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Trump Travel Ban Partially Lifted

On Monday 26 June, US President Donald Trump welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that effectively allows his travel ban to be partly reinstated as a “victory for our national security.” America’s highest court also granted a White House request allowing part of its refugee ban to go into effect, with the justices indicating that they would consider in October whether the president’s policy should be upheld or struck down.

President Trump is seeking to put in place a 90-day ban on people from six mainly Muslim nations and a 120-day ban on refugees. The president on Monday welcomed the ruling’s qualified authorisation to bar visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, which he described as “terror-prone countries.” He has stated that the ban would take effect within 72 hours of court approval.

In its decision on Monday, the Supreme Court stated that “in practical terms, this means that (the executive order) may not b enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” adding “all other foreign nationals are subject to the provisions of (the executive order).” The ruling further stated that it would permit a 120-day ban on all refugees entering the US to go into effect, effectively allowing the US government to bar entry to refuge claimants who do not have any “bona fide relationship” with an American individual or entity. The ruling clarifies that those who would be deemed to have such a relationship would include a foreign national who wishes to enter the US to live with or visit a family member, a student at an American university, an employee of a US company, or a lecturer invited to address an American audience. It notes that this would not apply to “someone who enters into a relationship simply to avoid (the executive order)…For example, a non-profit group devoted to immigration issues may not contact foreign nationals from the designated countries, add them to client lists, and then secure their entry by claiming injury from their exclusion.”

There were several divisions in the court, with three of the court’s conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – wrote that they would have allowed the travel ban to go into full effect. Justice Thomas noted that the government’s interest in preserving national security outweighs any hardship to people denied entry into the country. President Trump restored a 5 – 4 conservative majority to the Supreme Court when his nominee, Justice Gorsuch, joined its bench in April. There are five Republican appointees on th court and four Democratic Appointees.

President Trump has insisted that the ban is necessary for national security amidst a number of terrorist attacks that have occurred in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities. Critics however have called the policy un-American and Islamophobic, with US lower courts broadly seeming to agree with this view. The president’s policy was left in limbo after it was struck down by federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland just days following its issuance on 6 March. In May, the 4^th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia disclosed that the ban was “rooted in religious animus” towards Muslims, while the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stated earlier this month that “national security is not a ‘talismanic incantation’ that, once invoked, can support any and all exercise of executive power.”

The original ban, which was released on 27 January, provoked mass protests at airports in the US. The initial ban included Iraq amongst countries whose travellers would be barred from the US. It also imposed a full ban on refugees from Syria. On 6 March, President Trump issued a revised version with a narrower scope to overcome some of the legal problems, however he seemed unhappy about having to do so, calling it a “watered down, politically correct” version of the first ban.

President Trump’s Upcoming Visit to Poland Causes Unease in Brussels

US President Donald Trump’s trip to Poland later on this week may feel like a diplomatic coup for the right-wing government, however western European countries are increasingly becoming uneasy that it will further encourage Warsaw’s defiance towards Brussels.

President Trump will visit Poland on 6 July for one day – en route to a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. During his visit to Poland, he will take part in a gathering of leaders from central Europe, Baltic states and the Balkans. The event, which has now been moved to Warsaw because of the US leader’s visit, was convened by Poland in a bid to bolster regional trade and infrastructure. The gathering has been dubbed the Three Seas summit because the countries involved border the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas. According to his top economic adviser, President Trump is planning to promote US natural gas exports to the leaders from Central and Eastern Europe, a region that has heavily relied on Russian supplies. Earlier this month, Poland received its first shipment of US liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Most diplomats in Brussels have dismissed the importance of the Three Seas project, which is being co-hosted by Croatia. They are also wary over President Trump’s high-profile visit to participate in a project that one senior EU official called Poland’s push towards “self-ghettoization.” Another EU diplomat stated about the Three Seas project that “one cannot but feel a bit suspicious if it isn’t an attempt to break up European unity.” Furthermore diplomats in Brussels view the visit a Poland’s bid to carve out influence outside the European Union (EU), with which the nationalist government has repeatedly clashed.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has played a major role in fuelling a deepening rift between former communist and Western members of the EU. The rift comes at a time as the EU is struggling with the aftermath of Britain’s decision to leave the bloc. Since the party won a parliamentary election in 2015, it has angered France over a cancelled army procurement deal and brought relations with Germany to their worth in nearly a decade. It is now facing EU action over what critics have called its authoritarian tilt. Poland has also been one of the leading voices in the region against migration, a view that it shares with President Trump along with a disregard for climate change and suspicion of international bodies.

Italy Pleads to EU for Help with Migrants

According to sources familiar with the mater, late last month Italy appealed to the European Union (EU) for help in taking in African migrants, announcing the possibility of closing its ports to humanitarian rescue ships in a bid to pressure EU partners.

An Italian government source has disclosed that Rome’s EU ambassador, Maurizio Massari, met with EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and told him that “the situation we are facing is serious and Europe cannot turn its back.” Meanwhile another Italian government source has stated that “the idea of blocking humanitarian ships flying foreign flags from returning to Italian ports has been discussed, with the source adding that the move may force EU partners to take them instead because many of the charities that operate rescue ships are based in other EU countries, including Germany and Malta. The source noted that “Italy has reached saturation point,” adding that Rome had planned for 200,00 beds for asylum-seekers and that those were almost all taken.

Since 2014, Italy has brought in over half a million boat migrants, with a record 181,000 arriving in the country last year. This year, arrivals are already up by about 14 percent on the same period last year to 75,000. Italy has been the main point of arrival for mostly African migrants to European shores this year, with more boats being sent out on an almost daily basis. All of those rescued off the coast of Libya have been brought o Italy, often by private charities. Meanwhile Italy’s neighbours have closed their own borders in a bid to try to keep migrants from moving north as they did in the past. Furthermore, some EU countries, like Hungary and Poland, have fully refused to host some asylum-seekers to east the burden on Italy and Greece, which is another frontline country.

Frustrations are growing throughout Italy with the migration situation. Late last month, voters punished Italy’s ruling Democratic Party in local elections, opting instead for centre-right rivals led by the anti-immigrant Northern League and four-time former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, all of whom want Italy to take a tougher stance on migration. While for the past two years EU members have not been able to find an accord about moving asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece, late last month the bloc’s 28 leaders agreed that the two southern states should get more help in order to manage arrivals. According to an EU official, the bloc’s European Commission will now give more emergency funding to Italy, adding that it wants EU states to put up more money to assist African countries in the hopes that better conditions at home will keep people from leaving. According to an official, this week at a meeting in Tallin, EU migration ministers are due to discuss Rome’s request to have EU peers let some of the boats arriving with migrants disembark in their ports.

According to Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Rome, since Saturday 24 June some 11,000 migrants have been pulled from unsafe and overcrowded boats, noting however that the overall numbers for the month of June are in line with last year and the year before. On Wednesday 28 June, an Italian navy boat brought about 700 migrants to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, including an infant boy who was born on a migrant boat but who died from respiratory problems after he and his mother were rescued.

Brit in Jail after Leaving IS-Controlled Territory

A 21-year-old man from Oxford, who travelled to the Islamic State (IS) – controlled area of Syria in 2014, has now told the BBC that he is currently being held by Kurdish forces fighting the terrorist group.

Jack Letts, who has been dubbed “Jihadi Jack,” is suspected of going to Syria to fight for the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, although he claims that he is opposed to IS and has left that area.   Mr Letts spoke to BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford via voice and text messages. When asked about leaving the IS-controlled territory, Mr Letts stated, “I found a smuggler and walked behind him through minefields,” adding that he and the smuggler “eventually made it near a Kurdish point where we were shot at twice and slept in a field.” He further disclosed that he is currently in solitary confinement in a prison in Kurdish-held northeastern Syria.

Mr Letts converted to Islam while at Chewell comprehensive school in Oxford. At the age of 18, he travelled to Jordan in 2014 and by the autumn of that year, he was in IS-controlled territory in Syria. He married in Iraq and now has a child. His family has maintained that he did not travel to the region to fight, and instead went there as he was motivated by humanitarian reasons. Speaking to the BBC Mr Letts disclosed that he had been injured in an explosion and had gone to Raqqa, the defacto capital of IS in Syria, in order to recuperate, claiming that he became disillusioned with the terror group about a year ago after it killed its former supporters. He stated, “I hate them more than the Americans hate them…I realized they were not upon the truth so they put me in prison three times and threatened to kill me.” He claimed he had escaped from low-security detention and had been in hiding when he managed to find a people smuggler to take him out.

His parents have also been affected by this ordeal. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of funding terrorism after being accused of sending money to their son. John Letts and Sally Lane have told the BBC that after not hearing from their son for several weeks, they suddenly received a message stating that he was in a safe zone. They have disclosed that they believe that their son is not being treated badly, noting however that they are concerned about his mental health. Neither they nor the BBC have heard from Mr Letts since 1 June. His parents are now calling on the British government to do “whatever they can” in order to help him. According to Ms Lane, the British government had told them that they could only help if he left IS-controlled territory but now he is out “no –one wants to take responsibility.” His family has also acknowledged that if their son returns to Britain, “he will have to account for his actions.”

The UK government advises against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq and a number of people who have returned from these areas have been prosecuted. In a statement, the Foreign Office disclosed “as all UK consular services hare suspended in Syria and greatly limited in Iraq, it is extremely difficult to confirm the whereabouts and status of British nationals in these areas.

EUROPOL: EU Jihadist Arrests on the Rise for Third Year

This month Europol reported that the number of people arrested on suspicion of Islamist terrorism in the European Union (EU) increased in 2016 for the third year in a row.

In its annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, Europol reported that 718 jihadist terror suspects were arrested, up from 687 in 2015 and 395 in 2014. The report notes however that the number of jihadist attacks fell from 17 in 2015 to 13 in 2016, of which six were linked to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group. The report also noted a rise in violent assaults carried out by right-wing groups.

The European police force has disclosed that in 2016, there were a total of 142 “failed, foiled and completed” attacks reported by member states that included attacks by jihadists, nationalists and other groups. It added that 142 people died in terrorist attacks and 379 people were injured, noting that nearly all fatalities and most of the injuries were caused by jihadists.

The 62-page report also disclosed hat women were playing an increasing role in jihadist attacks. The report states, “female militant jihadists in the West perceive fewer obstacles to playing an operative role in a terrorist attack than men, and successful or prevented attacks carried out by women in Western countries may act as an inspiration to others.”

The report noted that the largest attacks last year were carried out by “ethno-nationalist and separatist extremists.” According to the report, attacks by left-wing extremists have been rising since 2014, reaching a total of 27 in 2016 of which sixteen were reported by Italy.

The EU’s security commissioner, Julian King, has stated that the figures reinforced the need for closer co-operation in intelligence sharing.

Jihadist Attacks in the EU (2016) – Key Numbers

• 13 reported attacks: France – 5; Belgium and German – 4 each
• 135 people killed
• 718 suspected jihadists arrested, including 429 in France
• 26% of those arrested were women