Cultural globalization

The European Union is pleading with member countries to step up the relocation of asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece, seeking to give new momentum to a plan that is now far short of its targets.

The EU is even holding out the threat of legal action if nations don't comply.

The Greek coastguard arrested a Turkish man on the island of Samos who smuggled 71 refugees and immigrants into Greece over the past two days.

The Austrian government is increasing pressure on rejected asylum-seekers, introducing a draft law that would allow authorities to stop providing food and accommodation to those who refuse to leave the country.

According to certain information, Hungary has begun constructing a second fence along the Serbian border to stop the thousands of migrants waiting there from entering.

European Union member states on Feb. 27 approved visa-free travel for Georgia, after agreeing safeguards to prevent any upsurge in arrivals from the former Soviet satellite.

Georgia, along with much larger Ukraine, has been urging the EU to grant visa-free travel so as to show its citizens that close ties with Europe can deliver concrete benefits.

In spite of the reduced migrant pressure from Turkey, Bulgaria is generating an ever greater illegal traffic of migrants to Western Europe, showed statistical data of the Interior Ministry about migrant flows since the beginning of 2017, reported BGNES.

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has argued EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos "personally informed" him about EUR 6.1 M worth of new funding to tackle the migrant crisis.

The sum has been allocated to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Borisov has reported on Facebook.

The American Embassy in Sofia has published a special announcement calling on the citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen or persons who have dual citizenship of these countries not to schedule visa interviews and not to pay any taxes related to such interviews.

The Croatian police are forcing asylum seekers back to Serbia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

According to the NGO, in some cases the police are using violence without giving the asylum seekers an opportunity to lodge claims for protection.

Human Rights Watch said on Friday that Croatian police have not been respecting the rights of asylum-seekers arriving in the country and have been pushing them back across the border to neighbouring Serbia.