FINLAND: President calls for rethink of the Geneva Convention

Too many migrants are using the ‘outdated’ Geneva Convention to enter Europe when they are not in genuine need, Finland’s president has warned.

Sauli Niinisto called for a rethink of the 1951 UN treaty that obliges signatories – including Britain – to offer sanctuary to those fleeing danger.

He said it was not right that anyone could say the word ‘asylum’ on arrival and have the right to cross into Europe.

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Finland's president Sauli Niinisto, pictured, has described the 1951 Geneva Convention as 'outdated' and wants the mechanism changed to place additional restrictions on asylum seekers looking to move to Europe

His comments came as the European Commission warned that the huge influx of refugees into Europe could trigger a new economic crisis. Addressing politicians at the opening of parliament in Helsinki, Mr Niinisto said the migrant crisis posed a serious threat to Western values and called for tougher rules to stop those moving simply in search of a better life.

Mr Niinisto said: ‘Migration is a serious problem. Europe, Finland, the western way of thinking and our values have all been challenged by it. This is a stark transformation. Just a few years ago we were exporting our values and regarded them as unquestionable, now we are having to consider whether even we ourselves can preserve them.’

The Finnish leader said the majority of asylum seekers were not fleeing immediate danger. The Geneva Convention, signed by 145 countries in the aftermath of the Second World War, has been criticised for preventing migrants being returned to Turkey because it does not recognise the rights of refugees from the Middle East. It also takes no account of the impact of large numbers of asylum seekers on the nations they arrive in. Mr Niinisto said: ‘The flow of immigration into Europe and Finland is largely a case of migration rather than a flight from immediate danger.

Mr Niinisto said the majority of asylum seekers were not in immediate danger and were looking for a better life

‘All estimates predict that the flow of people will increase this year. This is challenging the ability of western democracies to help and also challenging the very structures underlying the idea of Europe.

‘The international rules were drawn up and their interpretation evolved under quite different circumstances.

‘I feel sure that if these international regulations, and the national regulations based on them, were drawn up now, their content would be fundamentally more stringent, while still taking account of human rights and helping those in need.’

Mr Niinisto said there were ‘no good options’, but insisted leaders had to ask themselves ‘whether we aim to protect Europe’s values and people – and those who are truly in acute danger – or inflexibly stick to the letter of our international obligations with no regard for the consequences’.

Last night the European Commission warned of fresh economic turbulence if the flow of migration continued. In a report, it said the ‘unprecedented inflow’ presented a ‘major political challenge’.

Another million people driven from their homes by conflict are expected in Europe this year. But failure to deal with it could derail the already fragile economy, said eurocrats. ‘The public perception of the increased number of refugees could impact negatively on economic confidence and thereby lower the growth momentum of private consumption,’ said the report.

Fewer than a quarter of Britons think the UK should accept more refugees from Syria, a poll reveals.

The figure fell from 40 per cent in September – when two-year-old Syrian Alan Kurdi was pictured dead on a Turkish beach – to 24 per cent. Some 41 per cent say Britain should take fewer arrivals, according to a Comres survey for BBC local radio.

TURKEY: Mass exodus of Syrians after airstrikes

Tens of thousands of new refugees have fled towards Turkey after Russian airstrikes targeted a Syrian city.

Civilians were said to have been slaughtered as government troops, backed by Russian bombers, severed a main rebel supply route into Aleppo.

The campaign forced a mass exodus of civilians fleeing towards Turkey – which is desperate to join the EU.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have abandoned Aleppo and are heading for the Turkish border

Turkish authorities have been forced to use water cannon to disperse protests in Istanbul, pictured

President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops also managed to break a siege by rebels on two regime-held towns.

Meanwhile, Russia accused UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond of issuing ‘misleading’ statements saying the attacks were helping Islamic State, arguing that the ‘opposite’ was true. On Wednesday, the UN suspended the first Syria peace talks in two years.

Turkey, which has backed the Syrian rebellion, called for the US to take a more decisive stand against Russia.

Speaking at a Syria conference in London, Turkish officials claimed that up to 70,000 refugees from Aleppo were moving towards their country.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, attended the conference but attacked Britain for not inviting dictator Assad.

Fara Atassi, a spokesman for Syria’s main opposition group in the peace talks, called on the international community to intervene and force Russia ‘stop its indiscriminate bombings’.

GREECE: Tear Gas fired on 50,000 protesters

Violence erupted in Athens yesterday as 50,000 protesters marched against austerity imposed after Greece’s third international bailout.

Petrol bombs and stones rained down as an otherwise peaceful protest in support of a general strike against pension reforms was hijacked by dozens of anarchists.

Bus stops were smashed and vehicles set alight as a hardcore group – their faces hidden by bandanas and masks – engaged in running battles with police. During a game of cat-and-mouse, they repeatedly clashed with riot police who responded by firing off tear gas rounds and stun grenades.

Riot police clashed with protesters during a 24-hour General Strike in Athens with 50,000 people on the streets

Protesters threw petrol bombs at police as the demonstrations associated with 24-hour strike

Several officers were caught in one bomb blast, their clothes sprayed with burning petrol.

Outside the capital, another 14,000 protesters took to the streets of Thessaloniki in support of the 24-hour industrial action, police said.

The Greek government, run by radical Left-wing party Syriza, is trying to overhaul the country’s ailing pension system by increasing social security contributions to avoid cuts. The reforms are needed in part to meet demands of international creditors. But opposition has been fierce, with some claiming the changes will lead many to lose two-thirds of their income.

Pensioner Nikos Ghinis said: ‘They should be strung up ... I’m getting 740 euros (£566) a month for 40 years of work.’

The backlash has united a wide range of professions including farmers, taxi drivers and doctors.

Yesterday’s general strike saw ferries between Greece’s islands and the mainland held in ports, while only limited public transport was operating in Athens.

Taxis stayed off the streets and more than a dozen domestic flights were cancelled, while farmers maintained blockades of highways forcing motorists to take detours.

State-run hospitals were functioning with emergency staff only, while many schools, pharmacies and petrol stations were shut.

Anti-austerity prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who came to power in January 2015, was forced to sign up to belt-tightening reforms under an EU-IMF bailout package worth up to £66billion.

GERMANY: Terror police raid refugee shelters

Two men and a woman were arrested during massive police raids on suspected Islamist militants in Germany yesterday.

Refugee shelters in Hanover and Attendorn and addresses in Berlin were targeted in a series of dawn raids across the country as police hunted four Algerian fanatics.

Police spokesman Stefan Redlich said the four were being sought for their suspected links with IS terrorists in Syria. Berlin police said the four ‘from the jihad scene are under investigation over suspicions that they are planning a serious act threatening the security of the state’.

German police raided a house in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin in a search for suspected ISIS militants

The three arrested yesterday were the subject of existing warrants. Police said one of the men is wanted for belonging to IS by the Algerian authorities who say he was trained in Syria. He and his wife, who was also detained, had registered their address at an asylum seeker’s residence. The other man was arrested for having fake ID documents.

The arrests and manhunt coincided with the start of Cologne’s annual carnival. Police patrols have been doubled after a series of robberies and sexual assaults targeting women at New Year, which officers said were mostly carried out by foreigners.

Angela Merkel’s popularity is at its lowest level in four years with more than 80 per cent of Germans thinking she has lost control of the migrant crisis, says a poll by broadcaster ARD.

FRANCE: Sick boasts of Paris attack ringleader

The ringleader of the Paris terror attacks posed as a Romanian vagrant as he boasted of murdering 130 people ‘like he’d just been shopping’, it was claimed yesterday.

According to a witness who helped police track him down, Abdelhamid Abaaoud told how easy it was for dozens of Islamic State terrorists to flood into Europe by mingling with refugees.

Referring to the civilians killed on November 13 as they socialised outside cafes, Abaaoud told the witness – who asked to be referred to only as Sonia – ‘the terraces, that was me’.

Paris ringleader Abelhamid Abaaoud posed as a Romanian vagrant while boasting about his role in the attacks

French riot police now routinely patrol the Calais migrant camp known as 'The Jungle', pictured

Sonia, a friend of the killer’s cousin, told Paris’s RMC radio: ‘For me he was a Romanian. Also, he was smiling, he did not look like a terrorist.

‘He spoke about the attacks as if he had been shopping and had found a box of discounted washing up liquid. He was happy. That was it.’

She met Abaaoud two days after the attacks, on an industrial estate where Roma travellers set up shanty towns. She was with his cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen. Abaaoud told her around 90 jihadis – including some from Britain – had returned from Syria using false papers and were ready to spread further carnage. She dialled an emergency number set up in the aftermath of the attacks, and told security agents that Abaaoud had moved to a flat in the suburb of St-Denis with his cousin.

On November 18, police raided the flat killing Abaaoud, his cousin and Chakib Akroh, another IS operative.

LUXEMBOURG: EU row over kicking out criminals

The UK cannot automatically deport foreign criminals if they have a British child, Europe’s top court is set to rule.

Non-EU offenders with children who have British nationality should only be booted out in ‘exceptional circumstances’ if they present a ‘serious’ threat to the public, the European Court of Justice’s top adviser said yesterday.

If the Luxembourg-based ECJ chooses to follow Advocate General Maciej Szpunar’s advice – and the judges rarely disagree – it could open the door for hundreds of low-level foreign criminals to claim the right to stay. His ruling came in a case of a Moroccan woman who is the sole carer of her son, who has British citizenship, after she divorced his British father.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, pictured, ruled that Britain cannot deport a convicted criminal

In 2012 she was jailed for 12 months after trying to smuggle a mobile SIM card into a prison. After her jail term, she was given a deportation notice but immigration judges ruled this amounted to ‘constructive expulsion’ of her son from the EU because there were no family members he could live with in the UK. They added that sending him to Morocco would breach his human rights.