In contrast to many congregations in western Europe, attendance is on the up at Notre-Dame aux Riches Claires, an imposing baroque red-brick church on a cobbled road close to Brussels’ Grand Place.
The faithful squeeze into the pews for Sunday mass and spill out on to the road to catch up before and after the weekly Spanish-language service by Father Óscar Escobar.
The 17th-century church’s change in fortunes is not just down to the strength of the Colombian priest’s sermons, or the healthy trade in community gossip and empanadas afterwards.
It is on the frontline of a dash to Europe by Latin Americans, as growing numbers of migrants reject the mortal risks now inherent in trying to secure a new life in the USA.
The European Asylum Support Office reported this month that an 11% increase in people seeking political asylum in Europe since last year is being driven by people fleeing economic disasters, political repression and criminal violence in Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.
Venezuelans have lodged some 18,400 asylum applications from January to May, roughly twice as many as during the same period in 2018, making them the nationality with the second-highest number of applications in Europe after Syrians.
Meanwhile applications for refugee status by Central Americans have increased 4,000% compared with a decade ago.
The trend to head across the ocean to Europe is in part a reaction to the pitiless approach of Donald Trump’s White House, whose aggressive immigration policies have separated families at the border and drastically curtailed asylum and refugee resettlement.
The Trump administration has refused to grant protected status to people fleeing Venezuela’s political and economic meltdown, but there is no visa requirement for Venezuelans coming to the EU’s Schengen area.
Spain remains the prime European destination for Latin Americans. Figures from the Spanish asylum and refugee office – part of the country’s interior ministry – show that asylum applications from Central America have more than tripled over the past two years as people flee violence, unemployment, corruption, crime and the impacts of climate change.
In 2017, 2,231 people from the region applied for asylum: 986 from Honduras; 31 from Nicaragua and 1,143 from El Salvador.
In just the first five months of 2019 alone, 7,442 people from Central America applied for asylum: 2,698 from Nicaragua, 2,666 from Honduras and 2,078 from El Salvador.
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-closes-...061017921.html
Site Information
About Us
- RonPaulForums.com is an independent grassroots outfit not officially connected to Ron Paul but dedicated to his mission. For more information see our Mission Statement.
Connect With Us