Syrian Refugee Crisis in Europe

ISIS, a militarist Jihadist group formed in April 2013 and entered the chaos in which rebel groups and religious extremists fought against Syrian president Assad’s dictator regime. ISIS built strong totalitarian Islamic caliphate and quickly became the most violent and successful extremist organization of the world. All side committed horrible war crimes, using chemical weapons, executions and repeated civilian attacks. A third of Syrian people have been displaced within Syria. Over two hundred thousand civilians have been killed and around four hundred thousand people have been displaced and over four million have fled the country. The vast majority of them reside in camps now in the neighboring countries. This paper will discuss recent scholarship and journalism concerning Syrian refugee crisis in neighboring countries and their effect on host countries beside effect of immigration on children and treat of Gulf countries toward Syrian refugee crisis.

Salam Kawakibi in a study did for the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence, states the dispute between regime and armed opposition that committed atrocities resulted in massive departure of people from the targeted towns. His discussion of the issue was extensive and I will focus on it a lot. Thousands of refugees living in the border regions sought asylum in Turkey, Jordan, Libya and Iraq. He emphasizes that the situation of refugees depends on the conditions of the host country. For instance, in Lebanon Kawakibi states militia forces who are close to the Syrian regime try to threaten and control these refugees and he mentioned that their financial situation is dire. Unlike Lebanon, Jordan has set up camps for 100,000 refugees in the desert. The life conditions there are poor and Jordan’s capacity to host refugee population has reached its maximum. Moreover, the author then talks about refugees in Turkey that are being discriminated against by the people of the region; however, the Turkish government has taken responsibility for their shelter and protection. The author adds Europe has received thousands of Syrians.

Many sources discuss about anti-Syrian protests in Turkey. BBC news agency states hundreds of people have clashed with Turkish police in Istanbul during a protest against the rising number of Syrian refugees. Youths shouted anti-Syrian slogans, some of the armed with sticks and knives the clash began when a Turkish property owner was murdered by a refugee according to a report. Similarly, Telegraph UK news and Thomas Siebert writes in National World AE; the massive influx of refugees from Syria has led to rising public anger in southern Turkey with allegations of rising living cost, the undermining of Turkish businesses, and pressure on jobs.

Many sources discuss the effect of displacement on children. Author Khaled Al Masri at Children of Syria site writes more than 700,000 Syrian refugee children are unable to attend school in neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. (UNICEF regional office) Due to educational organizations are overloaded and cannot deal with the extra student load.(childrenofSyria) UNICEF USA organization also talks about effect of crisis in Syria on children with the heading title "The Crisis in Syria, Four Yeas On, 14 Million Children Now Affected ". Syria is the world’s largest producer of refugees. Four million are on the run; half are children reports UNICEF USA organization. Over eight thousand children have crossed Syria’s border unaccompanied by adults. In the four years of conflict, children have lost their home, school and communities. Their life has been threatened by violence, brutal winters and malnutrition (unicefusa.org). In a survey Leah James, Annie Sovcik, Ferdinand Garoff and Reem Abbasi did at Refugees Study Center in Oxford University in Jordan reveals refugee children are hopeless. Eight thousand children participated in this survey 15,1 percent are feeling afraid, 28.4 percent are angry 26,3 percent are hopeless and 18,8 are unable to carry out daily activities.

The organization European Council on Refugees and Exile, Michael Pearson, Holly Yan and Arwa Damon in CNN, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN); a humanitarian news agency and Aljazeera news agency discuss about border restriction of some countries to Syrian refugees. The main theme in these sources are after hosting thousands of people in recent months Syria’s neighbors made restrictions on the entry of the refugees. These sources say the governments argue the flood of refugees had a negative effect on their economies, in some cases lead to increasing insecurity. They want extensive international support to continue such high numbers of refugees. These neighboring countries are Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. In addition, Aljazeera news agency writes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indicated people cross the border illegally from Serbia will be detained and the requests for trying to enter Hungary from Serbia will be rejected. The Serbia police have detained almost 10.000 people for illegally crossing.

On the other hand, Michael Martinez writes in CNN news agency and Luke Harding, Philip Oltermann and Nicholas Watt reported from the Guardian Germany is the largest European country to accept request for asylum in EU. Germany could take 500,000 refugees annually for several years, said the German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. While UK has taken few refugees around166 from 2014-2015. Also, the Guardian reported thousands of ordinary Germans have volunteered to help refugees arriving daily. Subsequently the United Nation Higher Commissioner of Refugee (UNHCR) talks about the economic impacts of refugees in host countries. As highest concentration of refugees is in poor countries, their presence leads to demand on natural resources, educational and social services that may cause pressure on their economics. Conversely the 2016 republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump in an interview with fox news said; if he is elected, he will expel Syrian refugees. He stated "we have our own problems we are not supposed to help them while other rich Arab countries are not helping refugees".

One another issue discussed many sources is why are not rich Gulf countries taking in Syrian refugees. CNN reports most European countries has struggled to deal with Syrian refugee crisis but no Syrian refugees have been resettled in Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, countries with significant financial and political power. Gulf countries states they have given millions of dollars to the United Nations to help the refugees. They stress that Syrians have entered Gulf States on visas and stayed. Additionally, Amnesty international indicated not only Gulf states not helping victims of war but also high-income countries like Russia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have offered zero resettlement options. In addition to this point Euro news, states the Gulf States are not signatories to the United Nations Convention on Refugees of 1951 that defines the refugee states and the duties and rights of governments. In addition, answers the question why refugees want to go Europe which Europe has the best laws for them. In addition, Gulf States do not show good intention toward them.