Reflections of Europe’s concern of refugees’ crisis

Mostafa Salah

Recent remarks made by Erdogan that Turkey would open its borders for refugees into Europe have triggered the European Union’s concerns.

The Syrian north has become a battleground for Turkish and Russian conflict, as well as Iranian influence.

Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have been seeking to move the other from Idlib in order to achieve many gains by controlling the areas in northern Syria.

Erdogan has warned Western nations that he would continue to release people who were thought to be members of Daesh and send them back to their home countries if governments continued to pressure Turkey with sanctions.

Observers warned against the return of terrorist operations by Daesh, after Erdogan opened the borders to them in a “green light” with the return of the organization’s activity in Europe, to serve Erdogan’s policy in the region and the continued blackmail to occupy Syria and Libya, steal Mediterranean gas, and obtain funds from countries.

“The Turkish president hopes that this tactic will offer him leverage to induce the European Union to weigh in on the side of Turkey in the Idlib crisis,” said Erdemir, who now works as a fellow at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in an interview with Al Arabiya English.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, is expected to visit the Greek-Turkish border today. She has expressed sympathy with Turkey’s “difficult situation”hosting more than 3 million refugees but condemned its move to let them leave its territory for Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly, calling the decision “unacceptable.”

This came after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike in northern Syria on Thursday, the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

The influx of refugees into Europe has brought much detriment to the continent’s countries, especially Greece, which affects the economy, tourism and other sectors, and Erdogan has used this as a card to pressure European countries.

For its part, the International Organization for Migration announced in a statement on February 29 that its employees saw “at least 13,000 people gathered along the border between Turkey and Greece.”

The refugee issue is expected to cause Greece economic losses as a result of preoccupation with this matter of energy and tourism projects, in addition to the confrontations that take place between the police and the islanders, who refuse to build new refugee camps.

The issue will also escalate the state of political discourse by the two parties, in addition to the continuing skirmishes and military protests by Turkish and Greek ships against each other in the Aegean Sea.

Indicators confirm that the situation could be heading towards a military confrontation between Turkey and Greece, but this is somewhat unlikely, especially since both countries are members of NATO, which would not allow its members to fight each other. This could lead to both countries accepting to calm the escalating tensions between them, which of course would not happen without Erdogan making some gain.

Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has arrived at the Greek-Turkish border to check conditions in the area, after Turkey threatened to let thousands of refugees to cross it on the road to Europe.

Accompanying der Leyen was Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and a host of European officials.

Tensions intensified in the border area between Greece and Turkey, after Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he would open his country’s borders to let thousands of refugees through to Europe.

Nevertheless, this raises a question about what the European Union should do.

Required unity

Mitsotakis said his country needed European solidarity with it more than ever before. He called for support from all European and local parties.

The Greek premier added that der Leyen’s visit to Evros sends a strong message to Turkey.

“This is true, even if we are badly in need of more similar messages,” Mitsotakis said.

He said Greece’s European partners had not backed it enough in the past few years.

The differences are expected to lead to many results, the most important of which are:

1- Joining armed groups: it is possible that extremist groups will exploit many of refugees to recruit them as individual wolves who can target the European interior directly, especially in light of the adoption of some armed groups civilized jihad in European societies.

2- The rise of populist currents: The increase in the number of refugees has had many repercussions on the rise of populist currents opposing many of the European governments’ policies related to the refugee problem.

3. Adjusting European internal policies: German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that the European Union will reform the immigration and asylum system, and the need to strengthen the protection of the external borders of the European Union by strengthening the border protection agency “Frontex”, and tightening measures to address the continued unauthorized migration within the European Union.
4. Social repercussions: The refugee crisis has caused an increase in the rates of European demographic change, divisions continue among the European Union member states on how to manage the worst humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II.

There are some obstacles to the integration of refugees, such as a lack of knowledge of the local language, different cultures, and societies’ lack of understanding of refugee situations, discrimination against foreigners, as well as psychological impact and the inability to carry out any activity during the asylum procedure.

It is clear that Europe’s attempts to prevent the influx of refugees arriving across the Mediterranean or through countries close to Turkey will continue to rely on barriers and closed doors that are of no use but to change the location of the geographical challenge.