Over the last couple of
month hundreds of thousands of refugees have been travelling to Europe seeking somewhere
safe to escape war revenged countries or persecution. Most of the recent
arrivals are from Syria, but also from Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.
Europe at the present and
will do for the foreseeable future be dealing with a tragic refugee issue, with
predictions that hundreds of thousands more will travel seeking refuge. Europe
is facing a humanitarian crisis which seems to have brought division within the
European Union (EU), on a how to cooperate on finding a solution. Germany and
Sweden were the first member states to open their doors, allowing in tens of
thousands, and in Germany’s case hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. Many
other countries including French, Austria and now the United Kingdom have
offered to take in a limited amount of refugees over the next few years.
In the case of the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years can come to the UK. The catch is that they will only come from the refugee camps in the
countries neighbouring Syria, not the ones already in Europe. I agree with this
policy of only taking in Syrians that have not made the dangerous journey and
in some cases paid people smugglers to come across to Europe. Though the amount
of Syrians allowed in is pitiful seeing that there are millions in need of
help. The reason why I agree is because we need to put a halt to the smugglers
trade, who are just praying on vulnerable people and are just interested in the
quick cash rather than helping refugees. It seems the best way of doing this is
to stop the need for people to pay to travel to Europe or other regions. As
such, there needs to be a global effort from all countries to assist and
cooperate to take in as many legitimate refugees as possible, so to prevent
refugees from making the perilous journeys in hope of seek protection.
Although,
I agree with the UK government stance, the issue of what to do with the
hundreds of thousands of refugee’s already in Europe requires cooperation from
all EU member states, not just the few. Although there is a Common European Asylum System placing some rules on member states, each country has its own
national policies which determines if or how many refugees/asylum seekers they
will take in. Because of the debating and shrugging off responsibility, the
crisis has got out of hand and we have witnessed a scramble by many European
governments to relive the pressure on Hungry, Italy and Greece. The German
policy of allowing large amounts of refugees to enter via the Balkan states and
Hungry, although a moral cause, is not the answer to resolving the long term
situation and sends the wrong message to other refugees. What will happen now
is tens, if not hundreds of thousands more refugees will risk the dangers and
come to Europe under the understanding that they can seek protection. But how
many are the people of Germany and the government willing to help?
Although I am critical of Germany’s policy, I
do find the desperate situation of many men, women and children distressing, but
I do disagree with how the issue has been dealt with by many governments and
the general public. It’s sad that governments and society in general let the
situation get to this stage, where thousands already this year have died trying
to come to Europe in desperation, leaving their homes to escape violence and
persecution. When the first load of refugees arrived by boats on the shores of
Italy and Greece earlier this year and when large numbers began crossing
through the Balkans, the EU member states should have debated less and taken
more urgent action. The conflict in Syria for example has been going on for
over four years, with millions of people living in underfunded United Nations
refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. I think that all the EU member states
should have taken responsibility and offered to take in a share of the refugees
living in camps around Syria, so that this dangerous mass migration that both
the refugees and Europe are facing would not be at such a desperate stage. But
as there are still hundreds of thousands of refugees in Hungry or still travelling via Italy, Greece and the Balkans, all EU member states now need to cooperate at a EU level to share the burden and taking in extra refugees. But
also member states need to form a workable consensus to persuade refugees in
camps along the Syrian borders to prevent them from making the perilous
journey.
