More than 11,000 Icelanders offer to house Syrian refugees to help European crisis...Y EN VENEZUELA TOD@S A LA MEGACOLA ESTE 6 DE DICIEMBRE AL RESCATE DE LA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL.. UNID @S SOMOS MAS... BARRELOS¡

Real Life

In Iceland, 11,000 people offer up their homes in Facebook campaign

Up Next

Hungary: Refugees await onwards travel as fate of Munich-bound refugees hangs in the air

WARNING: Disturbing content.

EUROPE is facing the world’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II and not all nations are coping.
As heartbreaking images emerged overnight of the body of a three-year-old Syrian refugee boy washed up on a Turkish beach, Hungary sealed off a railway terminal to stem the influx of people from war-torn countries trying to reach western Europe. Bulgaria is building a wall to keep would-be migrants out, and there are plans for the British to do the same in the French port city of Calais on the other side of the Channel.
Greece, already gripped by economic crisis, is seeing violence flare as authorities struggle to accommodate refugees.
But there is one country where people not only want to welcome refugees, they are actually calling for more.
Iceland is seeing a massive surge in public and bipartisan support for a larger intake of asylum seekers than its government originally set.
The Icelandic government announced last week it was prepared to take in 50 people seeking asylum from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan over the next two years — but after overwhelming pressure from the public and both sides of politics, that quota could soon swell into the thousands.

Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir Picture: Creative Commons Source: Supplied

At the heart of the push is a Facebook campaign by prominent Icelandic author Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir, which in just 24 hours inspired 11,000 Icelanders to offer up their homes to people seeking asylum.
And that’s a significant feat in the small island nation of just 300,000 people.
“I think people have had enough of seeing news stories from the Mediterranean and refugee camps of dying people and they want something done now,” Bjorgvinsdottir told Icelandic television channel RUV.
In an open letter on Facebook to Iceland’s social affairs minister Eygló Harðardóttir, in which she urged for a greater response to the humanitarian crisis, Ms Bjorgvinsdottir said refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war were “human resources” with experiences and skills that could benefit Iceland.
“They are our future spouses, best friends, the next soulmate, a drummer for our children’s band, the next colleague, Miss Iceland in 2022, the carpenter who finally finishes the bathroom, the cook in the cafeteria, a fireman and television host,” she wrote.
“People of whom we’ll never be able to say in the future: ‘Your life is worth less than my life’.”
In reference to the thousands of migrants who have drowned desperately trying to cross the Mediterranean, Ms Bjorgvinsdottir urged Iceland to “open the gates”.

A Turkish police officer carries a migrant child's dead body off the shores in Bodrum, southern Turkey, after a boat carrying refugees sank while reaching the Greek island of Kos. 

Thousands of families in Iceland say they want to open up their homes to war refugees. Picture: Visit Iceland Source: Supplied

She said she knew someone who could house five Syrian refugees and requested work permits, residents papers and “basic human rights” in exchange for paying for their flight and helping them integrate into society.One of the 11,000 volunteers, Hekla Stefansdottir, posted in response: “I’m a single mother with a six-year-old son ... We can take a child in need. I’m a teacher and would teach the child to speak, read and write Icelandic and adjust to Icelandic society.
“We have clothes, a bed, toys and everything a child needs. I would of course pay for the aeroplane ticket.”
A second Facebook page has also popped up to call on the Icelandic government to increase its current asylum seeker intake from 50 to 5000. The page attracted more than 8500 followers in a week.
Organisers said they wanted Iceland to follow the example of other countries and give an opportunity to more people displaced by war.
And it seems the government is listening.
Following the overwhelming response, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson said he would appoint a special committee of ministers to discuss raising the country’s refugee quota.
“It has been our goal in international politics to be of help in as many areas as possible and this is one of the areas where the need is most right now,” he said.

Refugees walk along railway tracks after crossing from Serbia into Hungary on Tuesday. Picture: AP Photo / Darko Bandic Source: AP

Mr Gunnlaugsson called the influx of migrants reaching Europe “one of the greatest challenges of modern times”, the Reykjavik Grapevine reported.
Ms Harðardóttir, the social affairs minister, told Icelandic Review that Iceland was “one of the richest nations in the world and we can accept many more (refugees) than we have been accepting in the past”.
Ms Harðardóttir was unwilling to cite figures but said the government planned to contact municipalities across the country to gauge how many refugees they were able to accept.
The volume of refugees pouring into Europe is being described as the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage this morning described it as an “exodus of biblical proportions”.
Many of those seeking asylum are from Syria, where civil conflict has lead to four million Syrians fleeing their home, and left another 7.6 million displaced within the country, according to July figures from the United Nations.
Huge numbers of people are also fleeing war-torn Afghanistan.
And the influx into Europe is taking a huge human toll. Thousands have died so far trying to cross the Mediterranean, including more than a hundred would-be migrants whose bodies were washed up onto a Libyan shore after their boat capsized last week.
Hours earlier, up to 50 refugees were found dead and decomposing inside a chicken truck making its way through Austria.

Migrants arrive at a refugee centre in the Serbian town of Presevo after walking from Macedonia on August 26. Many were desperate to go onto Hungary, a door into the European Union, a UN official said. Picture: AFP / Armend Nimani Source: AFP

The shocking discovery by Austrian police came as European Union leaders met in the country’s capital, Vienna, to discuss the refugee crisis.“This reminds us that we in Europe need to tackle the problem quickly and find solutions in the spirit of solidarity,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in relation to the truck deaths.
Merkel has urged for a fair distribution of refugees across Europe.
But some countries, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, object to binding quotas.
Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said: “We strongly reject any quotas ... If a mechanism for automatic redistribution of migrants is adopted, then we will wake up one day and have 100,000 people from the Arab world and that is a problem I would not like Slovakia to have.
“We are prepared to do what is needed and what is within our possibilities, for people who really need help, separate them from economic migrants.”
The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, said last week the Europe Union’s asylum system was “completely dysfunctional” and urged the bloc to better coordinate its response to the influx of refugees.
Germany is currently leading Europe for taking in asylum seekers, receiving more than 73,000 first-time asylum claims in the first three months of this year alone.
Europe’s passport free Schengen area has become the primary magnet for many refugees trying to flee their war-torn homelands.

Up Next

Village of Tears

More videos

An entire Lebanese village blames Australia for their horrific asylum seeker boat deaths. But is their perception fair?