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A French refugee camp in Calais has swelled to 10,000 refugees seeking entrance to Britain (which has refused to take in refugees). Protests in France surrounding the refugee situation are on the rise, and a number of refugee camps and centers have been set aflame, including the north part of the Calais camp.

The Trump administration is reducing funding funding the Palestinian refugee support group of the U.N. (Unrwa), which could exacerbate the refugee crisis in the Middle East

OXFORD, England - There are no easy solutions to Europe's refugee crisis. In a world of fragile states and increasing mobility people will continue to come, irrespective of whether they neatly fit the legal definition of a "refugee."

"Austria says it can't keep this up much longer. Germany says it can't, either. After absorbing more than 12,000 refugees, Austria wants to see a gradual reduction in the numbers of refugees coming through, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said."

Interesting to build off the article Sam posted previously on Merkel. Some of the initial buzz seems to have quieted down; however, the problem is still very real. Angela Merkel of Germany on Sunday explicitly linked accelerating Turkey's effort to join the European Union to Turkish cooperation in clamping down on the flow of refugees from Turkey to Europe.

WASHINGTON -- Pope Francis urged compassion on Thursday for refugees and unauthorized immigrants, speaking to a crowd that included lawmakers who have said the U.S. should keep out Syrians and others who fled their countries, and should deport more of the undocumented immigrants who are already here.

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe's refugee crisis on Western support for "terrorists", as people fleeing his country's civil war stream towards the European Union. In his first public comments on the mass migration, broadcast on Wednesday, Assad said Europe could expect more refugees.

Let's clarify the substance of Assad's comments with reference to the "Daily Life In Syria" article.

A member of my spanish class shared this graphic in class and I thought it was a great visual of the current condition. By It can be difficult to fully comprehend the scope of the refugee crisis flaring up across Europe based on the numbers alone. That's where Lucify comes in. The Finnish data visualization site took the U.N.'s monthly count of asylum-seekers from 2012 through 2015 and used the numbers to create an amazing animated graphic.

Wow! That is astounding!

Follow up on the Syrian refugee crisis. I know we have sort of stopped talking about this in class because of individual projects but I think we should still stay in the loop. The Syrian conflict has been pushing citizens out of their homes since 2011, but the internal turmoil caused by shifting borders between different factions since March 2014 has been particularly tumultuous. The UN undersecretary estimated in August 2015 that 250,000 civilian deaths have been caused by the conflict. Today world leaders are meeting to discuss the power of Assad and it's going to be interesting to see the results/conclusion they draw.

In Denmark the new wave of immigrants has shown an underlying societal racism. Danes feel that their culture is being stripped away by the immigrants. While they have come to terms with being a multiethnical society, they do not want to be a multicultural one.

VIENNA - At the migration center in the east wing of the main train station here, Ragad al-Rachid, a petite 19-year-old psychology student and a Syrian Muslim, is immersed in the logistical details of helping dozens of people a day adjust to new lives in her adopted country.

The status quo of racism and the intolerance of immigrants in France is not improving, and islamophobia is just at the surface of the issue. The awareness of racism against Asian communities is increasing in the aftermath of the murder of a 49 year old Chinese man who immigrated to France in 2006. While he was walking around with a couple of old friends, a group of youths beat them and left them lying on the sidewalk, and the man died 5 days later in the hospital. Since, there has been a large scale protest over the governments lack of action (60,000 people marched into Paris). Furthermore, it is coming to light that frequent hate crimes against Asian people have been going on and the government has, for the most part, ignored them. Police make reporting a crime pointless because they reject most reports on grounds that either they can't understand their accent, or they just refuse to take the complaint.

I think this situation is reminiscent of what is going on all over Europe right now. Although many people have focused their attention on the refugee crisis and how islamophobia may be an issue, more and more situations are being brought to light that suggest a deep underlying racism that was there even before refugees started arriving. I think the comment about one death not being nothing is very important. With so much death and destruction, it is easy to say "well it was only that one time", but it is important to realize that even one death has a profound impact on a community and certainly a family. I also think that racism within the government is a large problem. The comments people made about the police not wanting to see (or being unable to see) the severity of a situation, seems to be a problem many are facing. On a more specific note, I was not aware that there is such a large Chinese population in France.

"As a child in Iran, Dina Nayeri belonged to a secret Christian church where the Rapture was welcomed as a rescue. Later, as a refugee in the US, she saw how apocalyptic prophecies masked a reactionary nihilism - which is why they are so tempting"

Assad continues to claim that his regime will prevail in shutting down the now 18 month old rebellion despite a series of recent defections, international sanctions, and the constant outflow of refugees to Turkey and other neighbors. He also has denied rumors that he has gone into hiding. He's generally trying to present himself as firmly in power.

Should other countries or NATO intervene militarily in Syria? Why did former UN Secretary Kofi Annan resign from his post as mediator in the Syrian conflict? Was he right to resign?