Why Europe Does Not Have a RefugeeCrisis

Abstract

Putting to one side the question of just how many people arriving in Europe constitutes a crisis given the resources that are available in the region, especially after having regard to the numbers that cross into and remain in states in Africa and south-east Asia, this comment is focusing on ‘Europe’, ‘refugees’, and the search for solutions. To start with, the alleged crisis is one that is more about the European Union member states than about Europe as a whole. The twenty-eight member states of the EU are arguing about an out-dated allocation procedure for deciding where refugees making it to a member state should have their status determined. In June 1990, when the Soviet Union and parts of the Eastern Bloc were still in existence, and when West Germany and Austria constituted part of the eastern border of the EU, it was not a major cause of concern to establish that the state where the asylum seeker entered the EU should be the one to make the determination on refugee status. The original Dublin Convention1 aimed in part to prevent ‘refugee ping-pong’, where a failed claim in one member state would result in the refugee applying in another member state and, if that claim also failed, being sent back to the previous member state. Today, with greater but still manageable numbers for the EU as a whole entering from across the Mediterranean from all parts of Africa, and with the war in Syria displacing so many into Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, some of whom then head for Greece or Bulgaria as the point of entry into the EU, that process cannot be sustained. As Germany has recognised, the current Dublin system2 for allocating refugee determination processes between member states needs to be reconsidered because of the impact on the member states to the south and east. However, that is an EU problem, and one that is distinct from international refugee law.