EU declares end of migration crisis

The European Commission has declared the migration crisis over, as it sharpened its attack on “fake news” and “misinformation” about the issue.

Frans Timmermans, the European commission’s first vice-president, said: “Europe is no longer experiencing the migration crisis we lived in 2015, but structural problems remain.”

Background

Since the 1950s, many nations in Africa have suffered civil wars and ethnic strife, thus generating a massive number of refugees of many different nationalities and ethnic groups.

Europe was at the centre of a crisis sparked by migration. In 2015 alone more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe. A number of countries in the continent struggled to handle the influx of people entering their territories. Countries within the EU have had disagreements on how best to deal with the problem while also helping those seeking refuge.

Much of the migration from Africa comes to Italy. According to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 98,072 people came from Africa to Italy from January 2017 to August 23rd, 2017. Italy has worked with Libya to address migration. It should be noted that compared to the same period the previous year, Italy saw 7,000 fewer migrants reaching its shores.

In 2018, 116,647 people were counted by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, as crossing the Mediterranean, an 89% reduction on those who made the journey in 2015, at the height of the crisis.

Analysis

The Hungarian government launched a poster campaign in February, based on misleading claims about migration, featuring the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros.

The EU commission’s office at Brussels has countered the poster campaign by declaring that the migration crisis is over. The commission’s latest progress report on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, suggested a tougher approach to public relations.

With Spain now the main entry point into the EU, the commission said one of its priorities was working with Morocco via a €140m (£120m) border control programme.  The commission also sought to counter criticism of EU policies by deterring would-be migrants from leaving African countries. They have created a €3.9 billion fund to pay for economic development and border-management projects in 27 African countries adding that almost 90% of the money went to NGOs or UN agencies.

The EU has faced criticism from campaign groups about the return of refugees to Libya. The protesters are accusing the Union of training the Libyan coastguard to intercept boats carrying refugees. The detainees are then sent back to the worn-torn nation.

In its statement, the commission said it was “working tirelessly to evacuate migrants from Libya” and stopping arbitrary detention was a priority. About 37,000 people had received help from the UNHCR and the UN’s International Organisation for Migration to leave Libya.

The decline in migrant arrivals comes amidst a stalemate inside the EU on a package of laws to overhaul the European asylum system. EU interior ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, March 7, 2019, is expected to formally conclude that there will be no deal on the laws before the European elections this May.

While five of seven laws have been agreed to, the EU remains stymied over a proposal to redistribute refugees around the bloc. Southern countries, which have borne the brunt of Mediterranean arrivals, oppose any attempt to attenuate obligations on other member states to help. Central and Eastern European counties are meanwhile determined not to take refugees under an EU-quota system.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the members of the EU have to act upon the proposed reforms to the European asylum system. However, the failure to reach an agreement could lead to the reassessing of the proposals under a newly-appointed European commission and the newly-elected European parliament. 

Image Courtesy: Ggia, 20151030 Syrians and Iraq refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece 2, CC BY-SA 4.0