Saturday, July 23, 2016

Europe’s Continuing Shame


First came Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Then the horrific attack in Nice, France, which killed 84 people. Then, on Friday, a shooting near a shopping mall in Munich, which the police are treating as a possible terrorist attack.

These events alone would be cause for a continental nervous breakdown. But still unresolved is an even bigger threat to European stability: a failure to develop a coherent, humane plan to deal with the inexorable flow of desperate people fleeing violence and persecution in the Middle East and Africa and seeking a new home in Europe.

Through July 17, more than 240,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, roughly equal to last year’s crossings during the same period. Nearly 3,000 died in the attempt, 60 percent higher than last year’s grim toll.


This is a humanitarian tragedy, arising partly from Europe’s failure to put enough resources into rescue efforts and partly from its failure to develop legal channels for desperate people intent on reaching Europe. This has left them at the mercy of smugglers. To protest what it called “shameful deterrence policies,” Doctors Without Borders announced last month that it would no longer accept funds from the E.U. and its member states.

The group singled out for special condemnation the deal the E.U. reached in March with Turkey, in which the union agreed to provide more than $6 billion to Turkey in return for Turkey’s help in stopping the flow of migrants to Europe and for taking back those who successfully crossed the Aegean to Greece. The group argued that this gave priority to the sanctity of borders at the expense of humanitarian needs and sets a dangerous precedent.

Statistically, the Turkey deal appears to have paid off; the number of migrants risking the perilous voyage from Turkey to Greece has plummeted, according to the United Nations. But closing the Greek route has shifted attention to the longer, more dangerous route from Libya to Italy. Drowning deaths are inevitable, despite the best efforts of the Italian Coast Guard and Navy to answer distress calls, as smugglers in Libya send out more and more migrants on unseaworthy vessels.

Another part of the problem is Europe’s Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that asylum seekers file applications in the country of first arrival. That has put an unfair burden on Italy and Greece; a plan to ease that burden by distributing some refugees to other nations has foundered. New burden-sharing proposals are in the works, but they face strenuous opposition. A proposal floated on July 10 to tempt countries to take in refugees by offering 10,000 euros per person would require the approval of European governments and the European Parliament.

Meanwhile, the refugee issue continues to stoke fears and xenophobic politics. If Europe fails to face this problem squarely and humanely, more migrants will die, and a union that has kept the peace in Europe for decades could well unravel.



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