Today, Europe facing one of the most important migration crisis of her contemporary history.
Here, I would like to deal especially with the refugees situation. The fact to suffer of a constant threat in a country in war forced them to flee their own home, in order to reach peace.
I would like to begin with an extract from an article which, I think, introduce very well the problem. It's extracted from peace and sport watch, and was written by Joël Bouzou :
« Our government have known the reality of a growing refugee crisis for years, and Europe could have been better prepared for it. Migration flows have been part of human evolution and are part of our everyday life, not just our history. For some, traveling from one country to another is mere business or leisure, for others it is a question of life and death. Every day, all around the world, people have to take the most difficult decision of their lives; to leave their homes in search of a better life.
Regardless of how they arrive in a country and for what purpose, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers have rights as a human being and are technically protected under international law:
– The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14), states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.
– The 1951 UN Refugee Convention protects refugees from being returned to countries where they risk persecution. »
Migrants will be consider as refugees when they suffered human rights abuses or when they were persecuted because of who they are or what they believe in (religion, homosexuality...). However, even if international laws protect them, the everyday reality is not so welcoming : risky border crossings, detention centers, death, exploitation,... . From January to April 2015, approximately 1700 refugees and migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean sea. These exemples makes the crisis very complex and urgent, and this situation push european states to find a solution in a very short time.
Hopefully, even if several european states are still against the fact to host refugees, other states answered to this problem very actively, as the Germany. Moreover, there're more and more of them begining to take action, in order to host additional refugees or to regulate these flows in more legal ways. Of course there is still a lot of work to do in nations they entering, in order to ensure they are treated humanely, with dignity and respect, but this is a start to improve the situation, even if we're still very far from having solved this crisis.
Mathilde Rouch
Here, I would like to deal especially with the refugees situation. The fact to suffer of a constant threat in a country in war forced them to flee their own home, in order to reach peace.
I would like to begin with an extract from an article which, I think, introduce very well the problem. It's extracted from peace and sport watch, and was written by Joël Bouzou :
« Our government have known the reality of a growing refugee crisis for years, and Europe could have been better prepared for it. Migration flows have been part of human evolution and are part of our everyday life, not just our history. For some, traveling from one country to another is mere business or leisure, for others it is a question of life and death. Every day, all around the world, people have to take the most difficult decision of their lives; to leave their homes in search of a better life.
Regardless of how they arrive in a country and for what purpose, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers have rights as a human being and are technically protected under international law:
– The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14), states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.
– The 1951 UN Refugee Convention protects refugees from being returned to countries where they risk persecution. »
Migrants will be consider as refugees when they suffered human rights abuses or when they were persecuted because of who they are or what they believe in (religion, homosexuality...). However, even if international laws protect them, the everyday reality is not so welcoming : risky border crossings, detention centers, death, exploitation,... . From January to April 2015, approximately 1700 refugees and migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean sea. These exemples makes the crisis very complex and urgent, and this situation push european states to find a solution in a very short time.
Hopefully, even if several european states are still against the fact to host refugees, other states answered to this problem very actively, as the Germany. Moreover, there're more and more of them begining to take action, in order to host additional refugees or to regulate these flows in more legal ways. Of course there is still a lot of work to do in nations they entering, in order to ensure they are treated humanely, with dignity and respect, but this is a start to improve the situation, even if we're still very far from having solved this crisis.
Mathilde Rouch
