Austria Launches New Migrant Policy: Benefits Cut, Phones, Cash Seized | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN. This was written by Joseph Curl.

    While much of Europe is bending over backward for incoming refugees, Austria, yeah, not so much.

    The new government in Austria, made up of the Conservative People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party, both pledged to crack down in immigrants to the nation. And they've put their promises into practice.

    "Phones will be seized upon entry, allowing border officials to analyse mobile data to determine migrants' identities," the Express newspaper reports. "Money will also be taken from migrants and put towards the cost of caring for people arriving in the country. And benefits will be stopped for some migrants who have not yet 'paid into' the country."

    The move comes as European Union Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos writes that "Europe's Migrants Are Here to Stay."

    "It's time to face the truth. We cannot and will never be able to stop migration," Avramopoulos wrote in Politico.

    "Human mobility will increasingly define the 21st century," he wrote, adding that mass migration is an issue Brussels has committed Europe to "for the long haul." "Migration is deeply intertwined with our policies on economics, trade, education and employment - to name just a few."

    "They have found safety in Europe, but we also need to make sure they find a home," he writes of refugees, going on to insist that programming Europeans to welcome mass migration is "not only a moral imperative," but "also an economic and social imperative for our aging continent - and one of the biggest challenges for the near future."

    Meanwhile, mayors from seven major French cities that have been overwhelmed by the flow of refugees have written a joint letter to Paris published in LeMonde last week, begging the government to step in and help.

    According to the letter, the cities of Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Rennes, Toulousa and Nantes are taking in "several thousand" refugees per month. The mayors say the influx is causing a social emergency as city officials are "backed up against a wall" and "completely saturated," Zero Hedge reports.

• The year 2017 ends with a massive rise in the demand for asylum and the arrival of newcomers puts extreme tension - particularly with the onset of the cold wave - of the classic public and institutional policies. In a proportion never before known, the mechanisms allocated to housing asylum seekers, led by the State, often with the support of our communities, are indeed completely saturated, despite the steady increase the number of places ... The evidence is there, before our eyes, in our streets, in homes and shelters: there is urgency.
• Every month, several thousand people arrive in our cities. Integrating those recognized as refugees and helping those who have lost their right of asylum who still remain in our territory is a major issue.

    And in Sweden, hundreds of people took to the street to protest after three teenage girls were brutally gang raped.

    Sweden's solution? Telling women to stay inside and travel in groups, the Daily Mail reported.

    "Malmo police issued a warning to local women not to go outside alone at night, and to walk in pairs or use taxis," said the Mail.