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European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, speaks to Eritrean refugees waiting to board an Italian aircraft that will take them to Sweden, at Rome's Ciampino airport in October. Andrew Medichini/AP/Press Association Images

Sweden to expel up to 80,000 asylum seekers

It’s the latest move by EU states to tighten their borders in the face of the migrant and refugee crisis.

SWEDEN INTENDS TO expel up to 80,000 failed asylum seekers, the interior minister has said.

It’s the latest move by EU states to tighten their borders in the face of the migrant crisis.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the mass expulsions of people who arrived last year as part of a record influx of migrants would use specially chartered aircraft and be staggered over several years.

“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000,” he was quoted as saying by Swedish media, adding that police and migrant authorities have been tasked with organising the scheme.

Sweden, a country of 9.8 million, took in more than 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015, putting it among the European Union states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita.

More than one million people travelled to Europe last year — the majority of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — in the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II.

Most cross by boat from Turkey to Greece and the UN says more than 46,000 people have washed up on the EU member’s beaches so far this year, while 170 people died making the dangerous journey.

But, with the influx showing little sign of abating despite wintry conditions, many countries — including Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France — have tightened their asylum rules in a bid to discourage new arrivals.

Greece under fire

Reflecting the mounting tensions, Brussels yesterday blasted Greece’s handling of the crisis and warned it could face border controls with the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone if it does not protect the bloc’s frontiers.

Greece is not the only country under fire — Denmark has faced heavy criticism after its lawmakers passed a bill this week allowing authorities to seize valuables from refugees in a bid to deter new arrivals.

Some have likened the move to the Nazis’ confiscation of gold from Jews during the Holocaust, with Human Rights Watch denouncing the bill as “despicable”.

Neighbouring Sweden has seen the number of new migrants entering the country fall since it brought in systematic photo ID checks on travellers on 4 January.

croatia People crowd as they try to board a train in Tovarnik, Croatia in September. Tens of thousands of migrants have entered Croatia, with many hoping to move on to Germany or Sweden. Marko Drobnjakovic / AP/Press Association Images Marko Drobnjakovic / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images

Concerns have been growing over conditions in overcrowded asylum facilities, however, and on Tuesday officials called for greater security the day after an employee at a refugee centre for unaccompanied youths was stabbed to death.

A young male allegedly attacked the 22-year-old employee, named by local media as Alexandra Mezher whose parents were from Lebanon, at a centre for youngsters in Molndal, near Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast.

Her death has led to questions about conditions inside some centres, with too few adults and employees to take care of children, many traumatised by war.

Some 40 to 50 municipalities are facing extreme difficulties in Sweden’s biggest cities, according to local authority figures, while workers say many asylum facilities do not have enough resources to cope.

The number of threats and violent incidents at asylum facilities more than doubled from 148 incidents in 2014 to 322 last year, according to the Swedish Migration Agency.

National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson has requested 4,100 additional officers and support staff to help counter terrorism, deport migrants and police asylum facilities.

© AFP 2016

Read: Staff at Paris airport angry after finding fake bombs ordered by American embassy

Read: Anti-government rancher killed in standoff had vowed to die rather than go to jail

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    Mute David Sinclair
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:16 AM

    Impossible to have an impartial debate on Irish media when Irish journalists must as a rule promote a liberal abortion regime. It’s an agenda driven by the NUJ.

    144
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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:23 AM

    @David Sinclair: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

    108
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    Mute Liberal Larry
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:26 AM

    @David Sinclair: are you that bored that you feel the need to be a total arse at this hour if night?

    54
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    Mute David Sinclair
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:55 AM

    @Liberal Larry:
    Don’t be a dick larry.

    37
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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:59 AM

    @David Sinclair: Answer his question.

    21
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    Mute David Sinclair
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    Mar 14th 2018, 2:19 AM

    @Michael Knight: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

    31
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    Mute David Clarke
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:40 AM

    Michael your last few comments about how Extreme some of the pro-life people are, and at the same time showing your extreme side in not excepting that other people have opposing views than yours. It’s going to get really nasty because of the people you have mentioned on the pro side and people like you on the pro choice. I hope you remember what ever way it goes there will be no winners.

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    Mute Osean Drive
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:53 AM

    @David Clarke: wrong
    Women who have been denied choice in even circumstances where there is no possible way of he foetus surviving or in rape cases and more will finally be free from a fundamentalist and sinister regime that tortured them in order to appease the minority fringe Holy Joes. And if u think they are not sinister by all the twisted lies the anti choice side tell then tell me this,what business did they have interfering in the CIVIL marriage debate ,which of course had absolutely nothing to do with their very Catholic version of matrimony ??

    54
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    Mute Greg Kelly
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:10 AM

    @Osean Drive: eh many of us on the marraige equality side and liberals last time are on the life equality pro life side now . Marraige equality was a great and beautiful thing. The ending and destruction of a human life is hardly a good thing now is it? Its a human rights thing to protect human life not end it!

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:28 AM

    @Greg Kelly: it’s not human life until birth. Irish women are having abortions. Irish women are buying abortion pills on the internet and taking them unsupervised. We need to trust Irish women. Repeal the 8th

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:50 AM

    @Brian Madden: not human life until birth? Says who? The whole of the medical profession is in agreement that the fetus is human life. What DNA do you think the fetus has, alien? It’s this kind of ignorance and denial on the pro abortion side that is simply astounding.

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    Mute Greg Kelly
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:54 AM

    @Brian Madden: try saying that her baby is not human inside to an expectant mother at 12 weeks and see how you get on!

    From NHS at 12 weeks:
    All the organs, muscles, limbs and bones are in place, and the sex organs are well developed. From now on, the baby has to grow and mature.
    Your baby’s skeleton is made of tissue called cartilage and, around now, this starts to develop into hard bone.

    12
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    Mute baltimore lad
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    Mar 14th 2018, 9:12 AM

    @Greg Kelly: years later and Greggers is still copying & pasting that emotional bs …

    can the human foetus survive at 12 weeks outside of the woman’s womb..

    11
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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Mar 14th 2018, 9:14 AM

    @Greg Kelly: at 12 weeks it’s 14grammes and 2 inches long. It is unable to survive in it own. Yes it can develop but at 12 weeks is like the size of a rolled up slice of ham.

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    Mute baltimore lad
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    Mar 14th 2018, 9:22 AM

    @Brian Madden: “rolled up slice of ham” haha..

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 10:20 AM

    @Brian Madden: you were once that ‘slice of ham’. Way to dehumanise soon to be children.

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Mar 14th 2018, 10:51 AM

    @Sean @114: I was once a child that was wanted. If I wasn’t wanted I wouldn’t be here. I respect a woman’s choice. Ten Irish women are travelling to the UK for abortions today and many more (perhaps including school children) are going to open packages and take abortion pills bought on the internet. Abortion is here and it will continue. Most women are excited when finding out they are pregnant and a minority aren’t. Those women may continue with the pregnancy as the don’t want to have an abortion but some will chose abortion. That’s the way it is.

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    Mute baltimore lad
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    Mar 14th 2018, 11:27 AM

    @Brian Madden: Abortions that are carried out on UK women before the 10th week -over 80% choose the medication abortion -but for the Irish women that procure the abortion before the 10th week -over 70% will choose the surgical procedure -and the reasons given for this -getting back home to family or for financial reasons..

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 4:01 PM

    @Brian Madden: it’s life or death. I don’t want a child is not a good enough reason for ending life. 80%+ of abortions in the US are for convenience reasons. You’re not suggesting that this a progressive move I presume. Dehumanising the life because of it’s development phase does not take away from the fact that this act is ending human life.

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    Mute Rochelle
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:14 AM

    Glad to hear them say that. There’s nothing worse in a debate than an antsy host looking to cut off a speaker in the middle of their point.

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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:25 AM

    @Rochelle: The so-called ‘Pro-Life’ representatives have been trained to interrupt anyone giving an opposing view, or should I say, facts. Maria Steen is a case in point, absolutely obnoxious and vile treatment of Catherine Noone on TV3 last week. Just shows money can’t buy you class.

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    Mute JMac
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    Mar 14th 2018, 3:51 AM

    So, name calling, personal insults and running down those who disagree with you is still the stock in trade of those who have no real argument against the real issue: what about the baby ? Waffling on about women’s choice and body integrity while never recognising the choice or integrity of the baby is the only response they have to a very straight forward life issue. Their “argument” will always be given prominence by the skewed editorial policy of most media organisations.k

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    Mute Jim Kenny
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:23 AM

    No doubt mc loughlin is pro choice doesnt want truth to be told. He should resign or be sacked asap

    31
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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:26 AM

    @Jim Kenny: Resign for defending half of his constituents human rights? I hope you don’t have a daughter, niece or sister.

    45
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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:53 AM

    @Michael Knight: human life inside has no human right? Yet supreme court judges have just agreed that the only right said human life has is the right to life. The very thing that pro abortionists like yourself wish to take away via termination.

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    Mute baltimore lad
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    Mar 14th 2018, 9:17 AM

    @Sean @114: The woman has a right to protect her life,yes ? An embryo has got no right whatsoever to get to the next developmental stage in the womb…

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 10:24 AM

    @baltimore lad: it has the right to life.

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    Mute baltimore lad
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    Mar 14th 2018, 11:34 AM

    @Sean @114:how long does that right to life last ?

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 14th 2018, 4:02 PM

    @baltimore lad: until it is born at present. Future should be until born or rape, FFA or mother’s life in danger.

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    Mute GerMcKenna
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:35 AM

    Things like this make you understand why so many people are switching to a more free-flowing conversations online such as Joe Rogan’s podcast.

    No specific time slots in which the speaker has to squeeze they’re best bits into, which in turn stops it from being a conversation in the first place.

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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:29 AM

    @Michael Knight: If you want to see a map of the inter-changing fundamentalist family tree, go here, it’s at the bottom of the article http://bocktherobber.com/2013/06/what-exactly-is-the-iona-institute/

    17
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    Mute Osean Drive
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:46 AM

    @Michael Knight: doesn’t Iona falsely attain charity status and so are in breach of law by their very existence? Why doesn’t this group of zealots pay its fair share in tax to the Irish state?

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    Mute Garry Coll
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    Mar 14th 2018, 7:05 AM

    It will just leave the situation that any complaint will not be addressed until after the referendum is over, whatever the result. The BAI has done itself no favours by this. TV and radio stations can stuff panels with pro choice advocates if they wish, as RTÉ did last weekend, and pro life advocates can dominate discussions at will, ignoring any moderators calls for balance just by referencing this statement. It will make for a debate on the topic with much more acrimony and argument and much less clarity. A poor decision.

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    Mute Andrew Eager
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    Mar 14th 2018, 1:09 AM

    @Michael Knight: Same as Amnesty International Ireland so. n’est-ce pas?

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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:58 AM

    @Osean Drive: They do, number of charitable acts by Iona since their foumdation = nil. Also, if these charlatans were operating in the UK they would be banned from calling themselves an ‘Institute’. Imstitute of what exactly?

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    Mute kingstown
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:14 AM

    RTÉ seem to wheel self-appointed moralists from IONA at every opportunity!

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    Mute Little Nero
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    Mar 14th 2018, 9:59 AM

    The fact that such guidelines are needed at all is a sad indictment of the standard of Irish journalism.

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    Mute Karl Monaghan
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    Mar 14th 2018, 8:26 AM

    What do BAI expect? They should not have interfered in the first place – instead of promoting and rewarding fair, unbiased coverage, they have taken the chastise approach – why does every authority in Ireland, including government, use the stick approach?

    http://www.thejournal.ie/broadcasting-coverage-referendum-1104064-Sep2013/

    BAI have doomed Irish media and themselves in doing so.

    It is long accepted that CNN represent democrat opinion, FOX republican – It is expected that the viewer decides which channel they wish to listen too depending on which view point they subscribe.

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    Mute Osean Drive
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    Mar 14th 2018, 12:47 AM

    @Osean Drive: *and if not in breach,why

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    Mute Dermot O'Reilly
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    Mar 14th 2018, 3:37 PM

    The Irish Media especially RTÉ are biased.
    Anti Catholic
    Anti Christian
    Anti life of the unborn.

    The corrupt Irish Media
    Want
    A. To destroy the Catholic Church
    B to destroy Christianity in Ireland
    C. To destroy Marriage
    D. To slaughter innocent babies in their mothers wombs!

    What a bunch of idiots!

    Let’s clean that dirty swamp!

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