Continued Refugee Crisis in Europe
Photo source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911
Background
Europe is currently under pressure to handle an unprecedented influx of Asylum Seekers. Many are fleeing Middle Eastern countries, with around 50% coming just from Syria, as the rise of terrorism in the region makes it unsafe for them to stay. Paris has recently provided humanitarian assistance to 1,850 refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea, and the Greek Islands have seen refugees arriving at rates as high as 4,000 per day. The crisis is likely to continue unless an agreement is reached on settlement of the armed conflicts and political crises in the Middle East region.
The Failure of Legal Mechanism
Concern for the safety of the asylum seekers is growing, as many are living in unsafe tent camps. Political pressure has even driven the closure of temporary camps in several areas. Human Rights Watch has stated that the failure of EU Migration and Asylum policy to provide safety for refugees amounts to a violation of their human rights.
Instead of promoting the rights of refugees to seek “legal migration or safe access to asylum in the EU”, current policy focuses on strengthening border control. This creates two potential problems.
Firstly, enhanced border control draws the attention of the international community away from protecting refugees, by focusing on border control and national security without addressing the issues of international protection for refugees. By separating these two issues, there is a risk that refugees could be treated as hostile terrorists and be excluded from the legal protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Another concern is the lack of transparency and independence in the process of identity checks, which could lead to improper conduct by administrative officers, or could result in a discriminative system where different European countries are applying the policy differently.
Recommendations
A new legal mechanism is required – one which considers the status of refugees in light of international safety rather than international security. Promoting a proper assessment of the status of refugees based on facts and the individuals’ circumstances will reduce the risk of misconduct or unfair assessments by any member state and will ensure that the imperative to protect the human rights of refugees is not overshadowed by border security concerns.
References
[1] Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan and Susan Fratzke, ‘Europe’s Migration Crisis in Context: Why Now and What Next’, Migration Policy institute (online), 24 September 2015 < http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/europe-migration-crisis-context-why-now-and-what-next>
[2] Ibid
[3] ‘Paris evacuates 1,850 refugees from city camp’, PRESSTV (online), 6 June 2015 <http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/06/469240/France-refugees-Paris-Anne-Hidalgo>
[4] Banulescu-Bogdan and Fratzke, above n1
[5] Ibid
[6] Human Rights Watch, ‘World Report 2015: European Union’, <https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/croatia-european-union-france-germany-greece-hungary-italy>
[7] European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, ‘Legal entry channels to theEU for persons in need of international protection: a toolbox’, February 2015 <http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra-focus_02-2015_legal-entry-to-the-eu.pdf>
[8] Adrian Edwards, ‘UNHCR recommends measures for strengthening security and refugee protection in parallel’, UNHCR, 18 December 2015 <http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2015/12/5673f1176/unhcr-recommends-measures-strengthening-security-refugee-protection-parallel.html>
[9] Ibid
[10] UNHCR, ‘The 1951 Refugee Convention’, <http://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html>
