European solidarity and Syrian refugees

7 September 2015 | In the Media
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The shocking images of recent days have shaken European consciousness and made it clear that refugees are fleeing an emergency situation that differentiates them from irregular immigration.

In large tonnage pots, hidden inside trucks, by train or on foot. For Eastern Europe, for Italy or for Greece. They try to take high risks and often rely on human trafficking networks. Networks that, although they existed fifteen years ago, have now been strengthened by the environments of chaos and conflict that prevail in Libya and Syria, where the underground economy is gaining more and more weight, says Xavier Aragall, a migration expert of the IEMed. “Criminal organizations take advantage of these contexts to trade in everything: drugs, weapons and also people, which give high profitability, while the costs in human lives are also very high and irreversible.” At the moment, human trafficking has been diverted to the eastern Mediterranean, to the ports of Lebanon and Turkey, where ships loaded with weapons arrive to wage war in Syria and set sail with the people fleeing it, notes Aragall.

Faced with the increase in migratory flows, the European Union has been undecided in articulating a joint response, given that so far each member state has its own asylum policy. But ten years of political planning too focused on shielding external borders and insensitive to the distinction between economic migrants and asylum seekers have also been exposed.

During these years, there has also been no citizen mobilization capable of changing the course of policies. On the contrary, laments Aragall, a very dangerous political discourse of hatred has arisen abroad, curiously in countries that have historically received immigrants or with a long tradition of welcoming refugees. In Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and the Netherlands, this discourse is declining and is already reaping significant electoral results, warns the IEMed expert. In order for the EU to react and act in accordance with its values, it is essential that pressure and citizen mobilization on this issue grow, Aragall maintains.

Stopping the flow of Syrian refugees means ending the conflict that their country has been experiencing since 2011 but today no short-term solution is seen. Therefore, the European Union could start by allocating resources to improve the living conditions of people living in the refugee camps of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, says Aragall, who concludes that this would slow down the migratory flow to Europe.

Information prepared from the following media collaborations:

Conquering the right to asylum: a milestone full of obstacles – Diario Ara, 05/09/2015

UN records a record number of refugees – Diario Ara, 06/09/2015