Why do immigrants flock to Europe?
6/9/15
Hundreds of refugees on a small boat
Being reach, safe and
accessible is the reason that makes Europe become the “promised land” for
thousands of immigrants from the desperate regions of the Middle East and Africa.
According to the UN’s
statistics, since the beginning of 2015, there have been 300.000 people who
have left the North Africa and Middle East passing the Mediterranean on their
journey to the “promise land” of Europe. This figure is up 40%
over last year.
Each day, hundreds or even
thousands of people are competing to get a chance to go on board or cling to
small boats to cross the borders. They may climb over high fences in Morocco to reach Spain
or being flocked in trucks/trains from Turkey
to go everywhere in Europe.
In the first two days of
September, the Greek coast guard had rescued 1000 refugees on the Aegean Sea, including children and old people. The
mid-age people have luggage and children on their backs. They have to stop
their work and leave their own houses when everything was collapsed because of
wars and terrorists organizations.
According to the UN, new
five wars have been broken out for last 5 years and most of them have been in Syria.
More than 11 millions of Syrian have fled or been expelled from their homes
since the start of the civil war in 2011. The expansion of the so-called Islamic State (IS) has
continued to force 3 millions of people to leave their homes since January
2014.
Wars and rebels have also
destroyed Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya,
Nigeria
and some other countries. Many more people also have to flee Eritrea, a country that no conflict exists
but under a repressive regime.
Some choose to live in other
countries or move to another place in their own countries. But a lot of people
have no choice. Turkey and Lebanon
greet 3 millions of Syrian refugees in the common border areas. However, both
countries have enacted harsh laws aimed at limiting the amount of migrants to their
country to make a living. Therefore, the refugees have to go to other places.
Risky journeys
According to NPR newspaper,
Europe is a reach, safe and accessible region for the Middle East and Africa’s residents. Some Greek islands are few kilometers
to Turkish coast. They become destinations for boats that carry immigrants.
Since the beginning of 2015, 230.000 people have fled to Greece and about 100.000 refugees have reached Italy.
Meanwhile, some European
countries are known with generous immigration policy. They even issue a lot of
welfare for immigrant to settle their lives in the new lands. They are mostly
countries in the North and the West of Europe.
The immigrants may set their
foot on Greece
first. But later they will move to more prosperous countries, especially Germany.
According to the UN’s statistics, 2.500 people have died since the beginning
of 2015 due to immigration journeys. The immigrants have to go on many
dangerous roads like desert before passing the seas. Many of them even were
killed by bad men in their journeys to the “promised land”.
The routes to Europe are mostly drawn by
human-traffickers who just interested in money and never care about what
happens to the immigrants. The sailors carry hundreds of immigrants on a small
boat and then they even lock them in sinking vessels. Recently, 70 immigrants
had suffocated in a truck en route to Austria.
The European Governments have blamed the human-traffickers for potential
threats to immigrants’ lives on their fleeing ways. However, the immigration
supporters denied that even when the legal routes were established the refugees
would still choose to go on illegal routes.
In addition, the inconsistency of immigration laws of European countries
and the process of rescue have made the situation more complicated.
The refugees believed that they would have better chance if they were
rescued on the sea. Therefore, they gamble their lives by sinking their boat to
have coast guard rescued.
Meanwhile, European countries still have disagreement on solving the
immigration crisis. Many countries in the South of Europe like Greece and Italy want other countries to give
a good example for them to follow.
As European Union principles, the government of country that the immigrants
set their foot first has to solve the legitimate problems for them.
Unfortunately the principles are becoming useless.
While Norway and Sweden
have implemented a generous immigration policy, Denmark
and Finland
have tried to control immigration
The only way to stop this crisis is to end all of the conflict in the
Middle East and Africa. The immigrants
themselves always want to come back to their homes despite of being poor./.
All comments [ 10 ]
Such a incredible crisis, help them please!
Europe has its responsibility for the crisis, they bring war to the Middle East and Africa
Far from being propelled by economic migrants, this crisis is mostly about refugees
a lot of victims are children and old people
The world’s wealthiest continent can easily handle such a comparatively small influx.
Last autumn, the EU opted to suspend full-scale maritime rescue operations in the Mediterranean in the belief that their presence was encouraging more migrants to risk the sea journey from Libya to Europe
The number of migrants trying to reach the European Union has increased sharply over the past two years.
The word has gone out that Fortress Europe is scalable. From Morocco to Turkey, people smuggling has turned into an irresistibly big business.
The demonstrators, many of whom were members of extreme right groups, held banners with slogans like “white genocide” and “stop Islam”
Europe, itself reeling under a financial crisis, cannot provide housing, employment and social benefits to the thousands who each day land on European shores and cross over borders.
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