The European Union has been struggling to respond to a surge of desperate migrants since the beginning of the year.

The flood of migrants and refugees, the largest movement of people Europe has seen since 1945, has raised doubt about open-borders and provoked a dispute over sharing the burden.

Seeking Asylum

Conflict in Syria continues to be by far the biggest driver of the migration. But the ongoing violence in Afghanistan, abuses in Eritrea, as well as poverty in Kosovo are also leading people to look for new lives elsewhere. Asylum applications from Syrians in Europe have surged this year, fuelled by the country’s vicious civil war which began more than four years ago and shows no sign of ending.

The vast majority of refugees have fled to neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and the number of Syrians there far outweighs those who have made the difficult journey to Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Division between the EU

The huge numbers of migrants is sparking a crisis as countries struggle to cope with the influx, creating a division between EU member states over how is best to deal with the resettlers. And as more and more displaced people are seeking refuge in Europe, some are questioning the EU for their slow response.

After an emergency summit in Brussels on how the EU should handle the tens of thousands of refugees pouring into its countries, leaders from central and eastern Europe pushed back a quota system that requires all EU member states to take in as many refugees as they could.
At present, the EU has a policy  known as the Dublin Regulation, which requires migrants to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive. The policy was designed to curb multiple applications in various countries and to ensure claims are dealt with efficiently. However, certain countries have been overwhelmed by the influx, Hungary, Italy and Greece. Germany, for its part, has lifted the Dublin Regulation and is predicted to take in as many as 800,000 migrants this year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked European nations to come together and help distribute 160,000 people who are seeking asylum across the continent. Although this number is only a fraction of the people who have fled to Europe this year.

Countries that have taken in the most migrants include Germany, Sweden, and Austria. While countries like Denmark and Hungary have hostilely pushed back proposals put forth to help ‘share the refugees out’. With many migrants making their way from Serbia, Hungarian officials have constructed a huge fence to deter migrant crossings. New Hungarian legislation has also been put in place that makes crossing the fence or damaging it a criminal offence.
Decisions about what countries would like to do about the crisis themselves, have been left to them to make individually.

Worries are being circulated by residents from EU countries that the refugees are in fact not those who are fleeing war torn countries, and are those coming from poverty ridden places instead – which makes dealing with the crisis, even more difficult.

 

Photos by: European C0mmission, Alexrk2.