Refugees Are Everyone's Problem

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Tuesday that 3,000 refugees are expected to cross into Macedonia every day in the coming months -- until winter weather slows the wave of migrants -- most of them fleeing war, particularly the Syrian war. Member states of the European Union must share the burden by establishing "equitable re-distribution" of desperate families seeking asylum in the EU, the UN refugee agency said. Nearly 300,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean this year, including 181,500 arriving in Greece and 108,500 in Italy, according to the UNHCR. ~~~~~ About 10,000 refugees entered Macedonia from Greece last weekend, in chaotic border scenes that included the Macedonian army using razor wire and lobbing tear gas canisters and stun grenades to try to hold the migrants at bay on the Greek side of the border. The refugees came from Syria and Iraq to cross Turkey and take rubber rafts across a 2-mile channel that separates Turkey from the Greek island of Kos. Because Greece is in the midst of a debilitating economic crisis, the best it can do is to ferry the refugees to the Greek mainland, where they walk or take buses and trains north to Macedonia. From there, they head north to Hungary in the Schengen area of the EU - where internal border controls don't exist - and then farther north to Germany and Sweden. Also last weekend, the Italian navy rescued 1,700 migrants from five boats in the Mediterranean after receiving requests for help from nearly two dozen vessels, a spokesman for the coast guard said. Rescue efforts saved an additional 2,000 migrants on the other 17 boats. ~~~~~ The first European arrival points for these refugees are in the Balkans, poor countries that are receiving an unprecedented influx of migrants. So far this year, more than 100,000 migrants have entered Hungary. While still small in comparison with the record numbers of refugees on the move in the Middle East, the flow is increasing. The influx into Hungary on Monday increased to 2,093, its highest daily number this year. More are on their way, with an estimated 8,000 making their way through Serbia and 3,000 crossing from Greece into Macedonia every day. The Middle East migrants take Mediterranean sea routes and more than 2,300 people have died this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, according to the International Organisation for Migration. ~~~~~ The relentless influx of refugees is testing the EU's resources, and more importantly, its ability to function cohesively. Hungary, for instance, says it has reached the limit and that the EU has failed. But, the EU is actually the latest Middle East refugee target. During the Syrian civil war now in its fifth year, Syria's neighbors have taken in 4 million refugees and cannot handle any more. Conditions are worsening in the tent-city refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon because of the UNHCR's lack of adequate funding to improve conditions in those countries, according to UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming. "People are leaving Turkey, they are leaving Jordan, they are leaving Lebanon, and Syrians are fleeing directly out of Syria as the situation continues to be very dire." Germany and Sweden have been taking 43% of the asylum seekers in the EU, Fleming said. "If you look proportionately to population, smaller countries such as Austria are taking huge number of asylum seekers where other countries are taking very few," she said. Hungary demanded more money from the EU to alleviate the burden, saying the distribution of funds was “humiliating.” A spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Hungary's share of a 7-year EU budget to 2020 for asylum, migration and policing was more than 85 million Euros and Budapest's request for 8 million Euros more this year was being fast-tracked. The spokeswoman also said Hungary's concerns about immigration via the Balkans would be addressed during a summit of regional leaders with senior Commission officials in Vienna on Thursday. ~~~~~ While the migrants are crossing into Hungary, the Hungarian army is building a border fence to keep them out, using bulldozers and heavy machinery to move earth and erect walls. The fence is finished in parts, while in others there are coils of barbed wire easily negotiated by migrants who faced down stun grenades and tear gas in Macedonia last week. The Commission has made clear its disapproval of the Hungarian fence, with its Cold War echoes in ex-Communist eastern Europe, but Hungary faces no sanction for building it. “Europe has failed. Europe has to get moving,” the deputy president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. “So far, many member states have thought they can go it alone. That doesn’t work. We have to do it together." ~~~~~ Germany says it expects a record 800,000 asylum-seekers to arrive in the EU this year and Germany is taking the overwhelming lead in finding shelter and care for them. But not all Germans are happy with this. Protests in the eastern town of Heidenau, near Dresden, over the arrival of 250 asylum seekers turned violent over the weekend. Police said they are investigating a suspected arson attack on a sports hall in the eastern state of Brandenburg where some 130 refugees were due to be housed. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the influx would affect the country’s budget plans but that Europe’s biggest economy could cope. ~~~~~ Nevertheless, the Social Democrat Party - the SPD - had to evacuate their Berlin headquarters on Tuesday after receiving a bomb threat and a flood of racist emails and phone calls that the party said were linked to leader Sigmar Gabriel's visit to the eastern town of Heidenau. The town near Dresden was the scene of violent clashes over the weekend as about 600 extremist militants, protesting against the arrival of around 250 refugees at a local shelter, pelted police with bottles and rocks, some shouting "Heil Hitler." The police used pepper spray on the demonstrators who were trying to keep busloads of asylum seekers from reaching their accommodation. The outbreak of violence followed a peaceful demonstration of 1,000 people against the 250 refugees. Gabriel, who is also vice chancellor and economy minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, traveled to the town on Monday and denounced the "mob" behind the violence, calling them the "most un-German" people he could think of. Merkel was criticized by the SPD and opposition parties for waiting three days to condemn the violence in Heidenau. She is due to travel to the town on Wednesday to meet asylum seekers, volunteers and security forces. On Monday evening, Merkel described the climate of racism as "disgraceful." ~~~~~ Dear readers, America should be paying close attention to the refugee situation in Europe. We are our brothers' keepers. But Europe cannot take in the whole Middle East any more than the United States can take in all of Mexico and Central America. If at some point refugees flood across the US southern border in the way they are now flooding into Europe, America had better have a plan. And part of that plan should be strong border control and an effective barrier. Otherwise, just as President Obama's failure to act in Syria is in large part responsible for the Syrian refugee exodus to Europe, his non-enforcement and non-strengthening of US borders will be responsible for a collapse of America's southern border.