07 February 2016 (10:57 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 18 Bahman 1394/27 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/29 Wu Yin 4713

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims an ‘estimated’ 68,023 migrants and/or refugees flooded into Europe in January.  Some European news sources are claiming this to be an increase in migration, however, a German newspaper published a conflicting report.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reports that in January there was an actual decrease in the number of Syrians coming into Germany, and a slight increase of people seeking asylum from Afghanistan and Iraq.  Many other migrants are coming from the Balkans (in Europe) or North Africa.

The newspaper used data from the European Union’s own European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (aka FRONTEX).  Apparently as many as 40% of the people coming into Europe are not considered war refugees, but economic migrants and cannot qualify for political asylum.

Refugees flooding into Europe could increase as NATO member Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus warned that his country had “reached the limit of its capacity to absorb the refugees.”

However, as I’ve written before tiny Lebanon is ‘hosting’ an overwhelming majority of war refugees from Syria.  So the Europeans and Turks can go cry me a river!