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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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century is shocking and shameful. We must
never forget that these people did not go will-
ingly, that they did not set out in search of bet-
ter economic opportunities but in the hope of
saving their lives and reaching a destination
where they could live in peace. No one chooses
to be a refugee.
A European problem?
While no one can deny that an increasing num-
ber of refugees have been pouring into Europe
recently, their arrival by no means constitutes a
challenge we are unable to assume or, has pre-
viously mentioned, an unforeseeable event.
The prevailing perceptions that Europe is un-
der more pressure than any other part of the
world to accept these people and furthermore
lacks the resources to do so are both patently
false. To gain a truer picture of the situation,
however, we must examine it from a broader
perspective.
The reality is that only 10 % of today’s refu-
gees ever make it to what is referred to as “First
World” countries. The rest either become dis-
placed persons within their native countries or
go no farther than impoverished neighbouring
states that are socio-politically speaking quite
similar to their own.
Syria is an especially cogent example. More
than 6,000 people are fleeing this war-ridden
country every day. Since the conflict irrupted
more than five years ago, over 250,000 people
have been killed, 12,500 of which have been
minors. The number of internally displaced per-
sons in Syria has surpassed 13.5 million.
Armed conflict has a devastating impact on
children. According to United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF), over 5.5 million children in Syria
are living in extreme poverty.
Of the more than 4.2 million Syrians who
have left their country as refugees, most are
now in neighbouring states: 2.6 million are cur-
rently living in Turkey, 1.1 million in Lebanon
and another 637,000 in Jordan.
To piece together a clearer picture of the di-
mensions of the situation, we must draw a few
parallels. For the EU to have a refugee popula-
tion comparable to that of Lebanon, for exam-
ple, it would have to take in 135 million refu-
gees. The European Commission, however, has
recently made a proposal to accept 180,000, a
number that represents a mere 0.036 % of the
EU’s current population of 500 million.
Closed borders, violated rights
While old Europe is beating its chest with one
hand and condemning the dramatic conditions
under which the Syrian people are suffering,
with the other it is clinging to policies focused
on sealing its borders that deprive refugees of a
legal and safe means of entry.
At the same moment that European leaders
are haggling over the number of refugees they
are willing to accept and delaying the implemen-
tation of needed measures, they are racing to
reach agreements on the construction and rein-
forcement of border fences. The approximately
260 kilometres of cement and barbed wire bor-
der barriers that have been erected over the past
few years stand as the most visible symbol of
Europe’s spectacular lack of institutional solidar-
ity and crisis of values. Up to seven border fenc-
es have been built or reinforced in the EU in
places such as Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Calais,
Ceuta and Melilla for the express purpose of
blocking the flow of refugees and migrants.
This exercise has demonstrated that rather
than lowering the number of refugees trying to