Details on European Refugee Crisis in a Nutshell

Since 2011, a significant increase in the number of people fleeing their homes in countries such as Syria and making their way to Europe can be attributed to this phenomenon. They view the European Union (EU) as a safe haven for them. The whole situation has developed into a crisis as a result of the increased number of refugees who have arrived at a time when the locals do not want any more. This predicament is known as the “Refugee Crisis” in Europe.

The refugees come from countries other than just Syria!

More than 5 lakh people have made the journey across the ocean and land to reach Europe. The majority of them hail from Syria, a country that is not only plagued by its ongoing civil war but also by the cruellest and most inhumane atrocities committed by ISIS. However, Syria is not the only country involved in this. They originate in places like Syria and Iraq in the Middle East, as well as Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Gambia in Africa, as well as South Asia and Central Asia. Statistics compiled by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicate that a sizable portion of refugees are also hailing from Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is due to the fact that civil wars continue to rage in both of these nations.

The term “European migrant crisis” became widely used in April of 2015, when five boats that were carrying almost 2,000 migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated to be more than 1,200 people. This event prompted widespread use of the phrase “European migrant crisis.”

Statistics

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 59.5 million people were forcibly displaced in the year 2014, a number that significantly increased the following year.

In the most recent few months, a record number of 1,07,500 migrants arrived at the borders of European Union countries.

Approximately thirty thousand people have lost their lives along these borders between the years 2000 and 2015.

These numbers are a witness to the fact that this crisis did not start only after the emergence of ISIS. There has been an alarming uptick in the number of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum in European countries, which is seen as a worrisome trend among refugees. Just in 2014 alone, there were approximately 24,000 applications for asylum submitted by unaccompanied minors. Many of the children who arrive are between the ages of 15 and 17, and they have not received any type of formal education. This causes additional difficulties for the countries that are hosting them.

Causes of the Refugee Crisis at the Macro Level

1)Europe or, to use a more clichéd term, the “West,” which includes the United States, as a result of the fact that the countries that are responsible for this situation are the ones who have to bear the pain of this crisis. A brief and quick look into history will show you this. Since two American gentlemen made the unexpected discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, one could say that the Middle East is the holy grail of the Western world. It was without a doubt a boon to natives as well as to millions of Asian and African immigrants who settled in the Middle East, but at the same time, it paved the way for an ongoing geopolitical crisis across the region. 

2)Continuous dictatorship type regimes and Islamic fundamentalism have made the Middle East the most volatile and disturbed place on the planet. This is due to the fact that the Middle East is home to a number of countries that are ruled by Islamic fundamentalists. The Western powers have always taken a partial stance on these issues in order to ensure a steady supply of oil for themselves and to participate in the Gulf Boom that began in the early 1980s.

3)The Shia-Sunni divide was another factor that contributed to the situation getting worse, as it caused people, society, and regimes to become divided, which in turn led to many conflicts. This is one of the primary reasons why so many people from Palestine have been forced to become refugees in the past, including during the Iraq-Iran war, the Iraq-Kuwait war, and other conflicts.

4)This refugee crisis has provided Europe with a wake-up call regarding the reality of its wars in many different parts of MENA (Middle East and North African region). Even though they were able to kill or defeat dictator leaders during the wars that took place on these lands, the situation did not improve. The infrastructure and livable conditions, which were already at an appalling level, became even worse as a result of the war. As a consequence of this, the natives of these lands began looking for greener pastures, which happened to be in Europe; this was the beginning of the refugee crisis.

5)The current refugee crisis didn’t begin yesterday, but it has seen a huge surge as a result of the conflict in Libya. Democracy movements and civil war are both contributing factors. If we look at the refugee problem as a crisis that began with the joint war fought by the United States and the United Kingdom to liberate Iraq, we see that there are many people who have been forced to flee their homes.

6)The emergence of ISIS has catapulted the situation to an entirely new level. In a sense, Western powers were not successful in establishing stable regimes in these lands. On one side, people have been subjected to the atrocities committed by ISIS or ineffective regimes supported by the West. On the other side, people have been subjected to starvation, poverty, and tyranny. The only way for them to have any chance of survival was to begin the long journey towards Europe. As a result, one of the largest exodus events ever documented in history got underway.

Conclusion

The West, through its myopic foreign policy, has in some ways contributed to the instability in West Asia and the Middle East, and it can no longer turn a blind eye to the refugee crisis.The United States, which has been largely elusive on this issue up until now, ought to be included in Europe.The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries ought to take in more refugees. What Saudi Arabia is doing right now, which consists of attacking and bombing Yemen, is a mistake that will only result in an increase in the number of refugees.In the event that Europe decides to turn back the refugees, the predicament will become even more dire. Because these refugees won’t have any other choices for how to survive, the likelihood of them joining ISIS will increase as a result of this stupid action.