Cultural globalization

Yesterday was a very important day. It was both International Peace Day and Zero Emissions Day (ZeDay). It is like a day for everything that you could wish for about the world. 

Citizens of Bulgaria and Romania will enjoy the same working rights in Switzerland as other citizens of the European Union from June 1.

The Swiss government is lifting its restrictions on workers of the two Balkan countries, as the seven-year-transition period, set from 2009, on the free movement of persons agreement between the EU and Switzerland, expired on May 31.

Serbian police have thwarted a people trafficker's attempt to smuggle 44 migrants across the border to Hungary, AP reported on Monday.

The group, consisting of migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, was discovered in the Serbian border town of Subotica where they had arrived by a local bus.

EU states virtually ignored a European Commission target for them to take in some 20,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy by mid-May, the bloc's executive said on Wednesday, renewing a call for more action.

The 28 refugees who arrived today are from Syria and Iraq and have come to Slovenia from Greece.

They are asylum seekers who have requested for international protection already in Greece, which is why they are expected to be processed relatively quickly in Slovenia.

Nearly 1,700 migrants were returned to their countries of origin in the month of April following a nation-wide operation conducted by the Greek police. The vast majority of the illegal migrants came from Albania (852), while 157 came from Pakistan, 107 from Morocco, 61 from Iran, 51 from Georgia, 45 from Afghanistan, 29 from Bangladesh and 16 from Bulgaria.

A top aide to Italian Premier Matteo Renzi says Rome supports a proposal by the European Union's executive to fine nations for refusing migrants they were supposed to accept.

Fewer than 600 of 40,000 asylum-seekers who were supposed to be relocated from Italy to other EU countries have been transferred since October.

European Commission vice-President Frans Timmermans stated the Dublin accord on refugees is not functioning because EU member-states in the periphery had been left to deal with the problems alone.

EU countries refusing to accept refugees could face a penalty of €250,000, according to a Financial Times report. The punitive clause is one of the most controversial points included in the revised Dublin accord on asylum seekers, expected to be presented by the European Commission on Wednesday.

Some 88,300 unaccompanied minors sought asylum in the European Union in 2015, 13 percent of them children younger than 14, crossing continents without their parents to seek a place of safety, EU data showed on Monday.