As European leaders struggle to respond to the growing number of refugees crossing their countries’ borders, divisions persist among EU member states over how to manage the continent’s worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Meanwhile, the Arab region has come to host more than one-third of the world’s refugees, with Lebanon and Jordan under significant strain. War has forcibly displaced more than 12 million Syrians in the past four years alone.
In this Q&A, Carnegie experts trace the evolution of the crisis. They analyze how it is impacting political stability in the Middle East and Europe, and what leaders should do about it.
- What’s driving the refugee flows?
- How are the refugee flows changing the Middle East?
- How have countries in the Middle East and the broader international community responded to the crisis thus far?
- How are the refugees traveling to Europe? Is the flow going to abate any time soon?
- Was Europe prepared?
- How will this crisis impact political stability in Europe?
- What kind of policy responses are needed now?
What’s driving the refugee flows?
Maha Yahya: The Syrian crisis is a huge driver. Globally one in five refugees is Syrian. They augment millions of Libyans, Sudanese, Somalis, Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis, and more fleeing conflicts in their own countries.
One of the most significant factors driving the recent surge of refugees is the sense of hopelessness that now prevails among Syrians. After four years of war, and with no political or diplomatic breakthrough in sight, their future in Syria looks bleak.
This reality is also sinking in among Syrians hosted in neighboring countries. There is a sense of despair, particularly in Jordan and Lebanon, where being a refugee means living in limbo: unable to work, surviving on aid, and having one’s movements restricted. There is simply no prospect of establishing any kind of future for oneself or one’s family. The shortfall in funding for humanitarian support is also life threatening for many.
The majority of refugees headed to Europe are fleeing directly from Syria, but some are also leaving Lebanon with indications that daily, hundreds are embarking on the treacherous trip. There is a rush in particular among Syrians in the professional middle class—or what is left of it. They are risking their lives and the lives of their children to reach Europe, which offers the possibility of security, safety, and eventually building a future. Young men are also leaving to avoid now-mandatory military conscription by the Syrian army and to escape a war of which they want no part.
Syria is the biggest but not the only driver. Other conflicts, including those in Somalia and Eritrea, have displaced millions as a result of identity-based persecution and repression. Practical considerations are driving this massive movement of people, including the relative ease of the route via Turkey and Greece to the Balkans. The price of transport has also dropped from an estimated $5,000–$6,000 to $2,000–$3,000 per person. And the collapse of the central state in Libya opened a new route for economic migrants from Africa.
On the regional front, the willingness of Gulf countries to provide financial assistance for humanitarian support and their reluctance to host refugees means that those fleeing war are limited in their choice of safe havens. In this context, Europe can offer stability and prospects for a future that no other place can.
How are the refugee flows changing the Middle East?
Maha Yahya: Beyond the significant humanitarian aspects of this crisis, these massive population shifts are dramatically altering the political, economic, social, and cultural trajectories of individual countries and the region as a whole. Forced displacements and population transfers based on ethnic and sectarian identities are reconfiguring the political maps of Syria and Iraq and threatening to undo the social orders of both Lebanon and Jordan. They are also leading communities searching for ways to protect themselves to militarize.
Meanwhile, the crisis is generating a massive new underclass of impoverished citizens, jeopardizing the future of generations, and placing some at risk of radicalization. Refugees and internally displaced persons are living in a state of exception, pushed to the fringes of society, unable to reconstitute their lives or make a gainful living. There has been a dramatic rollback of development gains in areas such as education, healthcare, and food security, as close to 80 percent of Syrians have slid into poverty, 9.8 million are food insecure, and around 2 million children are left without education. In host countries, there has been a race to the bottom as the most impoverished refugees compete with equally disadvantaged citizens for scarce resources.
In this environment, refugees are pushed to make choices that can prejudice their futures, including removing children from school, acquiring astronomical debt, and becoming involved in illicit activities. If left unaddressed, this will trap the region in a cycle of vulnerability for decades to come.
How have countries in the Middle East and the broader international community responded to the crisis thus far?
Marwan Muasher: Both Jordan and Lebanon, the two states under the most strain in Syria’s neighborhood, have done remarkably well in response to the refugee crisis, considering its magnitude and their resources. They have not closed borders and have provided whatever relief they can to the refugees. Yet, this influx is clearly a significant problem for these countries.
Although some refugees work illegally because they have to in order to survive, wages are far below what could be earned through legal employment if that were permitted. There are valid arguments calling on the Jordanian government in particular to allow refugees to work in certain sectors that employ foreign workers anyway, as this would allow the refugees to be more self-sufficient, would reduce tensions between refugees and locals as well as radicalization trends, and would benefit the local economy.
The sheer scale of the crisis is also an issue. Lebanon, a small country with a native population of less than 5 million, has over 1 million Syrian refugees. Jordan, with a population of less than 7 million, is host to over 600,000 Syrian refugees, in addition to an estimated 800,000 Syrians that were living in the country before the crisis according to the government.
And these two countries were strapped economically even before the refugee crisis. Public debt and unemployment levels were both high. They do not have the kind of financial resources or capacity that European countries have.
Most of the aid efforts the international community has undertaken to date have focused on humanitarian relief. And food and shelter for refugees is certainly needed, particularly as winter approaches.
But countries like Jordan and Lebanon need more than just food and shelter for refugees. They also need assistance directed toward empowering the refugees in the long term. There has been little focus on education or on other steps that would ensure that these refugees have the necessary skills to make it in life and are not radicalized.
Both Europe and the United States have taken a backseat in response to the crisis in the region and have let Syria’s neighbors deal with it. But it can no longer be ignored.
How are the refugees traveling to Europe? Is the flow going to abate any time soon?
Marc Pierini: This year’s surge of migrants to Europe is specifically composed of asylum seekers, and the emergence of effective and tech-savvy networks of traffickers is enabling their journeys.
These asylum seekers are absolutely determined to make it to Europe, so to speak, irrespective of the dangers and difficulties involved. They are also willing to pay intermediaries astounding amounts of money to make the journey. Based on the number of asylum seekers who have been registered in the EU from January to June 2015 and a conservative estimate of €2,500 ($2,800) for the journey from Syria/Turkey to the EU, this makes for a total amount of over €1.0 billion for the half-year period. And traffickers are becoming increasingly more sophisticated.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a transit country on refugees’ journeys to Europe, has not thoroughly attempted to control the movements of refugees along the Aegean coast. Authorities also tend to turn a blind eye to trafficking and to the growing business of forging Syrian passports.
Turkey has a new responsibility in this difficult crisis. Although the government complains about not having received enough assistance from the EU over the past several years, it declared in 2011 that it would not accept assistance according to EU methods; it would only take assistance in the form of blank checks made out to its emergency agency. But Turkey cannot just sit on the sidelines and watch the massive social and political destabilization of the Europe it has sought to join.
The current refugee crisis in Europe is not about to abate. The main reason is that there are millions of refugees unable to return home: from Syria alone, there are 4 million people in neighboring countries and nearly 8 million internally displaced.
Another important reason is that the Russian military buildup in Syria will inevitably generate the fear that there will be more fighting and more casualties, causing even more people to seek refuge outside of Syria and those who have left to stay away.
In addition, the fact that Germany expects to receive 800,000 refugees gives hope to asylum seekers that there is a reasonable chance to make it to Europe, which they see as a safer haven than any of the other options (such as the Gulf) in terms of security, rights, and opportunities.
Faced with their current situation, asylum seekers generally think that there is nothing to lose in undertaking the dangerous journey.
Was Europe prepared?
Jan Techau: At the analytical level, Europe was not unprepared for the large stream of refugees that developed into a trek of biblical proportions over the summer. Experts from various policy fields (migration, security, development, the environment) had frequently warned about the risk of unchanneled mass migration toward Europe.
But politically, the EU was completely unprepared. Knowledge did not translate into action.
More importantly, the crisis hit Europe so hard because at its root is a simultaneous long-term public policy failure in about a dozen policy fields. From immigration to integration policies, from border control to the fight against organized crime, from humanitarian aid to internal solidarity and burden sharing, from trade policy to development cooperation, from military interventions to the European Neighborhood Policy—Europe has failed so consistently and so comprehensively that fixing the multilayered issue is one of the most complicated and convoluted tasks Europeans have ever had to face collectively. Europeans have been oblivious to the scope of their failure, so they are equally overwhelmed by the size of the crisis this failure has created.
Politicians have especially avoided the integration part of the refugee issue. Partly, this has to do with ideology. The political Left has steadily argued against immigration policies because it fears that establishing fixed rules will limit migration. The Right has done the same thing but for the exact opposite reason: it fears that systematizing migration will only open the floodgates. This constitutes an informal grand coalition against pragmatic problem solving.
Then there are the emotional identity issues. Few other issues have triggered as many as this one. And few other issues have triggered as determined a reaction to protect the national interest as the massive influx of strangers into the homeland.
Countries with well-developed immigration policies, such as the UK, were better prepared. Others, where no tradition of integrating large numbers of foreigners into the mainstream exists—such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania—balked at the prospect of taking a share of the refugees in.
As a consequence, organizing a roughly balanced burden sharing among member states became hugely difficult. An East-West division emerged. Despite a compromise on the issue forced through the European Council, tensions remain strong, and decisionmaking will continue to be difficult.
Identity politics and anti-EU sentiments had already been rife before the refugees arrived at Europe’s doorstep. Trying to make the case for the integration of hundreds of thousands of refugees into host societies under today’s circumstances is especially hard.
How will this crisis impact political stability in Europe?
Stefan Lehne: Crises bring out the best and worst in people. The sudden mass influx of refugees has triggered an amazing readiness to help as well as outpourings of xenophobia and fire bombings of refugee accommodations. Which type of response prevails will depend to a large extent on political leadership.
Most experts agree that Europe needs immigration to compensate for its deteriorating demographics, to regain growth, and to maintain its welfare systems. The current wave of refugee arrivals is therefore in the longer term a good thing for Europe.
The problem is that at this point the process is utterly chaotic. Many people experience masses of foreign people marching through Europe as a threat to their established way of life.
Populist movements exploiting these fears are therefore gaining ground in many countries. For these groups, anti-immigration feelings go hand in hand with rejection of the EU, which is blamed for this loss of control.
Mainstream parties waver between making the case for welcoming the refugees (in particular in Germany, where for historical reasons the populist Right is taboo) and restrictive policies catering to fears in the population. As politics remain largely national in Europe, these parties too are tempted to reestablish control through national means—hence, the acute threat to the Schengen system.
If current trends continue, tensions in the member states and acrimony among EU governments are bound to increase. That is why Europe needs to turn the chaotic influx of people into a well-managed process. This involves reestablishing control over the EU’s external borders, harmonizing asylum policies, and agreeing on a fair way to share the burden.
While this will be very difficult, it is still the easy part. The real task is to effectively integrate the new arrivals and avoid the emergence of ghettoes and parallel societies. Only thus can Europeans preserve the mutual trust on which their way of life rests. There is no greater challenge confronting Europe today.
What kind of policy responses are needed now?
Pierre Vimont: Appropriate responses can only be defined with an accurate assessment of the challenges raised by the current crisis. The issue is therefore how to address the despair-filled future faced by migrants and to propose responses to the short-term urgencies while also tackling the more structural problems.
In the short term, the first priority for Europeans is to get their house in order and abide by their own internal rules and international conventions with a greater sense of solidarity and responsibility. Then Europeans should increase their engagement with the frontline nations—not only Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, but also Ethiopia, Kenya, and many others—that have been sheltering up to now much of the migrant population.
If political refugees are to be convinced to remain in transit countries, they should be provided a decent existence with some realistic prospects for food and healthcare, temporary employment, and education for their children. Additional action should also be pursued in Syria through the establishment of humanitarian zones accepted by all sides.
These efforts must be completed by addressing the root causes of the crisis with concrete deliverables. On Iraq, Libya, and Syria, diplomatic efforts among international partners should be accelerated, building on the work already done by the UN and bringing in the main regional players that have so far resisted any real concession. Why not host an international conference dedicated to the security of the entire Middle East? Such a conference could deal with the current and various regional crises to convince Saudi Arabia and Iran to join in a balanced deal, taking into account their diverging national interests. Other crises in Yemen, northern Nigeria, and the Sahel region should benefit from the same attention because they all carry a risk of increasing the flow of migrants.
Acting on root causes also means making some serious effort to offer economic perspectives for migrants from Africa or South Asia. Improved circulation of remittances, engagement of diasporas in productive investments in countries of origin, support for young entrepreneurs, and, more generally, dedicated programs for creating jobs where refugee communities are currently located or where migrants would be reintegrated when they return to their home countries—all of these actions should be encouraged as proof of the willingness of the international community to tackle migration challenges.
Comments(20)
Seems to me that "militarily protected" in-country sanctuaries should be established by the coalition of countries fighting ISIS and Assad. Once established, Syrian men (now fleeing the country entering these enclaves should be enabled (armed and trained) to fight their barbaric oppressors. Coalition Air Forces should control Syrian Air Space and prevent Assad' s use of barrel bombs. Russia should be persuaded that Assad needs to be eventually replaced through democratic election.
What makes you so confident that the so established secured safe haven(s) (with armed and trained young men) inside Syria, will not join up with ISIS or other Al Qaida affiliates in due course? What has become of the Syrian Free Army? Nothing will work - best to leave them alone. The West needs to confine itself to providing humanitarian aid; and leave the rest to Allah.
- Most Syrians leaving to Europe are NOT leaving from Syria or Lebanon, they are leaving from Turkey. The 'refugees' law in Turkey does not allow any rights to refugees coming from Arab countries. Therefore these 'guests' find it impossible to settle in Turkey unless they have money to open a business. Many wealthy Syrians are quite happy in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and have opened lucrative businesses that is benefiting Turkey . - "Another important reason is that the Russian military buildup in Syria will inevitably generate the fear that there will be more fighting and more casualties, causing even more people to seek refuge outside of Syria and those who have left to stay away." That is totally hypothetical and certainly not inevitable, quite the contrary. The Russian intervention is giving the hopes they needed to refugees stranded in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. If Russia is efficient, in the next few months, we will see refugees going back. How do you explain that 27,000 Syrian refugees went back to Syria celebrate the Eid in their family. No media reported if they came back to Turkey. Obviously all rural Syrians who are landowner are just waiting for security to return to Syria and these make the majority of the refugees stuck in camps in neighboring countries. Europe has ignored the social impact of its military intervention in Libya and has ignored the poverty in many of the african countries it has shamelessly exploited . It has been very stingy in taking emigrants who applied officially. These frustrated emigrants as well as the victims of the consequences of the western adventurism under the hypocritical banner of "democracy' have taken advantage from the door that Turkey has opened for them to move to Europe illegally. Now Europe has to deal with emigrants who have bypassed all the bureaucracy and security checks and that are at their doorsteps. No wonder they are confused. Maybe next time before they attack a country to bring 'democracy' they will think twice. The USA took the lesson in Iraq with the mess it has created. Now Europe is paying the price of their infantile and arrogant obsession. It is the just return of things.
I am surprised that none of the distinguished contributors mentioned the word : Demographics . Many countries in the world increase population to levels that cannot be supported by them . None more so than Arab and Muslim countries . Conversely , population decreases in some places ( Germany ) , and , of course , the Chinese decision to limit birth rate ( now possibly reversed some ) is probably the best and smartest thing China ever did . Thus , the real root cause for the problems in Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world is simply too many people and too few resources , and nothing will happen until this is addressed . Syria , in 1960 , had 4.5 Million inhabitants - some 24 Millions now . Egypt had 20 Millions - - 85 Millions now . Add Iraq , Saudia , Yemen , etc , and you get numbers beyond any ability to deal with them . And it is not stopping . This must be dealt with first . The Chinese model must be followed . Otherwise , they will all end up in Europe . Lucky for those living on islands or beyond oceans and seas .
This is interesting and informative. I wish some of the media commentators in Europe had dug into the background facts as much as your contributors. Can I expect a sequel which would look at the Transatlantic context, meaning the American as well as the European policies relating to Syria and their part in the migration that followed?
The refugee crisis is indeed a man-made crisis. Reasons have to be located dispassionately in order to avert such crises in future. It is much easy to pour in advice as to what ought to be done .But on the ground, the situation has turned worst simply on account of lack of consensus amidst the world community on the action plan so far the ongoing civil war in Syria is concerned. This geo-psychological feud has got much sharpened due to extra-regional intervention in the region. Given this, psycho-cultural prophylaxis is the pragmatic solution to the ongoing refugees problem.
I wrote a long comment on your refugee analyses. when I posted comment, I got "server error" message: error in w:/sites/carnegieEndowment/webpages/cms/comments etc.etc. I don't want to repeat my communication if it does not get through to you Can you check what is happening?
Thank you for alerting us to this problem! One reason you might see this error message would be a comment that went past the 2500 character limit.
Refugees are best held in locations close enough to their homes so that there can be an orderly return. I do not believe these are political refugees, more likely are economic refugees. Jordan is chock-a-block full of Syrian and Palestinians. Saudis and Gulf States are providing full support from oil revenues. (BTW - Lebanese are not Arabs.) The public welfare ghettos in France for their refugees were a mistake, Permanent residence requires assimilation which the French natives do not offer. Same for Britain. Israel is fortunate to have the land, but will, of course not volunteer, attempting to get its own Arabs to accept a Diaspora. and hoping for the great return.
This quagmire is brought too you by the many western powers whom did not know what they were doing as they followed Dick Cheney and George Bush into Iraq. Congratulations too all of those mistaken intellectuals whom thought western democracy would be and should be the exact same thing in The Middle Eastern nations. Pandora's Box is open wide!
Not a word about Turkey hosting over 2 million refugees, the largest of any country in the region and, indeed, in the world. Thankfully (!) though Pierini mentions it as a "transit" country and castigates it for doing exactly what Greece, Macedonia, etc. are doing. Though he thoughtfully (!) suggests that Turkey should stem the flow and, presumably, reap the wonderful praise rightfully accruing to Hungary. Except, of course, that nobe of the countries allowing passage to Northern Europe have hosted Syrians for years in numbers that make the current move towards Germany, etc. pale. All of the people addressing the issue here know better and so should your editors.
Maha Yahya touches and Marwan Muasher focuses on immigrations' effects on Lebanon and Jordan with slightly different views. Yahya sees negative effects on the "social order" while Muasher sees immigration causing a "significant problem". Might I ask a few questions? Is there a more precise and rigorous statement on the nature of the effects? Are Yahya and Muasher talking about consequences for the economies because economic indicators are more available than governmental stability and performance markers? Does either expert see more severe effects being averted?
Where are the articles on the root cause of all the refugee movement? Of course it is the violence in the countries by that violence began from resistance to autocratic, corrupt governments who resist the power of the people and will not change their policies. Cut off aid to such countries and to any country who supports them. Give the refugees a reason to go home. Why are Carnegie writers dancing to the tune of political correctness? why aren't the other countries in the region doing more to help their own? Where is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Countries? I guess it should be obvious. These are also autocratic governments afraid for their own power and want nothing to do with new ideas amongst the populations. Shame on them and shame of the world for allowing them to get away with it!
The world's Refugee crisis beacons for another 'Marshall Plan'. The trouble is that the nations that would have afforded it are also heavily burdened with defense and military spending owing to the global war on terror and other imperial frontier commitments, so it seems every region or state is left to itself.
We do not need people from outside europe to compensate anything, we have more people than ever in history and only europeans ccan answer to this by procrating. Having people from starkly different culture will only bring civil wars. Not to mention european poor already has to struggle with dwindling resources with these comers. Only answer is to stop Schengen. Only rich class wants more poor people in europe to "do work europeans won't do" with low money. But they won't give from their own money to pay for refugees living expenses, poor have to give up instead from their resources.
So long a Time after the French tutelle in Syria and Lebanon, almost a Century as well as the 70 years or so of British Protectorate on Palestine: then so called! What's left of all that? What happened of the Berlin inherited boiundaries in Africa? A very Huge factory of refugees: Most of the "moden" States... FAILED. But, Why did they fail? In the Magrib (West) or in Mashrick (East)? Why do all those entities, even now are a political and economical turmoil for everyone who ventures in State reinstallation? Where have gone the Patriots? Nowhere...they are there in Lebanon, in Syria, nowadays in exile! Almost killed or emprisonned in the prisons of Iraq or Afghanistan, and elsewhere in Western and Northern Africa where parts of counties are conteolled by ISIS - and - affiliates. The root cause is our involvement in the world political History and our untimely withrawal from them because of Independence wars and the evolution we didn't expect: Probably! But, We still can contribute positively bring a determining change in how politics is done. In The Arab world as well as in Africa, in the war-torn regions, on continental scale... in latin America, in Easten Europe, in the Far-east, Asia-pacific and so forth! EUROPE didn't bother learning in depth to solve Middle Eastern political conflicts: the Israeli - Palestinian current situation which lasts from 1948, to date... included! Do we understand more? Do we have the Willingness to go farther implying ourselves in Peace bringing, in Decision making for a Better world? And are We, Really committed to Democracy everywhere, on any condition? Why not refer to Traditional ways of conlict management: the Loya Jirga in old times Afghanistan kingdom? Why not refer to traditions and other ways of living of the Peoples we are seemingly likely to Free on a day or another, understand them more, deeper to cope with their way of Reasoning? Not imposing our views, and create more of other Preference than what we expected to? The ROOTS CAUSE of The MIDDLE EASTERN World is Misunderstanding of One Another, sort of a QUIPROQUO in the World current affairs, and Lack of Diplomatic Vision of the World leaders! The United Nations should Involve Them More in All thes Conflicts and Wars and mobilize more its Troops and Civil peacemakers. So is my Wish.
EU member States leadership to some dictatorships in Africa, the Middle East and many other parts of the World worsen the Refugee situation and causes more of a Porblem in EU refugees and asylumseekers Crisis: The problem cannot be solved unless Libya becomes a normal state, unless Yemen becomes a governed land, The Horn of Africa, then Graet lakes region, Boko Haram issue and Sahel sacurity issue are duly addressed!
The "Refugee Crisis" exists in Europe because the Kingdom of Jordan has flat run out of room to take in Palestinians who were sent on Diaspora by the Israelis, Syrians who refused to submit themselves to the Assad regime and a host of other Sunni Arabs -- all of whom are being supported by largesse from Saudi Arabia and the rich states along the Persian Gulf. A secular war is being fought using refugees as a tool by the former and present masters of the Arabian peninsula and controllers of the Holy Cities of Islam. The first is Turkey, under the rule of the Islamist Erdogan and supported by the the Turkish patriotic military. It feels strongly the Ottoman roots. Turkey took in the remaining cadre from Saddam's military, rested and retrained them for three purposes: to put down the Kurds of southeast Turkey; second, to create what their Saudi opponents did not -- a single state to which all Sunni of whatever race or ethnicity could pledge religious and political loyalty; third to regain control of the bully pulpits of Mecca and Medina and the large investment in militant Islam represented not only from the locally aupported branches of al Qaeda, but the whole spread of Islam across Africa. On the other side, the Saudis is fighting defensively and is now taking on allies where it can. The third element is the further religious differentiation placed under control of the secular governments of Israel and Iran. The latter is home to the Shi'a branch of Islam -- fifteen percent of Islam. The secular force in Shi'a is Iran, which controls the Shi'a majority nation of Iraq . There are substantial Shia minorities in each of the Sunni ruled countries. Israel is the strongest cohesive nation in the Middle East. It can defend itself against any of the Muslim States individually. The close support of the United States creates a defense in depth.. It was established within the boundaries of the previous British mandate of Palestine. T o create a place of return for Jewish peoples around the world it caused a 20th Century Diaspora of its Muslim population, creating a long term issue in its Islamic neighbors It is good fortune that the Sunni and Shi'a have hated each other since the Eighth Century and can not unite on the issue of a Muslim return.
Less than 500 refugees and refugee families resettled out of 160, 000 which had been planned to be transferred in European inter-state solidarity: It's a real shame or the Europe's credibility addressing the crucial refugee Crisis! Do the leaders of nations feel like concerned? Or, they just talk and sign statemlents to drop or throw them straight forward to the litter-bin? Will these refugees who are present on European soil from Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, the Horn of Africa, and from as far as South-Eastern Africa vanish: since they aren't welcome? Winter is getting in: Save Our Souls, We the Humlan beings: Let's be more humane besides our pretences, excuses on lack of funds while what we've is less awareness of the Problem and its weight on our relationships as WHole Humankind. The beggars and Givers-cum-Providers: Capitals, and Demands and Peace in wealth which leads to Turmoil, granted... warranteed pauperness without a coin, with nothing to eat, just raoming here and there in search of shelter: while the lands thes people come from are being emptied of their riches! Probably will they go back home: In what conditions? What will have been left there? RUINS, EMPTY BANKS, SAVAGELY BROKEN FARMS, LANDMINED BACKGROUNDS, HOMELESSNESS after STATELESSNESS and MISERY?!? It's awfully a SHAME on us humans: this Refugee Crisis. And it won't be the First...
Did Anyone Ever Understand the Reasons of the Summit on African Immigration, or So-Called in La Valette, MALTA? While Europe is crumbling under the Burden of Syrian, Afghan and other countries, adding some Africans (who do not even exceed 10, 000!) : A Special Summit was called to Deal with African refugees in Europe: WHY so Doing? An Easy Reply to a Difficult situation? Or, just Not Addressing a Main Issue: Treating a Margin-Like other Issue!?! And Why Not Send Money to Greece and Turkey and Help Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Irak to solve their immediately engaging Refugee Provoking Problems. For Africa, Just Halting Help to Plutocrats and other Dictators and Let the People Free: Inviting "African Presidents" inMalta was fruitless and Counterproductive a Reaction from the European leaders, Indeed! Did that Contribute reducing the Refugee Flow on the Continents Borders? I do Doubt.
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