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Summer 2017
DEFENDERS
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Governmental, nongovernmental and private organizations and institutions
in the past years, each in their own way have tried to reduce this wide gap
through implementing various programmes.
b) Prevention of Migration from Country of Origin
Populist and xenophobic movements have come into power in some European
countries who resist refugees. Extremist right wing political parties want their
countries to leave the EU and legislate national laws to fight the refugee crisis.
3 – Some EU Measures in Facing the Crisis
Identifying the main objectives of refugees, the EU is in search of finding a
suitable solution to improve the basic conditions through the followings:
3-1 Sending Humanitarian Aid to Refugees
Obviously one of the most important steps of the EU is to help the crisis
from its point of origin. This solution can change the minds of many from
migrating. To this aim considerable humanitarian action has been carried
out to help refugee camps in Syria. For example the Conference on Syria in
Brussels , and
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allocation of a cash budget to help the people of Syria is a step
forward. This conference aimed at identification of the crisis, its roots and
human threats in Syria as well as increasing humanitarian aid to the country.
EU’s humanitarian entry into the Syrian crisis can be a turning point and
if supported by European States, it will be a good model of humanitarian
campaign for the crisis stricken Middle Eastern and North African countries.
3-2 Help and protect the lives of refugees in the sea and Europe’s borders
According to statistics released by the UNHCR and reports in some media
outlets, EU humanitarian actions has not resulted in the improvement of the
situation, the conditions of refugees that either travel via the sea and or land to
reach a safe country in the EU will even get worse in 2017.
3-3 Housing or sending back refugees
According to a European Commission member, most of the EU member states
have not stuck to their share of taking in the number of migrants. In total 1356
people were housed in 2016, which is less than ten percent of the agreement
the EU made in 2015, according to which 150 thousand refugees were to be
housed across the EU.
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Furthermore, a lot of criticism has been given out to
the forced repatriation of refugees back to their countries. Particularly Afghan
refugees who will face very unsafe conditions upon their return; this has caused
a wave of protests from nongovernmental and human rights organizations.
3-4 Agreement with Turkey
With the implementation of the EU and Turkey agreement in 2016, there
were hopes for the improvement of the situation of migration via the sea
towards Europe. To-date approximately 3565 Syrian refugees have been