When your country is in the midst of a disastrous civil war, where do you go? For thousands of Syrians, EU member states are the ultimate destination for safety and relief. Although certain host states are more involved than others, the so-called "refugee crisis" still affects the EU as a whole with complicated bureaucratic, financial, and social demands. (Sandvik, 2016). As a result, EU states have struggled to develop appropriate responses; Italy’s search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum, versus Sweden’s enforcement of border control, or even citizens’ fundraising efforts (Sandvik, 2016). Nevertheless, the rapid immersion of Syrian refugees not only requires able states, but also all able persons to work collectively in order to solve this humanitarian predicament. Whether that includes legal frameworks, institutional responses, or international funding- it affects everyone (Sandvik, 2016). As the numbers increase for Syrians seeking asylum in Europe, tensions amongst host states intensify. EU member states must adhere to the UNHCR Refugee Convention of 1951, which outlines the rights of displaced persons, and the obligation of States to protect them. Then, in the case of the Syrian refugees, the EU has both a moral responsibility and a legal responsibility to ensure that refugees do not return to a country where they face serious threats (UN General Assembly, 1951). To understand the importance of the EU's actions on the Syrian refugee crisis, first the history and progression of the issue must be addressed.
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How did the EU get involved?
Although the Refugee Crisis has gained extreme prominence in politics and news recently, the acclaimed emergence of the issue actually dates all the way back to March 2011. Pro-democracy protests broke out in Syria as a result of the arrest and torture of teenagers who were caught painting revolutionary slogans on a school wall (BBC, 2016). This triggered a number of nationwide protests, where hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets, demanding political reform and the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. By 2013, Syria had descended into a civil war, and 90,000 people died in the first few months (BBC, 2016). The heart of the refugee crisis peaked two years later in 2015, when the number of refugees immigrating to Europe to escape the violence and political instability reached record heights (Sly, 2015). The Los Angeles Times reported that the top destinations for Syrians migrating into EU member states were Greece, Italy, Germany, Sweden and France (Sobelman, 2015). UN estimates revealed that 11 million Syrian refugees have fled their homes since 2011, and further, 13.5 million Syrians are still in need of urgent humanitarian aid back home (BBC, 2016). Despite Syria’s immense refugee populations flooding into EU nations, there is also a massive number of those populations who are incapable of arriving into Europe and have thus been forced to displace into neighboring nations. With this in mind, it is incredibly eye opening and important to understand that the large numbers entering the EU from Syria are only a percentage of those who have fled. Due to the staggering numbers of immigrants, the EU has reacted indeterminately. Some nations are open in their diplomacy towards refugees, while others are more conservative and wary of the political effects a massive influx of refugees could bring to their country. When considering what steps should be taken by each host nation, many outside factors beyond legal obligations, such as per-national restrictions, asylum laws and EU regulation, need to be considered. Stearns and Tirone (2016) point out that the EU must consider how the mass increase in population will affect national economies, safety concerns, and their abilities to resettle and integrate the refugees. In addition, countries argue that recent terrorist attacks in Europe constitutes an important role in decision making. There are endless implications to the acceptance of refugees. What the EU now seeks to construct is a solution that achieves both international stability and humanitarian solidarity (Sandvik, 2016).
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/8CF7/production/_88578063_chart_top10_origins_of_asylum_see
Why is this issue significant in International Relations?
The refugee crisis in Europe is an increasingly important matter on a global scale. People are fleeing Syria in droves due to the extreme violence and inability to live humanely in a country torn apart by civil war. The extent of violence is truly staggering; more than 11 million people have been killed or forced to flee from their homes. Since the conflict began in 2011, the tyrannical government commanded by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has relentlessly continued its aggression against its own citizenry. Those who remain in the thick of this conflict, a conflict that seems to worsen, are in desperate need of humanitarian aid (Corps, 2013). Those who have been fortunate enough to escape the carnage have met another obstacle: resistance to refugee asylum in the EU. The response by the European Union has been mixed, to say the least. On one hand, Europeans have been relatively open to giving humanitarian assistance and accepting refugees into their respective states. Yet, on the other hand, according to the conservative publication The New American, Syrian refugees have introduced an economic stress on the European Union. This economic stress, coupled with the belief of many EU citizens that there has been an increase in crime committed by refugees, has sparked a sudden disapproval from many EU citizens in regard to accepting more refugees in the future (Newman, 2016). The number of people in EU funded refugee camps has swelled due to an increase of refugees arriving daily from Syria and other war torn nations like Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, the funds to maintain the EU refugee camps in EU member states like Germany and Greece, as well as Macedonia and Turkey (states not yet admitted to the EU but receiving international funding) has been dwindling (Figure 3). Many European states have become inclined to reduce spending on the refugee crisis because other countries such as Hungary, Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia (among others) are not contributing an equal share (Kingsley, 2016). As people continue to flee Syria and other countries subject to brutal and endless war, the economic and political stress in the EU continues to build as people’s views become extremely polarized. This creates a crisis not only for Europe, but also for the international community as a whole.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/04/syrian-refugee-crisis-why-has-it-become-so-bad By: Felicitas Fischer, Hunter Lee, Andriana Bravo, Sarah Raney, Caroline Van Etten
Works Cited
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BBC (2016). Migrant crisis: Migration to Europe explained in seven charts. BBC Europe. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911
BBC (2016). Syria: The story of the conflict. BBC Middle East. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868
Black, I., & Ali, N. (2016). Syria protests: Troops renew attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/09/syria-protest-troops-attack-democracy-demonstrators
Bourgeais, V. (2016). Asylum in the EU Member States (Vol. 44) (Eurostat News Release). Eurostat Press Office.
Corps, M. (2013). Quick facts: What you need to know about the Syria crisis. Retrieved from Mercy Corps, https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/iraq-jordan-lebanon-syria-turkey/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis
Holt, C. (2015. The refugee crisis is global. It’s time to treat it as one. Retrieved from New Internationalist Blog, https://newint.org/blog/2015/09/10/refugee-crisis-not-european-problem/
Kingsley, P., Rice-Oxley, M., & Nardelli, A. (2016). Syrian refugee crisis: Why has it become so bad? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/04/syrian-refugee-crisis-why-has-it-become-so-bad
Leber, J. (2015). Here’s how you can help the refugees flooding into Europe. Co.Exist. Retrieved from https://www.fastcoexist.com/3050897/heres-how-you-can-help-the-refugees-flooding-into-europe
Newman, A. (2016). Refugee Crisis Has Europe on the Brink. In The New American. Retrieved from http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/22804-refugee-crisis-has-europe-on-the-brink
Sandvik, K. (2016). The refugee crisis as a global humanitarian challenge. Retrieved from European Council On Foreign Relations, http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_refugee_crisis_as_a_global_humanitarian_challenge
Sly, L. (2015). 8 reasons Europe’s refugee crisis is happening now. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/18/8-reasons-why-europes-refugee-crisis-is-happening-now/
Sobelman, B. (2015). Which countries are taking in Syrian refugees? Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-migrants-scorecard-20150908-story.html
Stearns, J., & Tirone, J. (2015). Europe’s Refugee Crisis. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/europe-refugees
Taylor, A. (2015). Italy ran an operation that saved thousands of migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean. Why did it stop? Washington Post. Retrieved from
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UN General Assembly. (1951) Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, p. 137, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3be01b964.html
Good job! I really liked all of the examples and statistics that you included in the writing since they made all of the concepts more understandable. I think your group chose an interesting take on the Refugee Crisis and it should be interesting to see what will happen in the next few months.
ReplyDeleteGreat post you guys! I enjoyed reading your post in comparison to the other refugee group's post! I like your view on the situation, and I felt like the information was presented clearly.
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