Migration and asylum

“180 survivors, rescued by SOS MEDITERRANEE crews, are currently awaiting a port of safety to disembark”, explains Sophie Beau, co-founder and general director of SOS MEDITERRANEE France. The situation on board the Ocean Viking rescue ship, which has been unable to dock for 9 days, is critical. On Friday, July 3rd, the ship declared a state of emergency as the safety of its crew and 180 survivors can no longer be guaranteed.

The human tragedy being played out on the Greek-Turkish border definitively buries one of the greatest achievements of international humanitarian law – and with the blessing of the European Union. The timing is good for the autocrat Erdoğan, whose blackmail over refugees is helping divert rumbling discontent in Turkish society.

In parts of Europe, emigration poses a much bigger challenge than immigration. A few decades from now, writes Slavenka Drakulić, Croatia will be a country of old people with nobody left to take care of them. And instead of real solutions, politicians offer nothing but empty promises and patriotic slogans.

Various forms of abuse, violence, neglect, family disputes, and poverty all account for over one thousand children going missing every year in Europe. A new development is the increasing number who disappear down migration paths.

While it may seem that the refugee-migration crisis is over, more than 100,000 migrants and refugees are still present in Greece. Many of them live in refugee camps, which are not appropriate accommodation solutions because of their location in faraway, poory connected areas.

Unauthorized immigrants living in European countries reached a peak in 2016 and have been decreasing since then.