Denmark’s parliament has passed a law allowing authorities to seize cash and other valuables from refugees to cover the costs of immigration. The bill was part of a larger piece of legislation governing immigration reform, and this part of the bill has elicited a lot of controversy. The law does not specify what kinds of personal belongings would be exempt from seizure, and the vagueness of the terms adds great uncertainty to the process of immigration. In some respects, the controversy alone has achieved an unstated purpose: it has discouraged some refugees from going to Denmark.
France was disrupted by strikes in air traffic and among taxi drivers. The taxi drivers were protesting against the use of Uber, a ride-sharing service, which does not abide by the regulations governing taxis and which is therefore draining revenues from the taxi industry. Strikes among air traffic controllers reflects growing dissatisfaction with wages and work rules. The strikes themselves, however, also suggest a declining sense of economic optimism in Europe generally.
The world’s youngest nation-state, South Sudan, has been wracked by a civil war caused largely by personal tensions among the country’s leaders. The country’s President, Salva Kiir, has had a long-standing dispute with the rebel leader, Riek Machar, that mirrors an ethnic cleavage between the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups in the country. Since the civil war broke out in December 2013, more than 10,000 people have been killed and about 2.3 million people have been displaced.
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