Refugee Crisis in Europe: Threat to the EU unity and integrity.
The refugee crisis is an imminent threat to Europe, and the major reasons behind this are the political and economic instability in Africa, the Middle East and in some countries of South Asia. Ongoing political reform and western military intervention have created social unrest. Terrorism has engulfed the region. Unemployment is increasing aggressively at an unprecedented rate. Economic infrastructure has been destroyed. People in the search of better livelihood cross the Mediterranean by putting their lives at risk. Thousands of them are crossing it every day, as a result, some small countries are facing a risk of demographic distortion in Europe. People are coming to Europe and request for the asylum, a form of international protection, and nations are abide by its rules and regulations. The people, who have fled their home country fearing persecution, can apply for asylum. European Union has its legal and moral obligation to this, and they are firmly sticking to it. Europe is the home of millions of asylum seeker, and it’s the first choice for the refugee. But most of the asylum seekers in Europe are not the refugee. They are economic migrant, actually, they are leaving their home country to improve their lives.
Refugee crisis in Europe is not going to end anywhere in this decade or in the next decade, as the political and social unrest are likely to deepen further if it is not going to handle properly. These are driven by the economic slowdown, and the regional government and regime are not prepared for it due to mistrust and discord among them, and so west was forced to intervene. Very high fertility rate and in turn the explosive population growth rate are the major problem in these countries, which has created a huge working population. Employment creation is drastically going down so the mass migration will continue, and none of the economic indicators are positive. As a result, the situation will continue to deteriorate, migrant will keep on crossing the Mediterranean. The international community needs to frame a long-term plan to take up this challenge, and the European Union has to take firm and constructive steps for their own existence.
On the other hand, refugee crisis has been creating the discords and huge mistrust among the EU nations, and they are struggling to create the consensus among themselves, however, they are pushing the great effort to it. The burden-sharing deal was agreed by the member nations in 2015, Germany was leading the block, and they announced to take one million refugees. The scheme was proposed to rehabilitate 160,000 refugees, but the deal was miserably failed due to disagreement among the member nations. Poland and Hungary profoundly disagreed with the deal, and they refuse to accept any migrant. The Czech Republic initially accepted few, and then walked out of it. Italy and Greece are on the major entry point for refugee, so they are facing an odd with the northern EU members. Turkey is one of the entry points for Syrian, Iraq and South Asian refugees, and it is hosting 3 millions of refugees itself. The government is already facing public anger, however EU has offered around US $7.5 billion humanitarian aid to Turkey in 2017 and 2018, so that they can tap the flow of Syrian migrant into Europe, but deteriorating EU- Turkey relation over crackdown of media and civil society in Turkey, has irritated the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He has threatened EU to turn on the refugee “Tap” again. EU has allocated US $ 12 billion to deal with the refugee crisis, most of its fund is going to provide the basic needs of migrants. The EU policy against Libya is another factor for the mass influx of refugees from North Africa, as most of Libya is ungoverned after US-led NATO intervention. Aftermath UN-led effort to stabilize the country and the government has been failed miserably.
Everyone has been appreciating the approach to the way Europe is dealing with the refugee crisis. UN is thumping up the effort of EU for inclusive search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean to tackle the threat of human trafficking and criminals. It has increased its capacity to 3 times in last few years in the sea, they have established a new European border and coast guard, and they have set up European migration smuggling center to counter the smugglers.
The refugee crisis has now created the political discourse in Europe, and this is the biggest political agenda there, as a result, far-right and neo-Nazi are now becoming the power center in EU. They are now in power in some of the states or are emerging as the powerful opposition. Geert builder in the Netherlands and Norbert Hoffer in Austria were the strong contenders in the 2017 presidential election, Marina Le Pen was also vocal about the refugee crisis in Europe during 2017 French federal election, and Italy and Germany will go for election in the next year where the current governments are facing unprecedented uproar from the far right opposition regarding refugee crisis. Due to several Islamic terror attacks on France, the government is taking every step with great precaution. Recently, France doesn’t allow even the docking of a ship carrying migrants on its port. Hungary’s right-wing government has conveyed the message to EU that it will not accept any refugees, for which EU is now planning to take action against Poland, Hungary, and The Czech Republic. Any legal action against these countries will further complicate the issue.
The mass migration to Europe has created the uneasy environment in some part of it. Natives are losing its identity, the demographic shift has taken place, even some of the commentators are calling it a cultural invasion. Most of the migrants are coming to Europe, are military age. In one of the interview, Pope Francis called it an Arab invasion, and he went on saying the Christianity of Europe must be protected. He recognizes the radical Islam is the major cause of violence in Europe. People are now questioning their government to retain its identity, its culture and its wealth, and they believe their countries sovereignty has been undermined by the mass migrants. Some of the EU members have put some restrictions over the free movement across the border. Ultra-nationalism is emerging again across the region, Nationalist believe that Muslim is most conservative community currently, they have their own way of life, they feel it’s more valuable and it’s stronger than others, Europe is not the place for them This is where problems arise, and the impact of which can be seen in Europe. They are demanding their kind of Islamic law in Muslim majority area, that creates huge concerns among the natives. The next two decades are difficult for Europe, and they need a long-term plan. Pope Francis had concluded the same interview by saying “the ideological degeneration of religion results in a war”. If EU fails to address the refugee crisis, it will be a great failure, disappointment, bitterness, cynicism, and self-destruction.
