opinion, the separation of religion and state and the equality of men and women. ~~~~~ EU migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulo warned on Thursday the refugee crisis is "getting worse....more and more member states are reintroducing border controls in response to migrant movements, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Austria....a collapse of the Schengen visa-free travel system would be the beginning of the end of the European project." Avramopoulos said up to 4,000 people arrived daily in Greece over Christmas and New Year -- fleeing either conflict or poverty. Hundreds of thousands of people have headed north, hoping to be accepted in Germany or Sweden. He said the scheme launched in September to share 160,000 refugees arriving in Greece and Italy among EU member states had only settled 272 people in new homes. "These schemes have not delivered the expected results," he said, adding that the system for processing people in Greece and Italy has struggled to get off the ground. Avramopoulos said a significant number of migrants are hoping to secure jobs -- rather than international protection -- and he warned that they are almost certain to have their residency requests rejected. But EU nations are failing to send back those who don't qualify, the commissioner said. Fewer than 900 of the hundreds of thousands who have arrived in Europe since September have been returned home. "Europe will provide protection for those who need it, but those who have no right to be here have to be returned," Avramopoulos said. ~~~~~ Hungary says it's "probably going to be impossible" to take back migrants who passed through on their way to Germany. Spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told the AP on Wednesday that Hungary tried to apply the EU asylum rules and register refugees, but : "we are not going to take responsibility for developments that came after the German invitation for migrants (or) asylum-seekers coming through the Western Balkan route." Kovacs said the record number of migrants in 2015 proves that the EU migrant registration system "is dead....because what Europe is facing is not a refugee crisis, it's a mass migration crisis." ~~~~~ Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has denounced a string of sexual assaults in Germany and Sweden against women in crowded areas : "girls and women should be able to move around freely at night without fear of being assaulted. If assaults occur, society has to stand with the victims." It was learned this week that Swedish police have known about incidents in Sweden similar to those in Cologne for at least TWO YEARS. An investigation is underway. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Europe is under attack. It must find a solution that saves its culture and Christian values, or the critically important 1,500-year-old European civilization as we know it will disappear.