Europe’s Refugee Response: Poor Peripheral Vision
By Eleni Stilian
Take an entry level international course and you’ll likely see a PowerPoint slide or two on the “European Migrant Crisis.” It was big, it was bad, but it was 2015. Surely six years later, Europe, home to some of the richest countries in the world, would find a way to integrate the desperate refugees into their economies, or at least raise the standard of living in the “temporary” camps scattered across the eastern Mediterranean. Who could have guessed that Europe, the self-described champion of humanitarian rights, would center its efforts in mitigating the “crisis” of refugees less on increasing the standard of living and opportunities for employment, citizenship or integration and more on spending money to simply keep them out altogether.
In 2016, immediately following the peak of the European Migrant Crisis, the European Union struck a controversial deal with Turkey. The EU-Turkey Statement was created to hold back migrants Turkey received from crossing into Europe in exchange for funding and a capped resettlement program for current refugees living within Turkey’s borders (Arribas). This came on the heels of Balkan states closing its borders to refugees, forcing them to filter into already overwhelmed Greece by way of Turkey. Predictably, this “solution” fell apart when the original funding dried up and Turkey returned to releasing migrants across their borders (BBC). Critics, of course, described this agreement as simply “outsourcing” refugee policy (Deutsche Welles) rather than putting into practice the grand ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law constantly waved under the noses of specifically African and Middle Eastern countries taken to international tribunal courts such as the ICC. In terms of the objectives achieved by this statement, it is probably best put by the European Papers
“The EU-Turkey Agreement has achieved its goal of reducing the entry of irregular migrants into Greece from Turkey, but it has not provided a solution to the refugee crisis. The relocation plan has not achieved this either.”
Both the initiation and outcome of the EU-Turkey Statement reveals the EU’s true visualization of refugees; pieces in a game of political chess, rather than the reality of vulnerable populations with nowhere else to turn. The EU continues to fund vaguely worded “immigration activities,'' funneling money back into extraneous agencies created with the purpose of inhibiting true progress with the only viable long-term solution, resettlement across EU States. Many States, especially in central and eastern Europe historically and currently, refuse to take in refugees through long-term settlement programs for any number of reasons, be it either a weak economy, historical grievances between the local and refugee populations, or the rise of white supremacy. As a result, the resettling of refugees is voluntary and up to each individual member of the EU, and while some Member States such as Germany - with a current population of over a million refugees (Deutsche Welles) - stand out as leaders, other countries are reluctant to follow as right-wing anti-immigrant groups gain power. Unfortunately, without strong or compulsory residency programs, many refugees are virtually stranded at their location of first entry - preeminently, the Greek islands - waiting for the intentional cogs of bureaucracy to determine the fate of their asylum application. Predictably, Europe’s prevailing solution to refugees has been dominated by the sentiment of “if we ignore it long enough, hopefully it’ll just go away,” and nothing more perfectly encapsulates this line of thinking in practice as the Moria Refugee Camp affair in Lesbos, Greece.
The Moria Refugee Camp on Lesbos island in Greece came to international attention in 2020 when it was ravaged by an intentional fire, displacing over 12,000 people in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic (Kitsantonis). While the identities and nationalities of the arsonists remain contentious between the Greek locals and camp residents, the outcome is still the same: increased suffering of low resource refugee populations and continued breakdowns in the relationship between the local and camp populations. Temporary camps were quickly set up only to be inundated by flooding which worsened already deplorable sanitation conditions. But the history of the Moria camp extends beyond the recent sensationalized destruction.
Moria was originally built as a kind of short-term processing center, with room for only an estimated 3000 residents. When refugees began arriving in Greece in the hundreds of thousands in 2015, Moria, like many other refugee camps scattered along the accessible coasts of the Mediterranean were vastly unprepared to receive the sheer number of asylum seekers needing sanctuary. Moria quickly grew into the largest refugee camp in Europe and at the time of the fire, held approximately 13,000 people (Cossé). The conditions of the camp as described by the head of MSF operations in Greece, Louise Roland- Gosselin is clear: “a crisis in overcrowding - a health and mental-health crisis and a crisis of protection" (Sands).
Acknowledging that Greece has only just resurfaced from the brunt of one of the worst recessions in modern history and recognizing its membership status - and therefore dispersion of liability - in the European Union, it is problematic to place the blame of the conditions refugees suffer from solely on the State which currently hosts them. This is especially true when local aid is the only thing keeping entire communities for collapse, as was the case on Lesbos.
While it is the local population living with the reality of refugee and crisis management on the island, it is the centralized EU government that does the brunt of economic decision making, and Brussels is a long way from Lesbos. This situation is discussed thoughtfully by Tina Mavrikos-Adamou of the Migration Policy institute: “The paradox is that while migration policymaking and related decisions are negotiated in Brussels for EU countries and in Athens at the national level, the effects are felt by the urban and rural localities whose governments have very little say in how and where money is allocated.” Who would better understand the situation and needs of the island refugee camps than the local aid workers who have a personal stake in improving the living conditions for all on their island? Nevertheless, distant formalized procedure takes precedence over efficiency and welfare.
Given that Greece has made its stance on its financial abilities to support refugees clear - in other words, incapable - it only makes sense to conclude that the EU simply funded placation programs, hoping to extend the life of alleged “short-term facilities.” In the case of Moria and other eastern Mediterranean camps, this extension is envisioned indefinitely; until either conditions improve in the refugees’ home countries, allowing for repatriation, or an alternative solution to resettlement in the EU arises miraculously. Callously, the EU is using its vast resources to try to simply “outlast” the refugee crisis by giving the minimum acceptable support to the regions and populations that need funding the most, while ignoring the acute human suffering taking place on their watch. To put it plainly: “Without adequate support from other European countries, Greece has been shouldering the responsibility of providing protection to refugees simply because of its geography” (Dent).
This whole blog boils down to one simple fact: the EU has failed refugees. From striking deals with Turkey to keep refugees from even entering Europe, to the minimal and disjointed support at best from member states, and at worst, open disdain and closing of borders. The EU has proven beyond a doubt that it will not go out of its way to provide for the well-being and dignity of refugees until international media makes its presence known, even relying on the goodwill of local populations for refugee management as opposed to thoughtful and organized aid projects. Obviously, there is no one solution to mitigating the financial, logistical, and most importantly, humanitarian problems that have arisen from the unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers in Europe. However, without equal, or rather, equitable resettlement of refugees across EU member states, the crises will only worsen with time, eventually leading to a boiling point, as exemplified by the shameful Moria Refugee camp conditions, and subsequent arson. The EU’s response to asylum seekers is not only hypocritical and harmful, but its willful cultural myopia neglects to envision a European community enriched by the talents that refugees bring to the table when given the opportunity to thrive rather than survive. It is time for the birthplace of the Geneva Conventions to live up to its own standards and stop relegating entire refugee populations to the peripherals of its society.
Works Cited
Arribas, Gloria Fernández. “The EU-Turkey Agreement: A Controversial Attempt at Patching up a Major Problem.” European Papers, European Papers (Www.europeanpapers.eu), 17 Oct. 2016, www.europeanpapers.eu/en/europeanforum/eu-turkey-agreement-controversial-attempt-patching-up-major-problem.
Carter, Leah. “Germany's Refugee Population Falls for the First Time in Nine Years: DW: 05.10.2020.” DW.COM, Deutsche Welles, 2020, www.dw.com/en/germanys-refugee-population-falls-for-the-first-time-in-nine-years/a-55160344#:~:text=COVID%2D19%20restrictions.-,The%20number%20of%20refugees%20living%20in%20Germany%20has%20fallen%20for,decrease%20of%20around%2062%2C000%20people.
Cossé, Eva. “Greece's Moria Camp Fire: What's Next?” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/12/greeces-moria-camp-fire-whats-next.
Dent, Nancy. “I've Seen What's Happening on Lesbos and It's Shameful.” International Rescue Committee (IRC), 14 Sept. 2020, www.rescue.org/article/ive-seen-whats-happening-lesbos-and-its-shameful.
Kitsantonis, Niki, and Megan Specia. “Police Move Migrants From Greek Camp to Temporary Lesbos Site After Fires.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/world/europe/migrant-camp-fire-lesbos.html.
Mavrikos-Adamou, Tina. “As Lesvos Battles Migration Crisis Fatigue, the Value of Centralized Migration Decision-Making Is Questioned.” Migrationpolicy.org, 21 Oct. 2020, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/lesvos-centralized-migration-management
Sands, Catrin Nye and Leo. “UN Urges Greece to Act as Moria Refugee Camp Reaches 'Boiling Point'.” BBC News, BBC, 31 Aug. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45372942.
Wesel, Barbara. “Turkey Migration Deal a 'Stain on EU Rights Record': DW: 17.03.2021.” DW.COM, Deutsche Welle, 2021, www.dw.com/en/turkey-migration-deal-a-stain-on-eu-rights-record/a-56903392.
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