PARIS: Since taking in more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in 2015, Europe has stepped up border controls but still falls short on common migration and asylum policies.
At the time, the migrant crisis “laid bare Europe’s structural flaws and political divisions,” said Marie De Somer, a migration specialist at the European Policy Center.
Until 2015, the Dublin regulation had called for the first EU country where asylum seekers arrived to deal with their applications.
But the system “completely exploded” under the pressure that year, De Somer said.
Early on, images of columns of migrants trekking across Europe and the body of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Greek beach sparked sympathy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel set aside the rules in summer 2015 to allow 900,000 mostly Syrian asylum seekers in — soon followed by countries with less experience of mass arrivals like Austria and Sweden.
But a “quota” system to redistribute migrants among EU member countries, hastily cobbled together at Germany’s request, never moved the 160,000 people originally agreed on.
Initial openness to the newcomers foundered on the opposition of central European countries led by Viktor Orban’s Hungary — as well as a surge in support for anti-immigration populist parties in western Europe.
For lack of agreement, the Schengen free-movement zone was “significantly weakened, with controls reinstated on several frontiers” between members, a senior French official familiar with migration policy said on condition of anonymity.
Some migrants fell through gaps in the legal system, wandering from one EU country to another filing new asylum claims as previous ones were rejected.
Meanwhile national governments tightened their own laws piecemeal, limiting refuge rights or raising the bar for granting asylum.
Paris “above all tried to speed up processing of requests to quickly reject the ones without merit,” the French official said.
But informal refugee camps in the capital and northern port city Calais are now growing again — despite authorities doubling the number of places in state accommodation over five years.
“We have to stop this question from being a thorn in Europe’s side,” the official said. “We’re no longer in crisis and we should be able to manage today’s arrivals.”
Last year 612,000 people made initial asylum requests in Europe, according to statistics authority Eurostat — around half the numbers seen in 2015-16.
But the decline in arrivals was bought with “agreements with non-EU countries at a significant cost for European values, and put the EU in a weak position,” said Matthieu Tardis at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
An EU-Turkey deal struck in 2016 calls for Ankara to accept the return of migrants arriving in Greece, in exchange especially for financial aid.
But it cemented “terrible health conditions” in migrant camps in Greece and “became a lever” for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to exert pressure on Europe, Tardis said.
Erdogan flexed his muscles earlier this year by declaring his borders open, prompting tens of thousands of people to head for the Greek frontier.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, the EU has backed a controversial agreement for Italy to finance and train the coast guard in Libya, torn by anarchy and civil war since 2011.
The EU “has notched up very few successes beyond beefing up Frontex,” said the European Policy Center’s De Somer.
By 2027, the Brussels agency is supposed to number 10,000 border and coast guards who can be sent to buttress struggling member states.
But the Commission is also due to propose yet another mechanism for European asylum cooperation this September.
In July, Germany suggested the plan should include more preliminary triage of asylum seekers at the EU’s external borders and call for Frontex to deport those whose applications are denied.
Berlin also hopes for a scheme to relocate migrants rescued at sea among roughly a dozen willing member countries, while those who refuse to take them in could contribute financial aid.
Even that compromise would not plug all the holes in the European system.
“There can’t be a common European policy without common criteria for accepting asylum requests,” said Didier Leschi, head of France’s immigration and integration authority.
Europe still mired in division after migrant crisis
https://arab.news/phf29
Europe still mired in division after migrant crisis
- Initial openness to the newcomers foundered on the opposition of central European countries led by Viktor Orban’s Hungary
- For lack of agreement, the Schengen free-movement zone was “significantly weakened, with controls reinstated on several frontiers” between members
Left homeless by blaze, Muslims in southernmost Philippines observe Ramadan as month of trial
- Thousands lost their homes when parts of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi were burnt to ashes
- Many trying to fully observe the fasting month say they are grateful to be alive
Manila: As Annalexis Abdulla Dabbang was looking forward to observing the month of Ramadan with her family, just days before it began they lost everything when an enormous fire tore through whole neighborhoods of their city in the southernmost province of the Philippines.
Bongao is the capital of Tawi-Tawi, an island province, forming part of the country’s Muslim minority heartland in the Bangsamoro region. The city experienced its worst fire in years in early February, when flames swept through the coastal community, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.
“We were swimming for our lives. We had to swim to escape from the fire ... We swam in darkness, and (even) the sea was already hot because of the fire,” Dabbang, a 27-year-old teacher, told Arab News.
“Everything we owned was gone in just a few hours — our home, our memories, the things we worked hard for, everything turned to ashes.”
Trying to save their 2-year-old daughter and themselves, she and her husband left everything behind — as did hundreds of other families that together with them have since taken shelter at the Mindanao State University gymnasium — one of the evacuation centers.
Unable to secure a tent, Dabbang’s family has been sleeping on the bleachers, sharing a single mat as their bed. When Ramadan arrived a few days after they moved to the makeshift shelter, they welcomed it in a different, more solemn way. There is no family privacy for suhoor, no room or means to welcome guests for iftar.
“Ramadan feels different now. It’s painful but at the same time more real. When we lost our home, we began to understand what sacrifice really means. When you sleep in an evacuation center, you understand hunger, discomfort in a deeper way,” Dabbang said.
“We don’t prepare special dishes. We prepare our hearts.”
While she and thousands of others have lost everything they have ever owned, she has not lost her faith.
“Our dreams may have turned to ashes, but our prayers are still alive,” she said.
“This Ramadan my prayers are more emotional than ever. I pray for strength, not just for myself, but for my family and for every neighbor who also lost their family home. I pray for healing from the trauma of fire. I pray that Allah will replace what we lost with something better. I pray for the chance to rebuild not just our house, but our sense of security.”
Juraij Dayan Hussin, a volunteer helping the Bongao fire victims, observed that many of them were traumatized and the need to cleanse the heart and mind during Ramadan was what kept many of them going, because they are “thankful that even though they lost their property, they are still alive.”
But the religious observance related to the fasting month is not easy in a cramped shelter.
“It’s hard for Muslims to perform their prayers when they do not have their proper attire because they usually have specific clothes for prayer,” he said. “Sanitation in the area is also an issue ... when you fast and when you pray, cleanliness is essential.”
For Abdulkail Jani, who is staying at a basketball court with his brother and more than 70 other families, this Ramadan will be spent apart from their parents, whom they managed to move to relatives.
“The month of Ramadan this year is a month of trial ... there will be a huge change from how we observed Ramadan in the past, but we will adjust to it and try to comfort ourselves and our family. The most important thing is that we can perform the fasting,” he told Arab News.
“Despite our situation now, despite everything, as long as we’re alive, we will observe Ramadan. We’ll try to observe it well, without missing anything.”
