Time to End the Refugee Shame

RefugeesWelcome

By Gauri van Gulik, Deputy Europe Director at Amnesty International

A solemn moment of silence. The world over, this is the traditional response when lives are cut short by tragedy.

It has also been a common response to tragedies in Europe and off its shores which have ended the lives of thousands of refugees and migrants. Not killed by bombs in Syria, but killed while making terrifying journeys in search of safety and better lives in Europe.

But the scale and rapid succession of these tragedies calls for breaking the silence.

In the space of a week, along with people across the world, I recoiled in horror as four new tragedies added to a growing list of events that have already brought a record number of refugees and migrants to untimely deaths this year. According to UNHCR, 2,500 have already perished en route to Europe since 1 January 2015.

On 26 August, 52 bodies were found inside the hull of a ship about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.

On 27 August, police in Austria discovered the corpses of 71 people, including children, crammed inside a truck left abandoned at the side of the main highway between Budapest and Vienna. Police have told media the dead are believed to have been Syrians and apparently died by suffocation.

That same night came news of yet another tragic shipwreck off the coast of Zuwara, Libya in which up to 200 people may have died.

And yesterday, a shocking photo of a drowned toddler washed up on a Turkish beach hit global headlines, bringing the crisis into even sharper focus. He and his young brother, believed to be from Kobane in Syria, were among at least 11 people believed to have perished when their vessel ran into trouble as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos.

Refugees and migrants - Greece/Macedonia

The nature of tragedies is that they are usually rare and happen unexpectedly, to ordinary people who find themselves swept up in extraordinary circumstances. The past week’s horrors were neither unexpected nor singular.

People dying in their dozens – whether crammed into a truck or a ship, en route to seek safety or better lives – is a tragic indictment of European leaders’ failures to provide safe ways to reach Europe. That it is now happening on a daily basis is Europe’s collective shame.

In Vienna last week, not far from where police made their awful discovery, European Union (EU) leaders were meeting with key EU Member States and western Balkan countries. Despite not being on the initial agenda, the treatment of refugees in the region quickly took top billing.

And with good reason – earlier in the week Amnesty International had reported from Macedonia’s southern border with Greece, where up to 4,000 refugees became trapped when Macedonia closed the border. Paramilitary police units blocked the border crossing with razor wire and fired stun grenades at shocked families who had fled the war in Syria.

Refugees and migrants cross the border from Greece into Macedonia, 24 August 2015.

Refugees and migrants cross the border from Greece into Macedonia, 24 August 2015.

My colleague met a mother of four children from Damascus who clung tightly on to her youngest son amid the booms of stun grenades nearby: “This reminds me of Syria. It scares the children; I never expected to find that in Europe. Never; never,” she said.

Further up the Balkans migration route in Hungary, police this week fired tear gas inside a crowded reception centre, and Hungarian authorities are in the process of erecting a razor wire fence along the border with Serbia to prevent more refugees and migrants from entering.

And Amnesty International has recently visited both Kos and Lesvos, Greek islands on the frontline of Europe’s refugee crisis. Overloaded, under-resourced authorities are failing to copewith the dramatic increase in the number of people arriving on the island – 33,000 on Lesvos since 1 August alone. As a result, thousands of people, including many Syrian refugees, are staying in squalid conditions.

Refugees and migrants - Greece/Macedonia

All these crises are symptoms of the same problem: Europe is not accepting its responsibility in an unprecedented global refugee crisis. It is failing to create safe routes for refugees that respect the rights and protection needs of people with the dignity they are entitled to.

So, what can be done? No more moments of silence – we’ve had enough of those. It is now the time for leadership.

European leaders – some of them, at least – seem to be getting the message.
At the Vienna summit, the calls were less about Fortress Europe and keeping people out, and more about solidarity and responsibility.

Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini could not have been clearer in her remarks at the end of the meeting. Europe, she said has a “moral and legal duty” to protect asylum seekers.

The right words, certainly. But they now need to be matched with action.

Amnesty International has been calling for this Europe-wide approach for years, but recent events prove that it has never been more urgently needed than now. Could we be reaching a tipping point?

Child sleeping in a makeshift outdoor camp on the Greek island of Lesvos, 2015. © Michael S Honegger

Child sleeping in a makeshift outdoor camp on the Greek island of Lesvos, 2015. © Michael S Honegger

European leaders at all levels must step up and provide protection to more people, better share responsibility and show solidarity to other countries and to those most in need.

At the very least, such a response should involve a significant increase in the resettlement of refugees – current proposals pale in comparison to Turkey’s hosting of 1.8 million Syrian refugees – more humanitarian visas and more ways to reunite families.

Anything less would be a moral and human rights failure of tragic proportions – something we simply cannot be silent about.

Note: A version of this op-ed also appeared in GlobalPost.




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14 thoughts on “Time to End the Refugee Shame

  1. Yes. Thank you for your enlightening article. Now, where you picture your governements resposability to this mess we see in Syria -a dire consequence of your leaders interventions in Irak, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya . To mention a few.
    I was very dissapointed by your photo "welcome refugees" and read nothing about your part in this crisis? That`s misleading and inappropriate, when we in fact are seeing your millitary capacity for years tearing down and then dismissing all responsability? Interventions without firm agreement. Dones in Pakistan & Afghanistan. Your ships should be filled with refugees taking them ashore in the war-dearing communities of your Land of the Opportunity.
    I will award you the day Amnesty realizes that your America is also a safe place for refugees.

    Thank you.

  2. Since the USA urged Blair to start the war in Afganistan we in Europe didn't want, and the USA urged Blair to start the war in Iraq we in Europe didn't want then Then you wanted us to bomb Syria which we refused thankfully, you the USA need to for the first time take responsibility as believe me we don't want wars, we have all seen what war looks like. 9/11 was your only attack. Just stop war, Blair and Bush should be on trial for war crime. Stop and take responsibility for your action, don't stand on the side and criticise.

  3. Most European countries are eager to condemn this human tragedy but in practice want to do as little as they can get away with to help solve the problem.Unfortunately there are significant portions of Europe's population that have little sympathy for the plight of these refugees and think it should be somebody else's predicament..

  4. I am sorry, but these are NOT refugees. These are economic migrants. It is a totally different matter with a totally different purpose and a totally different deserved treatment

  5. Along with Europe the U. S. Has a responsibility to help in this crisis. The world has watched while ISIS has torn through these countries and have done next to nothing to stop these monsters. I hope all of Europe and the United States will move swiftly to bring help to these people before the toll becomes more than has been taken so far.

  6. It is not just up to Europe, it's up to the rest of the developed world to support this human tragedy and I call on the Australian Government to do something to help!

  7. We Need a MOVEMENT to SHAME SHAME SHAME EUROPE over this crisis and how they are treating Syria Refugees often just trying to pass through their country to some place that does accept them. SHAME ON HUNGARY. My mother was wrong years ago when she claimed Hungary got a bad deal by Germany, Russia and all. Well maybe they did or did not but they did not learn what to be humble is. They do not know or understand what compassion is or what HELPING or lending a hand means. SHAME THEM…not just Hungary but all of them. One thing….Europe can't ever scold the USA for it's imigration and prejudices after what they are doing right now this very moment in time.

  8. How can Macedonia shepherd Thousands of migrants (everyday!!) through their country when the EU will not offer support whatsoever. You simply cannot let thousands of people "pass-through" your land daily without a proper transportation, support, funding etc etc to accurately monitor and control passage. If EU will not support, then Macedonia's hands are tied. I don't know why the country does everything to meet the criteria to join the EU institution that doesn't even them with support.
    We have hundreds of thousands of Albanian migrants, that DO NOT respect the state. They over populate areas of the country, erect the Albanian flags all over to signal everyone as if it's their land! Disgrace. The country is already a powder keg so they certainly cannot handle the refugees.

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