Double Crisis: War in Middle East, Immigration in Europe

The United Nations and Human Rights Watch have estimated the number of victims of Syria's civil war until 2015 to be between 220000 to 310000 and more than 7 million have been displaced. Due to the attacks launched by ISIS in Iraq, since January 2014, 15000 civilians have been killed and 30000 wounded. Based on the statistics of international organizations, more than 3 million people have also been displaced.  The situation in African countries is not much better, especially in countries like Libya, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Mali and Sudan, where the weakness of the central governments, economic crises and the empowerment of radical groups including Boko Haram have threatened the stability and security of these countries. Such conditions have caused their citizens to dream of an improved and lawful European life and to consequently migrate to European Union countries along with their families.

The point is that unfortunately in many of these cases this European dream has not been achieved and instead some of these refugees have lost their lives on their path to reaching European countries, an issue which has concerned the public opinion of the world and also human rights organizations. The most recent bitter case was that the Austrian Police has confirmed the death of 71 refugees, who were mainly from Syria, in a truck on a freeway in the eastern part of this country, consisting of 59 men, 8 women and 4 children. On this basis, the everyday discovery of the bodies of these refugees, the entrance of a great number of refugees to Greece, Macedonia and Hungary and clashes in the French port of Calais for the entrance of refugees into Britain have created one of the biggest refugee crises for the European Union.

European countries have arranged a conference of West Balkan countries in Vienna in order to resolve the refugee crisis. Officials from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia along with Federica Mogherini, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, are present in this conference. Prior to this conference, Angela Merkel, whose country has welcomed the greatest number of immigrants, stated that the refugee crisis would only be resolved by dividing the responsibility of accepting refugees. Better protection of the internal borders of this Union and increasing border regulations have been proposed by the participants of this conference. Nonetheless, it seems that the crisis of the refugees, most of whom are from the Middle East, needs more serious and fundamental solutions.

First, European countries must accept that the flood of immigrants has been formed due to their incorrect policies based on intervening in the political and cultural texture of the Middle Eastern and North African countries and strengthening some of the radical groups in order to overthrow the political systems they deem undesirable. Cooperation with the US in military attacks against some countries of this region or remaining silent regarding the US interventions are among other elements which have prepared the ground for insecurity and instability in the Middle East , hence, the flood of immigrants. Therefore, the first solution is to learn from the present conditions in the Middle East, to set aside intervention policies and to allow the people of these countries to determine their own fate. It is only through this path that the religious and ethnic differences in these countries would be reduced and a peaceful life based on tolerance would be established.

Second, the human rights responsibilities of EU countries necessitate their commitment to these humanitarian principles in practice and for them to show that they are more serious about safeguarding the lives and security of those people who have sought refuge in Europe due to the threat of death and insecurity in their countries.

Attempts made to establish economic justice through the distribution of wealth and economic and technical aid to non-developed countries are also among other solutions which could contain the wave of migrations towards Europe which are caused by poverty and unemployment.