The mere shock value of scrolling through “The List” speaks volumes to the issue of the European Refugee Crisis. Purely counting those accounted for by UNITED against racism, there have been 34,361 deaths linked to this tragedy. This number, in comparison to an event such as the 2,977 lives lost by the 9/11 Attacks, is an absolute atrocity that sits alike numbers of genocides of entire races.
This is merely one of 56 pages of reported deaths by this terrible crisis. At first glance, and without proper knowledge, this can be grossly misinterpreted and attributed to all of Europe. However, after further research and examination of the text and outside sources, it becomes more and more evident that a drastic amount of this issue stems back to the escalation of violence between Syria and Turkey. Euronews states that Turkey is currently hosting 5 million refugees, and 3.7 million of those are Syrian. Turkey states that they can no longer host this number of refugees, and are attempting to distribute through the rest of Europe and back through Syrias border. The major issue of this is that the border is held by Syrian jihadist groups, and these groups have racked up many of the casualties of those both attempting to escape and those being forced to return to Syria’s North. This all being said, while the list above is a very informative and very useful piece of information, it does not adequately express the information of this crisis. While this is a major issue as can be seen be the ever climbing death toll, there are two sides to every story. What this list fails to account for is the millions of refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean Sea, across international borders, or even intercontinental borders and the lack of available space and resources by the European Union to support this influx. While all of this provides issues of their own, this doesn’t even begin to mention the lack of screening and security caused by this lackadaisical processing deal.
According to The Guardian, this refugee crisis showed the world the ‘worst’ side of Europe. “Instead of open arms, those who survived the Mediterranean crossing were met with racism, fear and incarceration”
This was a huge shock to the world, given a system such as the EU was founded on its open arms, refugees were instead dropped into a system that simply did not want them. Where eurocentrism had previously been instrumental towards the positive economic and social growth of the European Union, it had now caused a PR nightmare for the ages, and in turn sacrificed the lives of many innocent refugees seeking asylum. This is the perfect example of ambivalent narratives, this crisis being very similar to that of the immigration crisis the United States is currently facing. There are two very strong and very opposed opinions on the matter. Many state that this issue should be handled in a more human fashion than it has thus far, and furthermore that the EU should hold open arms to those seeking asylum. While this is a very popular opinion, there are also those who are strongly opposed to the matter.
According to BBC, this system has been particularly unfair to Italy and Greece, who have borne the overwhelming blunt of the impact of immigration. BBC states that Greece alone received 791 refugees just this Tuesday. On the record, Greece and Italy aim to display their global compassion discourse, but implore the other countries of the European Union to aid them in the proper redistribution of these refugees so that all may seek asylum.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49752380
This crisis has, in my opinion, not been adequately processed and written about in today’s media. I have discovered many conflicting articles, very ambivalent sources, from across cultures and media sources. This is an example of where journalism cannot be consistent, and where bias will inherently shine through. This event is also the perfect example of compassion fatigue. Initially, the European Union was more than willing to take in refugees and provide asylum to those in need. The difficult thing about this however, is that once it rains, it pours. What began with numbers in the mere hundreds, and accordingly, housing these few refugees was very manageable for coastal nations such as France, Greece and Italy has turned vial for the entirety of the EU. There are now other European nations such as Turkey who have been forced to provide asylum to 5 Million refugees. Yes, 5 million. When a simple problem becomes a crisis for the entirety of the European Union, it suddenly becomes very easy to forget about the compassion and willingness they once shared for the refugees, and find that those positive feelings very quickly can become resent and even hate.
After all has been said, I would be foolish not to recognize firstly the severity of the issue, and secondly the emotional discourse that comes alongside this issue. This has affected millions upon millions of people from host countries, fleeing countries, and associates of these countries alike. It is very difficult to report media such as this without displaying bias, however this media seems to be very biased towards the refugees. It would not be fair nor adequate to base opinions purely off of this list, no matter how despicable the death toll or harsh treatment of these innocent people may be.
1. “Europe Migrant Crisis: Calls to Redistribute Migrants as Arrivals Rise.” BBC News. BBC, September 19, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49752380.
2. Jamieson, Alastair. “Turkey Warns Europe of New Refugee Wave as Syrian Forces Advance.” euronews, December 23, 2019. https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/23/turkey-warns-europe-of-new-refugee-crisis-as-syrian-forces-attack-idlib.
3. Pai, Hsiao-Hung. “The Refugee ‘Crisis’ Showed Europe’s Worst Side to the World | Hsiao-Hung Pai.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, January 1, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/01/refugee-crisis-europe-mediterranean-racism-incarceration.
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