Migrants stuck at closed borders, others seeking new routes

What a mess. Stop the war in Syria. Stabilize the Mid East.

Message received. The alternate question may be, "What are thousands of innocent people running from?" How might history inform the answer. Fair enough? Thanks again.

Poking nose into the internal conflict of the most unstable region and intensifying the problem, now face the outcome. Ironically being geographically safe positioned, the US don't have to face the direct inflow of refugees whereas the European countries are dealing with the unnecessary burden.

When ISIS was in its adolescent stages USA ignored the atrocities. Now that Russia has started to destroy them Obama escalates from the minute action he used previously. ISIS should have never been permitted to bloom. The region never in history was stable. Brutal oppressive dictators seem to be the answer as history shows. The exception is the nations with some wealth and no oppression. Ironic.

The region never in history was stable.

Iraq was pretty stable before USA absolutely destroyed it based on a lie. The result? ISIS.

The USA should have stayed out from the start. They've only ruined things, and not a single good thing has come from American meddling in the Middle East. Not one.

This deal is quite problematic for a number of reasons, both legal and political. I don't believe it will ever be fully implemented, but at least it might create enough uncertainty to discourage some from making the journey this summer.

The problem is that collective expulsions are prohibited under European human rights law in order to prevent what happened to Jews during the holocaust (hopefully a point not lost on the Muslim migrants). What this means in practice is that they will have to identify and interview each and every migrant to assess whether sending them back to Turkey might breach any human rights under the European convention and whether they might be genuine asylum seekers (even if they don't realise it or haven't applied). The process might end up taking years, particularly if the migrants are uncooperative.

...be sent back to Turkey unless they apply for asylum.

Asylum in Greece of course. I think this is the key. We will see how many of those who were willing to risk their lives to get to Germany will still be willing to do the same to seek asylum in Greece.

I think 2015 will be remembered as the year that United Nations Refugee Convention was trampled to death. The image of genuine refugees has been hijacked and has become absolutely toxic in the minds of ordinary people. To be fair, most of the asylum seekers have absolutely no idea what a genuine refugee is or the type of person that the convention was set up to protect. For example, a few days ago I saw a story from Greece about a family from Iraq (most of which is considered a safe country) who believed that they were genuine refugees. They were angry at all the other migrants who they accused of being bogus asylum seekers who were ruining the family's chances of getting to Germany. The situation has become completely untenable and we need a massive reform of refugee protection on a global scale.

The situation has become completely untenable and we need a massive reform of refugee protection on a global scale. - comments

Well stated.

I have never heard the media ask a refugee why they are trying to get into Europe rather than go in the opposite direction towards other Arabic-speaking, moslem countries with better weather.

I have never heard the media ask a refugee why they have babies and very young children with them who were born long after the problems in their countries started.

@Stranger....Iraq seemed stable. Even a suspicion of change meant certain death from the Hussein family. That stability is imitation. Even with Sadam I would not have invaded Iraq with what the general public knows. Afghanistan, yes! Al-Qaida needed to be stopped from ever bombing US cities with fuel filled passenger jets full of passengers. Yes, Afghanistan needed some cleaning out.

Iraq was stable post Bush until Obama prematurely withdrew only to reassign more troops when the mistake was very evident.

@Stranger....Iraq seemed stable

No, it was stable. There is no 'seeming' about it.

Iraq was stable post Bush until Obama prematurely withdrew

If the troops were required for stability, then it wasn't actually stable. Iraq has never been stable since the US invaded it based on lies, and completely destroyed the country. It's probably the single biggest shameful event in American history, and for a country that has Vietnam in its history, that's saying a lot.

Indeed ruinning from poverty does not mean you are a refugee Europe needs to make that very clear to the migrants and it ruins it for real refugees and I have no pity for people who think they are entitled to free housing and money on a another nations tax money thats like me moving to a wealthy neighbourhood and demanind I am given a mansion too because I chose to ignore the law.

Strangerland:

" Iraq was pretty stable before USA absolutely destroyed it based on a lie. The result? ISIS "

Are these ham-fisted talking points not getting old? Yes, US policiy has been consistently wrong, but ISIS is a direct result of Obamas meddling in Libya and Syria. What is up with these selective US-party political blinkers?

That said, most of the invaders streaming into Europe are not even from Syria. And, regardless of what this bias journalist writes, most of them are healthy young men --- not the demographics of true "refugees".

Has Russia taken any refugees yet? I mean other than the lucky few that could pay 6 or 7 figure "tributes" to Don Putin....

It's Russia's dirty war for a foreign naval base, make them take these wretches. Bollocks to Turkey and their blackmail.

The USA should have stayed out from the start. They've only ruined things, and not a single good thing has come from American meddling in the Middle East. Not one.

The Kuwait people would disagree - oh people have such short memories

Has Russia taken any refugees yet?

Actually, Rusia took more then a million of refugees from the West-supported Nazi coup d'etat at Ukraine.

About this particular crisis. The main bulk of the hordes that are besieging Europe now are not genuine refugees but economic migrants in search of fat European welfare paychecks, free housing and accessible women. Russians are clever enough not to provide that, so these so-called refugees are not interested in Russia.

It's so convenient for the US to create a mess in the Middle East, that lead to all of these problems, while being safe from responsibilities due to the huge ocean that separates them.

Yet the US presidential candidates talk about "problems" in their country.....

The US is to blame for this. The US made EU accept these refugees into their borders, the US is preventing Muslim countries like Saudia Arabia, Quatar and Turkey from accepting these refugees . The US is to blame for what actions the refugees take in EU countries. The US caused the protests in March 2011 that quickly escalated to the events today. Yes, continue to blame the US.