I believe that within humanitarian problems, the refugees and asylum-seekers have crucial importance for European Union. Every year thousands of people enter Europe over Italy, Greece, Malta etc. as asylum seekers and refugees, as well as illegal immigrants. Because of different number of applicants, each EU member state has a different policy towards asylum seekers.
Christopher Hein, director of the Italian Council for Refugees, says that “These Mediterranean borders should be seen as European borders, not only as the borders of Italy or Greece” [i]. Besides the debates are focusing on the population-sizes of the states and upon Angela Merkel’s speeches on the topic, Luc Bovens and Jane von Rabenau argue that Germany is accepting less than its fair share of refugees[ii] – which can be interpreted as seeking a way to put the burden on the other.
These inequalities cause bad conditions for asylum seekers. Many people are forced to stay under similar-to-prison conditions during the investigations of their individual cases and especially in Netherlands, the situation of those people are getting more public-awareness and opposition.From my point of view that Humanitarian Groups and Pro-Migrant Groups will pay more attention on Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and they will try to influence policy-making process for increasing asylum seekers conditions.
According to Kopp, spokesman of Germany based human rights organization ProAsyl, asylum seekers are exposed to ill-treatment and sometimes they end up dead. For Kopp, this is a human-rights scandal in Europe.
According to researchs, below-mentioned groups advocate for the concerns of people who seek international protection in the EU:
Amnesty International Europe (AI Europe), Asylum Aid, the Churches and Christian Organizations in Europe on Migration and Asylum (CCOEMA), the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA Europe), the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the Red Cross, and Terre des Hommes (TdH).
Murat ELBEYE
Ruhr University – Bochum
—
[i] http://www.dw.de/growing-refugee-numbers-call-for-eu-solidarity/a-17768449
[ii] http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2014/04/14/germany-is-accepting-less-than-its-fair-share-of-refugees-while-official-data-have-also-overestimated-the-number-of-refugees-living-in-the-country/
