Table of Contents
Introduction
Europe’s migrant crisis is causing several complications and disagreements in the European Union, and heads of states are having trouble trying to create solutions to this problem. There are many questions to be answered to completely understand the European migration crisis, for example who are refugees and immigrants? Where do they come from? What conditions do they face in Europe? What rights do they have? How is the European Union responding? What will happen in the future?
In the last few years a huge influx of immigrants and refugees have arrived in the European Union, they come from many parts of the world, especially Syria. They flee their home countries due to wars and political conflicts, they seek a better life in Europe. But are European governments providing them with the necessary assistance or are they just focused on the peace and wellbeing of the people within their borders?
Literature Review
The European migrant crisis is the name given to the period of time, starting in 2015, when rising numbers of people arrived in the European Union. In 2015 and 2016, the European Union experienced an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants. To this day, more than a million people have moved to the EU, most of them fleeing war and terror in Syria and other countries . This has been by far the largest movement of people since the end of the Second World War. Most migrants, try to get to Europe through legal means (for example: applying for asylum, etc.), but most of the time they do not mind putting their lives on risk to flee their countries due to the corrupt governments, wars, poverty, etc.
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These kinds of situations are becoming an issue because most countries in Europe cannot afford to accept such large masses of immigrants and refugees into their land, but these people cannot be left in their countries because most of them will die due to the war, bombs, and chemical weapons.
EU politicians, have agreed on a series of measures to tackle the crisis, including trying to address the root causes of the crisis, as well as greatly increasing aid to people in need of humanitarian assistance both inside and outside the European Union. EU measures are being taken to relocate asylum seekers already in Europe, to resettle people in need in neighboring countries and to return people who do not qualify for asylum.
Nonetheless, it needs to be mentioned that migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are all different, even though all these groups are granted various levels of protection and assistance under international law . In agreement with the Cambridge Dictionary, an asylum seeker is someone who leaves their own country, often for political reasons or because of war, and who travels to another country hoping that the government will protect them and allow them to live there , basically they are seeking international protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention on the Status of Refugees. Meanwhile, a refugee is an asylum seeker whose claim has been approved . To sum up, the term “migrants” is used to refer to all these groups.
In the recent years, it seems that policy makers and heads of states are more concerned with the wellbeing of their countries and its economies than trying to find the best solution to solve problems like immigration and the well-being of immigrants and refugees. In agreement with Jeanne Park, author of the article “Europe’s Migration Crisis”, the European Union is “focused on securing the bloc’s borders than on protecting the rights of migrants and refugees” . If another direction is not taken to solve this problem, this situation will keep getting bigger and more serious.
As stated in previous statements, it is very difficult for immigrants to get out of their countries and they face many complications during this process. So, what is the situation they face once they get to the European Union? Once these groups of people get to Europe they encounter harsh conditions. For some immigrants is extremely hard to find jobs since they do not have work permits nor are legal residents. Sometimes they do not even have a place to live or food. As stated by Kelly Greenhill, the refugee camps created in Europe, primarily to give assistance to Syrian citizens “grew increasingly overpopulated and undersupplied”.
Not to mention that “migrant detention centers across the continent” have been created. In these centers, immigrants are like fugitives and are exposed to “abuse and neglection”. According to Jeanne Park, “a number of these detention centers violate Article III of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment” .
In addition to the statement made previously, it can further be argued that the biggest issue portrayed by the media in the last couple of years has been the refugee camps. In consonance with Brookings Institution’s Khalid Koser, many years ago “we used to think of migration as a human security issue” but at the present time “we perceive migration as a national security issue. And the risk of securitizing migration is that you risk legitimizing extraordinary responses.”
The entire world is aware of this huge problem that will result in something more significant if the right decisions are not made, so how is the European union responding? The European Union was far more concerned about how immigrants and refugees were going to impact their economies and politics, they completely forgot about the humanitarian side. Not a lot of political officials cared that a huge percentage of them were being treated by criminals by the police and armed forces, additionally they were and are being locked up in refugee camps (sometimes with insufficient food and basic needs items), plus some little girls and women are being raped while in these camps, what has been of a major concern lately. Why would the European Union not pay attention to these problems that risk the well-being of immigrants? Because they did not want to risk the national security of their citizens. There were several concerns over national security in the EU, “defined a year bookended by multiple attacks in Paris by armed extremists” which were “the deadliest in Europe in more than a decade”, as reported by Human Rights Watch .
In addition to the statement made previously, we can further argue that one of the European Union’s biggest concern when accepting refugees and immigrants into their land was the enlargement of domestic terrorism.
Germany, along with Sweden, has been one of the very few countries that have had their doors wide open during the refugee crisis, trying to help as many immigrants and refugees and give asylum to as many people as they can; thanks to Angela Merkel’s adoption of an “Open Door” towards refugees from countries like Syria, Iraq, and Eritrea . In addition to this Germany is the only EU country to have made available emergency funds to improve the situation of refugees on the Greek islands, in concordance with the newspaper The Telegraph. Angela Merkel is one of the few presidents that completely understands that human rights must be respected no matter what.
Conclusion
In brief, Europe is facing one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. European countries are not doing as much as they could to find a solution to solve the European migrant crisis. It seems that policy makers and heads of states are more concerned with the wellbeing of their countries and its economies than trying to find the best solution to solve problems like immigration and the well-being of immigrants and refugees. Thus, more controlled migration policy from the European union would be to provide the visa policy to protect the borders instead of solving the migrant borders within the country. More humanitarian aid should be channeled to those countries coping with the bulk of the world’s refugees. But assistance should go much further.
