Basic HTML Version
Summer 2017
DEFENDERS
18
War, conflict and crisis drew over 1 million refugees into Europe in 2015. More
than half of the people who went to Europe via the Mediterranean, were Syrians.
3
In the current year alone 1828 people have drowned while crossing the sea.
2 – The EU since the Beginning of the Crisis
A member of the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt believes that the EU
is not able to manage the refugee crisis.
4
Over the recent years the EU has not managed to bring a good result for
the refugee crisis in Europe due to the extent of the crisis and the lack of
coordination between European governments.
2-1 EU’s Problems and the Refugee and Asylum Seekers Crisis
Some other MEPs such as NILOLABI believe, “Not only the migration
levels must drastically decreased but the trend must be reversed: meaning that
repatriation of some legal migrants back
to their countries of origin, and even
legal migrants who with the end of their
legal residence have no reason to stay,
must be put on the agenda.”
5
a) In legal terms, any type of reaction
to the subject of asylum seeking and
migration to EU member states is
affected by the Schengen and the Dublin
Agreement. The Schengen region is one
of the achievements of the European joint
policy which guarantees free movement
within its membership’s borders. It
seems that these frameworks have to a
large extent lost their conformity with
the outward reality. As well as internal
European mechanisms, these countries must also be committed to the Geneva
Convention (1951), but this Convention is not observed in many aspects. The
legal aspects restrictions will certainly leave problems in the political practice.
b) Due to the direct effects on the economy and security, the immigration
policies of the EU follow the internal laws of member states, more than the
EU laws. This is why many European countries try to implement immigration
policies within the framework of domestic laws and the viewpoints of policy
setters. From the political aspects, asylum seeking in Europe has turned into
an out of tune symphony.
2-2 Overall European countries have two stances towards refugees:
a) Deep Divide over Accepting Refugees
Some countries such as Germany, France and Italy stressed on pursuing a
common policy and accepting refugees in the EU while states did not agree.
Over the recent years the EU
has not managed to bring a good
result for the refugee crisis in
Europe due to the extent of the
crisis and the lack of coordination
between European governments