Refugee hostel attacked in the Netherlands

Agencies/AmsterdamSome 20 hooded people have attacked an emergency hostel for refugees in the central Dutch city of Woerden, a police spokesman said yesterday.They threw powerful fireworks and eggs at the building during the night and tried to force their way inside.It was the first such large-scale attack in the Netherlands, the spokesman said, adding that police officers arrested 10 people.Some 150 refugees from Syria and Eritrea have been living in a sports hall in the city near Utrecht since Wednesday.The Dutch government criticized the attack, with the minister responsible for asylum issues, Klaas Dijkhoff, saying the attackers must be severely punished. “Refugees must be safe,” he said.The refugees, many of whom are in families, were deeply shocked, Woerden Mayor Victor Molkenboer told Dutch television. “Most of them come from a war zone. Such loud explosions give them a traumatic experience,” he said.Witnesses reported that the attackers were aged between 20 and 40.The sports hall was only intended as emergency accommodation for a week. Police said they have stepped up security there.Police in the north-eastern German city of Cottbus late Friday broke up a demonstration by people opposed to housing asylum seekers there.The incident took place after two asylum seekers received life-threatening injuries when mass fights broke out Thursday in at least four overcrowded refugee reception centres. About 400 people participated in the demonstration in Cottbus. They attempted to reach the housing for the asylum seekers, where a welcome festival was taking place, police said.A message posted on Facebook had been used to call the demonstration, according to officials. The procession was halted by police after the demonstrators ignored their instructions.Participants disbursed within a few minutes. Police are now investigating whether the demonstration violated laws regulating assemblies.The two asylum seekers who were injured were taken to hospital after a group of 20 people brawled with brooms, pans and other objects in a centre at a school in Backnang in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. A third person was slightly injured.Police said they did not know the reason for the fight and were continuing to investigate.In the northern city of Schwerin, some 30 men brawled, but the fight ended before police arrived. Police said the clash pitted Syrians and Afghans against one another, but the cause was not yet known.Police in Hamburg said brawls broke out among migrants at two accommodation sites in the city Thursday.The cause of one late-night clash, between Eritreans and Iraqis, was unknown, with 30 to 40 men fighting. Police made three arrests.Earlier, an Afghan and an Iraqi fought in another home, leading 50 to 60 compatriots to pitch in. Two were arrested.Brawls, typically triggered by queue jumping, money-making scams or religious insults, have added to the sense of growing unease in Germany over the daily arrival of thousands of asylum seekers.A 17-year-old from Eritrea was seriously injured Friday after making an apparent bid to jump on a Eurotunnel shuttle from France to Britain, a firefighter said, adding that his life was not in danger.“For an unknown reason, an Eritrean fell from a bridge at the Eurotunnel site. He hit a catenary, landed on the roof of a shuttle, and then fell onto the platform,” a firefighter told AFP.“He has second and third degree burns on 30 percent of his body, specifically on his back and a leg. He is in serious condition but his life is not in danger,” the firefighter said, adding that the teenager was being treated in a hospital in Calais.There are some 3,500 to 4,000 migrants and refugees, mainly from east Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan, in the northern French port city of Calais and its surroundings, while another 1,000 are in the area of Dunkirk near the Belgian border.They live in hope of reaching Britain, which they see as a promised land of jobs and freedom. Nearly every day there are attempts to jump on trucks or on shuttles travelling to Britain.Some 30 African migrants succeeded yesterday in crossing a barbed wire fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in north Africa, authorities said. About 50 migrants attempted to cross the 6m high fence on the border with Morocco at 7am (0500 GMT), a spokesman for the Melilla government told AFP.They were part of a group of 130 people who had attempted to make it to the Spanish territory, most of whom were arrested before they reached the fence. Authorities said that all the migrants were men, with “no minor reported”, and that two had slight injuries and were treated at a local hospital.Melilla has for some years been a flashpoint for African migrants trying to enter Spain, with authorities stepping up security by strengthening border barriers after thousands of immigrants tried to scale existing fencing in 2005. Each year, thousands of Africans seek to cross into Melilla and another Spanish enclave, Ceuta -- which have the only land borders between Africa and the European Union.