2016, the most critical year for refugees (1)

Welcome to the 4 part program, “2016, the most critical year for refugees”. The program will focus on the situation of immigrants in 2016 and the European governments’ treatment of this human phenomenon.

The year 2016 ended while various organizations and institutions presented figures on different regional and international issues. One of the figures was related to the number of casualties among immigrants. Based on the International Immigration Organization’s report, the number of the individuals who have left their homeland for finding a safe haven and died in the course has exceeded 7189. This means a 20 percent increase as compared to 2015 and if this trend continues, a daily average of 20 victims will be added to the number. In Asia, Africa and South America, hundreds of thousands of humans leave their home and country to escape war, destruction, natural disasters, genocide and racial discrimination. But most of these refugees die before reaching the target countries or reside in refugee camps with the least facilities and hard conditions. Europe is one of the main destinations of refugees and asylum-seekers for finding better conditions or perhaps for survival. To get to Europe, they have to cross the turbulent Mediterranean Sea. The helpless refugees give all their savings to human traffickers and the traffickers force the refugees to board broken-down boats and leave them in the sea. Many of these boats are overloaded and basically not fit for a sea voyage. Thousands of these asylum-seekers, mainly women and children, never reach their destination and are drowned in the Mediterranean.

The International Organization for Migration in a report declared that the number of the killed refugees in 2016 in the Mediterranean Sea exceeded 4000. According to this report, since the beginning of 2016, 4220 refugees who had fled war and insecurity to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea have lost their lives. This comes while in 2015, the number was 3770. Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino Commander of European operation for countering human trafficking in Mediterranean Sea known as Sophia said: Human traffickers in Libya leave a large number of refugees in small and dilapidated boats in sea and then in the middle of the course they return to Libya with speed boats. He added since the beginning of 2016, the human traffickers brought over 160,000 refugees to Italy shores. Nearly 3500 of these people have been drowned due to capsizing of their boats in Italian waters. The UN has declared that the Mediterranean Sea has turned into the largest cemetery for refugees in the world. In the meantime, the UN high commissioner for refugees has declared 2016 was the deadliest year for refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. The report says that the likelihood for the death of refugees between Libya and Italy is 10-fold more compared with the refugees going through Turkey and Greece. The number of refugees who try to reach Europe through Turkish coasts has decreased in 2016 due to the agreement signed between the EU and Turkey for controlling the country’s sea routes. However, the number of refugees from North Africa to Italy has increased. 

Italy’s interior minister in his report declared that in 2016, the number of immigrants who have arrived in Italy has had a 20% growth and the total number of the immigrants who have arrived in the past three years has risen to over 500,000. Based on this report, during 2016, over 181,000 immigrants have entered Italy on boat and this figure has over 18% growth compared to 2015. The unclear prospect of the critical regions in Africa and Asia and the anti-migration policies of European states show that the year 2017 will be a dangerous year for asylum-seekers who want to go to Europe. The UN office for coordinating humanitarian affairs in a report declared that only in 2016, over half a million Afghans have become homeless as a result of civil unrest and this is considered the highest figure since 2008. The UN humanitarian affairs coordinator Mark Boden, regarding surge of Afghan refugees, said: I am worried that this figure not only indicates the internally displaced refugees but it shows a deeply rooted crisis. The UN office for coordinating humanitarian affairs also declared that 600,000 Afghan refugees were expelled from Pakistan in 2016 and forced to return to Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of the main countries from where refugees have escaped for nearly 4 decades. Although most of the migrants seek refuge in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan, many Afghan youths use any opportunity to go to Europe. Despite the high motivation of Afghan refugees and other countries, the European governments have placed on their agenda expulsion of refugees. Germany has already started expulsion of Afghan refugees.   

Informing the passing of strict laws against Afghan immigrants, German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said that their compulsory expulsion from the country will be intensified. He stressed some of the German borders are closed to Afghan immigrants.

De Maiziere stated that the German government has taken into consideration an important distinction between Afghan migrants and others. These remarks are made while prior to this, German rightist organizations had called on the government to issue legal permission for Afghan immigrants and their merger in German community. Italy’s interior ministry has also declared that with the change of laws, it will facilitate expulsion of immigrants from this country. Most of the European immigrant-receiving countries have put expulsion of immigrants on their agenda. The wave of refugees in Europe as a problem for rich European countries since 2015 has gone viral. To tackle this problem, they have violated international criteria for supporting the refugees’ rights and are seeking to close their borders and expel refugees with different justifications. In the next episode, we will talk about the anti-immigrant behavior of the European governments who claim to defend human rights in contrast to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conduct to host millions of Afghan refugees.

FK/RM/ME