May 1, 2014 (AP)
The International Monetary Fund (click here) board on Wednesday approved a two-year,
$17 billion loan package for cash-strapped Ukraine as it seeks to regain
stability following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The IMF assistance pledged in March was hinged on economic reforms in
Ukraine, including raising taxes, freezing the minimum wage and raising
energy prices — all steps that could hit households hard and strain the
interim government's tenuous hold on power.
"Urgent actions were necessary. Urgent decisions were taken by Ukraine
and decisions now have just been taken by the IMF," IMF Managing
Director Christine Lagarde told reporters at the monetary fund's
headquarters.
Ukraine's interim government finds itself caught between the demands of
international creditors and a restive population that has endured
decades of economic stagnation, corruption and mismanagement....
There's asylum seekers? Really? I didn't think anyone was clambering to get out of Russia.
Efrem Lukatsky and Nataliya Vasilyeva
Associated Press
04/30/2014 02:34:41 PM PDT
ZHDANIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow (click here) calls the detention center under construction near the Russian border a "fascist concentration camp." Inside the barbed-wire fences, the reality is less ominous: It's an EU-funded project to hold asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, similar to other such detention centers across Europe.
The accusation is part of a relentless Kremlin-driven propaganda offensive that uses World War II-era terms and imagery to rail against Ukraine's fledging government. "Nazis," ''fascists" and "Fritzes" are some of the terms that Russia is hurling at Ukrainian authorities who took power after the ouster of the last elected president, a reversal in political fortunes that has led to a pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kiev and a pro-Russian insurgency in the country's east....
Russia is afraid of emigration out of the country. Holy smokes. Who knew?
2014 UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) regional operations profile - Northern, Western, Central and Southern Europe (click here)
The 36 countries in this subregion have long traditions of refugee protection, strong legal frameworks and, for the majority of them, functioning national asylum systems. Nevertheless, different legal traditions and asylum and migration experiences shape the protection landscape of each country. Croatia, which became the 28th member-State of the European Union in July 2013, is the newest participant in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
The most significant development in 2013 was the adoption of amended European Union legislation on asylum and the reception of asylum-seekers. The recast statutes, which will require extensive transposition at the national level in 2014, strengthen protection standards in the region. However, discrepancies in implementation persist, leading to protection gaps in some countries and posing challenges to the functioning of the CEAS. These include challenges in the application of the Dublin III Regulation, which determines which Member State is responsible for examining an asylum application....
There's asylum seekers? Really? I didn't think anyone was clambering to get out of Russia.
Associated Press
04/30/2014 02:34:41 PM PDT
ZHDANIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow (click here) calls the detention center under construction near the Russian border a "fascist concentration camp." Inside the barbed-wire fences, the reality is less ominous: It's an EU-funded project to hold asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, similar to other such detention centers across Europe.
The accusation is part of a relentless Kremlin-driven propaganda offensive that uses World War II-era terms and imagery to rail against Ukraine's fledging government. "Nazis," ''fascists" and "Fritzes" are some of the terms that Russia is hurling at Ukrainian authorities who took power after the ouster of the last elected president, a reversal in political fortunes that has led to a pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kiev and a pro-Russian insurgency in the country's east....
Russia is afraid of emigration out of the country. Holy smokes. Who knew?
2014 UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) regional operations profile - Northern, Western, Central and Southern Europe (click here)
The 36 countries in this subregion have long traditions of refugee protection, strong legal frameworks and, for the majority of them, functioning national asylum systems. Nevertheless, different legal traditions and asylum and migration experiences shape the protection landscape of each country. Croatia, which became the 28th member-State of the European Union in July 2013, is the newest participant in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
The most significant development in 2013 was the adoption of amended European Union legislation on asylum and the reception of asylum-seekers. The recast statutes, which will require extensive transposition at the national level in 2014, strengthen protection standards in the region. However, discrepancies in implementation persist, leading to protection gaps in some countries and posing challenges to the functioning of the CEAS. These include challenges in the application of the Dublin III Regulation, which determines which Member State is responsible for examining an asylum application....
