Page 15 - Aequitas Europa

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I
n the last few years, the geopolitical landscape has undergone drastic change in relation to
the welcoming of migrants. Particularly, those who are fleeing war-torn Islamic nations such

as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Libya. The dramatic influx of people moving across the
Mediterranean in search of asylum has left many European nations alarmed and unable to adopt

policies on immigration which defend human rights, whilst also ensuring safety within their
communities from the repercussions of overpopulation. The aim of this article is to give readers

the opportunity to consider a variety of angles relating to issues of migration, and to provide
perspective on the realities of the current refugee crisis, the perilous journeys that migrants go
through and their treatment upon arrival at a destination which they considered as “a safer

alternative”.

Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers The Statistics

The definition of a refugee stems from principles More than 1 million refugees came to Europe in 2016,
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enshrined in the Refugee Convention 1951, which has many having travelled from Syria (41%) and Afghanistan
been ratified by 145 State parties. 43 The Refugee (26%). Most arrived by sea, into Greece and Italy.
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Convention defines the term “refugee” and its associated According to a study on border deaths in the
rights, as well as the obligations of member states in Mediterranean, “in 2016, more than 5,000 migrants died
protecting them. ‘Asylum seekers’ are people who make during their attempt to reach Europe by sea. This was the
a formal request for asylum in another country because highest number ever recorded, bringing the total number
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they fear their life is at risk in their home country. of casualties between 2000 and 2016 to 31,799”. The
‘Refugees’ are people with a well-founded fear of figures used as a basis for this statistic were taken from a
prosecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, and separate study undertaken by Fortress Europe, who
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membership of a particular social or political group who reviewed press releases to compile their research. The
have been accepted and recognized as subscribing to research doesn’t draw any conclusions as to the cause of
such a group in their host country. Finally, the term the rise in numbers of mortalities on the Mediterranean
‘migrant’ can be used to describe any person who is border, however, it is possible to draw some fairly safe
moving from one country to another to live in their new inferences. For example, the spike in numbers of
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destination for more than 1 year. The migrancy crisis mortalities seen in 2011 takes place on the Central
which currently clouds the EU can be described as having route, which crosses from Libya into the Mediterranean,
a mixture of both refugees and asylum seekers, however and during that same year a civil war broke out in the
the people who are making the crossing illegally into the country calling for NATO intervention. The U.N Refugee
EU will not always have a sense of where they may end Agency reported that in the first few weeks of the conflict
up and whether they will apply for asylum at their next almost 100,000 people had fled Libya into neighboring
destination- the terms are therefore often used
interchangeably.

42 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, United 46 Philippe Sands, “Of refugees and resignation”, UCL Journal of Law and
Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, p. 137, Article 1 (A)(2) available at: Jurisprudence, 2017
http://www.refworld.org/docid/3be01b964.html [accessed 29 March 2017]. 47 https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-
43 criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/03/border-deaths
https://treaties.un.org/pages/ShowMTDSGDetails.aspx?src=UNTSONLINE& 48 http://fortresseurope.blogspot.co.uk/2006/01/press-review.html
tabid=2&mtdsg_no=V-5&chapter=5&lang=en [accessed 21 April 2017]. 49 https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-
44 http://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-seekers.html criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/03/border-deaths Figure
45 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/28/migrants-refugees-and- 1: Migrant fatalities in the Mediterranean region, by year and route, 2000–
asylum-seekers-whats-the-difference 2016