Brief Overview of the Middle East and European Refugee Crisis

           Last week Dennis Bernstein, host of KPFA’s Flashpoints, interviewed Dr. Deborah Rogers, president of the Initiative for Equality.  She presents an assessment of the mass migration situation in Europe, which has not seen this many refugees on the continent since World War II.  Transcribe below are some important points to keep in mind when thinking about and trying to understand the roots and dynamics of this this discombobulating crisis which, like so many others present and past, bring out the best and worst in people. 

-There are 3,000 people per day flooding from Serbia into Hungary (which is ratcheting-up it’s increasingly and alarmingly authoritarian state of emergency and police state measures) by passing through razor-wire fences.  If the migrants are caught crossing into the country by Hungarian police, they’re arrested and put into detention camps where human rights abuses occur; they are treated like animals in cages without shade or shelter and camp officers throw bread at them to eat.

Image from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3232420/Hungary-s-brutal-treatment-refugees-reminiscent-Nazis-says-chancellor-Austria-country-Hitler-born.html

-Dr. Rogers says that it’s difficult to accurately know where the refugees are coming from, but estimates that, according to the number she’s seen, 50% of them are from Syria, and the rest are from other conflict zones that the U.S has been involved with such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and countries in the Horn of Africa.

-Currently in Europe there are a couple of flashpoints, one of which is Hungary, the other of which is Greece, where there are about 30,000 people crammed onto the two islands of Lesvos and Kos, lacking sanitation infrastructure such a running water or toilets.    

Image from: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/03/europe/migration-crisis-aylan-kurdi-turkey-canada/

-The European Commission and governments are working in attempt to break the refugee logjam and relocate 140,000 refugees, having setup quotas based off of countries GDPs, and have allocated around 780 million euros to fund these programs.   

-Globally, there are currently 60 million forcibly displaced persons, the highest number in history.  In June, UNHCR reported that every 1 out of 122 on Earth is displaced. 

-The primary regions generating the refugees are Afghanistan (invaded by the U.S in 2001), Pakistan (where the U.S war in Afghanistan has spilled into and where people are continually terrorized by U.S drone strikes), Iraq (invaded by the U.S in 2003), Syria (where, since 2012, the U.S and its allies have been heavily involved by providing funds and weapons to Bashar Al-Assad’s opponents; ISIS filled a power vacuum that was left as a result of the chaos), Libya (where U.S-led NATO military operations toppled the Gaddafi government in 2011).  There is a pattern of western governments invading or causing economic collapse which leads to chaos, after which extremism takes roots and masses flees from the conflict zones.   Turkey and Palestine are also experiencing huge humanitarian problems.

Image from: http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-article/9501552/the-life-or-death-question-our-leaders-prefer-not-to-discuss/

-The primary host countries of these refugees are not in Europe, but are in the developing world, which host 86% of the refugees.  The top host nations are Turkey (1.6 million refugees), Pakistan (1.5 million refugees), Lebanon (1.1 million refugees; a quarter of their total population), Iran (982,000 refugees), Ethiopia (659,000), and Jordan (654,000). 

- Last week Obama offer to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees.  (In the same spirit of the Vatican and I would like to see a refugee family put up in the White House).  Human Rights groups have criticized this move as a paltry drop in the bucket. 

-Like Middle-East conflicts over oil, Sub-Sharan Africa has numerous conflicts that are resource driven.  Mineral and timber conflicts are fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

-In the United States, there are 12 million undocumented immigrants who have left their country for one reason or another.

-Saudi Arabia is currently in the process of creating another massive refugee crisis as a result of Yemen.

            In effort to resolve this crisis, Dr. Rogers suggests that there must be a more equitable sharing of the financial and resettlement burdens generated by the crisis.  Wealthy western countries such as the U.K, the U.S, and Australia, and well as rich Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia, need to step up.  Also, safe a legal routes for escape and migration must be provided.  Right now they’re trapped by various EU policies.  Immigration and refugee status requests much be processed more expeditiously; humane mass-processing sites must be established.  The sites should not only process requests speedily, but provide refugees with food, water, medical aid, and shelter, as opposed to treating people like criminals simply because they are trying to flee from warfare.   The money exists, the political will seems to be lacking. 

             In the long term, changes must be made in order to prevent refugee crises from erupting in the first place.  Part of the problem is the way that western corporations and governments do business: prioritizing short-term profits over anyone’s quality of life, well-being, safety, or other factors such as environmentally sustainable economics and future access to resources.  This requires system change.

Image from: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/04/dont-rock-boat-eu-leaders-do-as-little.html

Those who hoard from those in need
Are selfish fools and hell-bound thieves
They build a wall of fear and dread
While children die for want of bread

Men load their guns and lock their doors
A knock at midnight, the rifle roars
Sisters and brothers hath sought their help
Fleeing ravaged lands of death and Hell

And still the selfish men refuse
Having ne'er walked a mile in their shoes
Life xenophobes they clutch their land
Forgetting all fate on Earth lies in God's hands

And when they stand before His throne
The Lord deports their star-cross souls
They shall drift forever in Purgatory
For they will have become the refugees

-Walter Lloyd Waterson, The Refugees, 1859