An EU-Turkey deal to tackle the migrant crisis has formally come into effect. Under the deal, migrants arriving in Greece are now expected to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected. The influx of people crossing to Greek islands grew ahead of the deadline, and Greece said it would not be able to implement the deal immediately. On Sunday, volunteers on the Greek island of Lesbos were dealing with the first arrivals under the new regime. Just hours before the agreement came into force, a four-month-old baby girl drowned when a boat carrying migrants sank off the Turkish coast, Turkey’s Anadolu agency reported. The deal says that for every Syrian migrant sent back to Turkey, one Syrian already in Turkey will be resettled in the EU.
It was probably inevitable that at some point Europe’s capacity for compassion and willingness to expend resources assisting refugees would begin to dry up. As more countries are clamoring to shut their doors to the poor and displaced, the tide is beginning to turn as the European Union (EU) begins to see those suffering less as refugees and more as prisoners of their fate. With thousands upon untold thousands transiting Turkey and arriving on Greek islands by boat, the EU and Turkey arrived at an agreement intended to ease the burden on Turkey.
There’s little doubt but that Turkey is a country of meager means under the best of circumstances and Greece is in the throes of its worst financial crisis in generations, but the agreement with the EU is as much about European governments frustrated with the seemingly never-ending flow of destitute refugees arriving at their doorstep.
It’s easy for those of us here in the U.S. to sit in judgment of Europe and condemn what appears to be growing compassion fatigue. When you consider the sheer numbers of migrants Europe is trying to absorb, it’s more difficult to pass it off as merely a “European problem.”
Since January 2015, one million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 143,000 have arrived this year alone, and about 460 have died, according to the International Organization for Migration….
Most of them are keen to go to Germany and other northern European Union countries, and tens of thousands are now stuck in Greece as their route north has been blocked.
Critics, however, have said the deal could force migrants determined to reach Europe to start using other and potentially more dangerous routes, such as the journey between North Africa and Italy….
Human rights groups have strongly criticised the deal, with Amnesty International accusing the EU of turning “its back on a global refugee crisis”.
I have concerns about the EU’s approach to the refugee crisis, but it’s not as if European countries haven’t stretched their in some cases meager resources to assist those in need. I believe the EU could do better than the creation of an environment that could possibly force refugees into taking ever more dangerous escape routes, but the search for solutions must extend beyond Europe.
The scope of the problem is such that Europe can’t be expected to effectively handle the situation alone. The U.S. government and the U.N. have the capacity and the means to significantly increase aid targeted to ensure that refugees are cared for and their situations addressed fairly and with dispatch. What appears to be lacking is the will to take the necessary steps. America and the United Nations can’t continue to stand on the sidelines while Europe attempts to address and contain the problem within its borders.
This is no longer just a European problem; it’s the world’s problem.
