World Refugee Day 2024: Counteracting shipwreck

The most right-wing European Parliament ever

This can also be deduced from the most recent EU elections: The result was to the detriment of democratic forces, with the parties of the right-wing spectrum emerging as clear winners from these elections. Even if the coalitions and the exact balance of power still have to be formed, it is already clear that the European Parliament has moved to the right in an unprecedented way. Until now, the Parliament has been an important political counterweight to the Council at EU level, and it remains to be seen which majorities will act and how - but it is already clear that these elections should constitute a wake-up call for us all.

Migration was among the most important issues that moved people in all Member States. In France, where the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement National won 31.4% of the votes, 43% of all voters cited migration as a key issue in their vote. In Germany, too, migration was high on the agenda of the issues that voters rated as most important. And in these two most populous EU Member States, the far right recorded the largest gains - or even won the elections, as in France.

Migration and flight: a global overview

In general, the importance that people in Europe attach to the issue goes hand in hand with the increased global relevance of migration and flight. On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is once again setting a sad record this year with more than 117.3 million refugees worldwide in 2023, 5% more than in 2022. 

That said, in 2023 too, the vast majority of these people had to flee within their own country, as internally displaced people (IDPs). Furthermore, the majority of those who leave their home country seek protection in low- or middle-income countries and, in 7 out of 10 cases, in neighboring countries. Last year, once again, the three most important countries of origin for all refugees worldwide were Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine, which have been affected by severe conflicts and their aftermath. Given the global situation, it should come as no surprise that the number of people who have reached Europe in search of protection has also increased. Against this backdrop, a struggle for the best solutions and the question of how the EU can live up to its responsibility to protect refugees in the face of increasing wars and crises worldwide would be a sensible approach.

A toxic discourse in Europe

However, what we have been experiencing for some time now and in the run-up to the European elections in particular, is the opposite: an increasing polarization on the issues of migration and fleeing and a gradual shift towards a policy of migration deterrence. The fundamental right to asylum is being questioned more and more blatantly by some. The question of how Europe can more effectively grant people the protection to which they are entitled is being almost completely replaced by the question of how Europe's external borders should be protected from the supposed threat posed by refugees.

The CEAS Reform

In April, after years of unsuccessful wrangling over a reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), a legislative package was passed with far-reaching consequences for refugees: in future, border procedures under detention-like conditions at the EU's external borders will determine who is entitled to an asylum procedure at all. The so-called 'Crisis Regulation' provides for the right to asylum to be further restricted in times of "force majeure" or "instrumentalization", including even longer detention of refugees in border procedures. In addition, the concept of so-called safe third countries is to be expanded, which is likely to lead to further and far-reaching externalization of refugee protection outside of Europe.

The externalization efforts of the EU-institutions and the Member States have been underway for some time. Following the much-criticized "migration agreement" with Tunisia, Egypt and recently even Lebanon are now "strategic partners" of the EU in terms of "migration management". It is unclear whether (and, if so, what) conditions are attached to these agreements with countries with such human rights violation records; unclear is also the question of what exactly should be part of the agreements or of a closer cooperation. What unites these deals is that a lot of money flows from the EU to the third countries and that the welfare of migrants and refugees is subordinated to the goal of reducing the number of arrivals in the EU. The EU's externalization efforts are taking place in parallel with bilateral initiatives by individual Member States, as in the case of Italy and Albania. The Federal Ministry of the Interior in Germany recently had a review carried out to determine whether and how it would be possible to outsource asylum procedures along the lines of the British Rwanda model, which the experts interviewed denied.

The CEAS reform was decided under enormous political pressure, and the complex and non-transparent negotiation process was barely comprehensible to outsiders. The goal was clear: the agreement between the Council, Parliament and Commission was supposed to be reached in the last legislative period by all means, in order to demonstrate the ability to act in this policy field. However, the attempt to deprive the right-wing and populist actors of their election campaign issue failed. What remains is a bad reform with pseudo-solutions that promote the dismantling of refugee rights. Maintaining the Dublin principle is a disservice to European unity and cohesion between Member States. All of this further strengthens the 'right-wing' narratives that use fear of refugees and migrants to create a mood. 

Systematic breaches of the Law at the external borders

A year ago, on the occasion of World Refugee Day, I pleaded for the responsibility to protect refugees to be respected, as one of the deadliest shipwrecks had occurred off the coast of Greece just a few days earlier. On the night of June 14, 2023, more than 600 people drowned on board the cutter Adriana. As no salvage operations have taken place the exact number remains uncertain. Numerous indications e.g. in the joint investigation by Solomon, Forensis, The Guardian and ARD, which was the runner-up of the European Press Prize, point to the co-responsibility of the Greek Coast Guard and the EU border protection agency Frontex. To this day, the exact circumstances of the shipwreck have not been clarified. While nine innocent survivors were held in custody for months because they were falsely accused of people smuggling, those actually responsible have still not been identified, let alone brought to justice.

Unfortunately, the shipwreck off Pylos is not an isolated case, but just one particularly blatant example of the systematic violence at the EU's external borders. In a recently published video documentary, the BBC shows how the Greek Coast Guard has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of refugees in the Mediterranean in the last three years alone. According to the BBC analysis, the practice of pushing people out of Greek waters or collecting them from Greek islands and then throwing them into the sea - sometimes with their hands tied - has demonstrably cost at least 43 people their lives. 

In connection with this BBC investigation, the recently re-elected MEP Tineke Strik has called on the Commission in a statement on "X" to take the Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis to the European Court of Justice and freeze EU funding. These crimes and brutal violations of EU Law, she continues, have been tolerated for years, backed by the Commission and other EU Member States.

In fact, the Courts have an important role to play as a "corrective" in terms of the Rule of Law. Recently, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) fined Hungary 200 million euros and a further million euros for each additional day that it fails to comply with the requirements of an ECJ ruling from December 2020 and does not enforce EU Asylum Law.

Besides, Pylos is no exception when it comes to the criminalization of refugees. One example is Homayoun Sabetara. The refugee has been imprisoned since August 2021 despite being seriously ill and faces up to 18 years in prison for alleged 'people smuggling'. In fact, the father of two fled from Iran and across the Evros River from Turkey to Greece in a car he was driving with two other passengers. His arrest was based solely on a written statement by a witness who has since disappeared. A few weeks ago, his appeal proceedings took place at the Court of Thessaloniki and the trial was postponed until September; until then, Homayoun Sabetara will have to wait in detention for another few months, despite his dramatic state of health.  Homayoun's case is unfortunately not an exception, and Greece is not the only EU Member State in which refugees are systematically criminalized: there are numerous similarly Kafkaesque cases from Italy or Malta and a large number of cases that are not known because there is no campaign for the release of those affected, as in the case of #freehomayoun.

Solution-oriented approaches instead of populist pseudo-solutions

The attempt to dismantle refugee protection in order to weaken the far-right is clearly only playing into the hands of toxic narratives. What is needed is a combination of practical, solution-oriented measures and policies and a disarmament of language and narratives based on facts. Instead of calling for "deportation offensives", it is time to discuss constructive, effective solutions.

Before the elections, the European Council on Foreign Relations published a comprehensive analysis of how numerous political parties in Europe are trying to prevent the rise of far-right parties. One strategy would be the adoption of right-wing hardline positions on migration issues, both at national and European level, such as with the CEAS reform, or, in France, with the recent Asylum Law reform. The authors describe this as a risky strategy that is not able to change the minds of voters who potentially vote right-wing, but instead inflates the debate on migration and thus plays into the hands of the right-wing.

In a recently published article, Professor Marcel Fratzscher, Director of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), has deconstructed a number of common stereotypes, such as the lack of labor market integration of refugees in Germany or the supposed "pull factor" of social benefits, which repeatedly arise in the German debate. He argues for less bureaucracy and more support for local authorities and integration measures, instead of suggesting that migration can be contained, not least in light of the acute shortage of skilled workers. This can also be applied to other EU Member States.

The challenges are real, both for refugees and for host communities across Europe. But not a single municipality in Germany or any other EU Member State is relieved by the fact that people are being subjected to violence in the Aegean. Recently, 309 organizations wrote an open letter to Chancellor Scholz asking him to reject the plans to outsource asylum procedures. They write:

"As organizations and initiatives active in refugee protection, we know that acceptance and participation work when everyone pulls together and the political will is there."

What is needed are viable solutions for actual/acute challenges and - especially in light of the recent European election results - a return to the foundations of the European Union, its Rule of Law and its much-vaunted values.