(Vatican Radio) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to tear up a controversial migrant deal with the European Union that was aimed at halting the influx into Europe of people fleeing war and poverty. Hungary has used the controversy to raise support for its decision to build fences and a new law to detain all asylum seekers, including children.Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Turkey's hardline President Erdogan says the European Union "can forget" about Turkey re-admitting failed asylum seekers who have reached Europe via Turkey. It is a key part of an agreement with the EU after more than a million often desperate migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in 2015, with thousands feared drowned. Turkey's president also says that the EU's top court is leading a "crusade" against Islam.His comments come at a time when Ankara has been enraged by the Netherlands, Germany and other nations' decisions to block its mini...
(Vatican Radio) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to tear up a controversial migrant deal with the European Union that was aimed at halting the influx into Europe of people fleeing war and poverty. Hungary has used the controversy to raise support for its decision to build fences and a new law to detain all asylum seekers, including children.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Turkey's hardline President Erdogan says the European Union "can forget" about Turkey re-admitting failed asylum seekers who have reached Europe via Turkey.
It is a key part of an agreement with the EU after more than a million often desperate migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in 2015, with thousands feared drowned.
Turkey's president also says that the EU's top court is leading a "crusade" against Islam.
His comments come at a time when Ankara has been enraged by the Netherlands, Germany and other nations' decisions to block its ministers from holding political rallies in those countries.
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They wanted to campaign among Turkish immigrants for a yes vote in a referendum on extending the powers of Erdogan, despite international concerns over the massive arrests of journalists and political opponents as well as the dismissal of some 100,000 public servants for allegedly backing last year's coup attempt.
Erdogan even compared the Netherlands and Germany to the Nazis of World War Two. European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker condemned those remarks when speaking in the European Parliament, recalling how his family and country Luxembourg suffered under the Nazi-regime. "I was scandalized by what was said coming from Turkey, on the Netherlands, on Germany, and on others. I will never accept this comparison between the Nazis and the now (today’s) governments,” he told the parliamentary session in Strasbourg, France.
“This is totally unacceptable, and the one who is doing this is taking distance from Europe, and not trying to enter the European Union. The European Union is not joining Turkey, Turkey is joining the European Union,” Juncker added.
Yet, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó says Turkey's threat to scrap the migration deal showed what he calls the EU's "unreasonable and failed" policies and that it was wrong to base Europe's long-term security exclusively on the agreement.
Hungary's president has now signed a disputed law allowing all asylum-seekers, including children older than 14, to be detained in border container camps, while border hunters and other special forces patrol border fences. President János Áder signed the bill on Wednesday, a national holiday in memory of Hungary's 1848 revolution against the Habsburg empire.
Pope Francis meets with members of the Syro-Malabar Church on May 13, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 13, 2024 / 16:53 pm (CNA).In a meeting with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis urged unity and obedience amid a long-simmering liturgical conflict that continues to rock the Eastern church.As some fear an imminent schism in the ancient Eastern-rite church, the pope stressed the importance of unity, saying: "Apart from Peter, apart from the major archbishop, there is no Church." He urged the faithful present at the Vatican's Consistory Hall to "press forward" in obedience to the Church, saying: "You are obedient, and where obedience is present, there is the Church. Where there is disobedience, there is schism."What is going on in the Syro-Malabar Church?The Syro-Malabar Church is an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with the Roman Cath...
Father Timothy Furlow speaks from the ambo at St. Patrick's Church in Portland, Oregon. / Credit: St. Patrick's Church in Portland, OregonCNA Staff, May 13, 2024 / 11:16 am (CNA).A pastor in Portland, Oregon, recently urged his parish to pray for a vandal who defaced the church building with vulgar graffiti, arguing that the controversy gets to the "core message" of the Gospel itself. A vandal tagged St. Patrick's Church in Portland with several graffiti in April that read "[expletive] you, my body my choice," a popular slogan for the pro-abortion movement. In his homily the morning the graffiti was discovered, the parish's pastor, Father Timothy Furlow, told parishioners that he deliberately left the vulgar message visible for the faithful to see on their way to Mass. "I wanted you to see it," he said. "Somebody said, 'Oh, we got to cover this up.' And then I'm like, nope. I want them to see that." "And the reason is because it fits kind of perfectly with w...
The new rule authorizes border agents to screen asylum seekers for "national security, criminal, or other public safety concern[s]" at the "earliest stage possible." Those flagged as potential threats to the U.S. and its citizens can be denied entry into the U.S. immediately. / Credit: Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 13, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).As communities on the U.S. southern border continue to face a record surge of migrants, the Biden administration has proposed a new rule meant to stop people who pose national security threats from remaining in the country.The Biden administration said the rule, which is set to be entered into the Federal Register today, will "enhance operational flexibility" and help the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "more swiftly remove certain noncitizens who are barred from asylum.""The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly ide...