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News > World

European Leaders Flounder as Refugee Crisis Worsens

  • Refugees trying to cross the border from Greece into Macedonia are met with violence from border guards.

    Refugees trying to cross the border from Greece into Macedonia are met with violence from border guards. | Photo: Reuters

Published 31 August 2015
Opinion

Refugees fleeing war have faced violence, smuggling, makeshift walls and serious mistreatment trying to cross various European borders.

Leaders across Europe have been increasingly forced to think about their borders and refugee laws, as hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing war and violence continue to arrive on the continent seeking safety and stability.

Europe has seen 264,000 asylum applications in the past two years, an increase of 24 percent since 2013. The vast majority of these applications were within the 28 EU member states, according to figures from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, which reports that Germany, France, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom saw the greatest spikes in asylum seeker applications. Germany alone is expected to receive 800,000 new asylum seekers by the end of the year, about four times the number it took last year and more than any other country in Europe.

However, despite months of refugees arriving at Europe's borders, EU leaders have failed to develop a coordinated response to the crisis, and have turned a blind eye to the situation.

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Refugees have for years been making the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean to reach European shores, but this number has spiked drastically after conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, among others, have worsened and people have been forced to flea for their lives. The vast majority of refugees are from Syria and Afghanistan, according to recent statistics by the EU border agency Frontex – two countries that have seen European fighters contribute to the ongoing conflict in their regions.

More than 300,000 people have made the crossing in 2015 alone, up from 219,000 in all of last year, according to recent figures by the UNHCR. Some 2,500 have also died in the Mediterranean this year, either drowning after their boat capsized or dying of asphyxiation while being kept below deck. Almost daily tragedies continue to kill people by the dozens or even the hundreds.

More recently, refugees who have already reached the continent have begun to make their way by land into western Europe. Thousands of people are currently making their way through the Balkans via train, bus or on foot, and have been met with aggression by authorities at every border.

Macedonian officials have tried to keep their border closed, while over the weekend it declared a state of emergency and sent extra troops to its southern border with Greece.

Hungary has built a new 110 mile razor-wire barrier along its border with Serbia, with the intent of keeping out migrants, while Austria – along with the help of Hungarian, Slovakian and German authorities – have tightened their controls along the border, stopping any refugee from trying to enter.

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As a result, the region has become the new center for the smuggling of refugees, putting their lives even more at risk. Just last week, officials discovered 71 bodies of refugees decomposing in the back of a semi truck that was abandoned on the side of the road in Austria.

Seeing the plight of refugees advance further and further into Western Europe, Germany, Britain and France have issued a joint statement calling for an emergency EU summit to deal with the influx of people. One of their main suggestions is to instill measures to facilitate deportations, which includes drawing up a list of “safe countries of origin,” and sending the migrants back if they are from one of these states. The process is said to speed up its processing system and help more people genuinely in need.

Despite the dangerous journey that refugees know await them on their trip up north, the situation shows no sign of abating any time soon as conflicts continue to rage in many parts of the Middle East and Africa – conflicts that European countries have been accused of having fomented. European leaders face a serious and growing need for introspection and relevant action.

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