International

Brexit, terror in Nice, an attempted coup in Turkey: developments follow one on another so rapidly that you could almost forget that there’s also still a refugee crisis. Newly-published statistics from the European Commission and answers to questions from the European Parliament from the responsible Commissioner which tell us nothing show that there remain tens of thousands of people without adequate reception facilities, or with no accommodation at all, amongst whom are thousands of unaccompanied minors. Things are not going well, especially in Italy.

This week Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is responsible for asylum policy, came to the European Parliament in order, on this occasion, to inform the Budgetary Control Committee about the reception of asylum seekers in the European Union. When I asked what were the precise indicators of quality of this reception, I received a vague answer: in Greece and Italy it was better than it had been in the recent past. Yes, but it could hardly have been much worse. Look at the Commission’s own written reports on this, and you’ll see just how bad it is. In Greece there’s still no accommodation for thousands of asylum seekers where basic facilities are provided. People are indeed more efficiently registered and there are more frequent transfers to other member states. On the other hand, out of at least 2,000 unaccompanied minors, only twenty-nine have been transferred to other member states, nine of them in the last month.

In Italy the chaos continues to increase. Since mid-June some 25,000 people have arrived in the country, amongst whom are many Eritreans, a nationality for which the chance of being recognised as a refugee is greater than 75%. In the same period more than 3,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived there. Compare this with the fact that the reception capacity of the so-called hotspots in Italy is estimated by the Commission at 1,600. The backlog means that no unaccompanied minor has yet been transferred to another member state. On top of this, Italy refuses to cooperate with security screening by member states prepared in principal to accept asylum seekers.

All in all it appears that the Italians are still counting on the people who arrive in their country continuing their journey – illegally – to other member states. Given the huge numbers involved, this represents not only a humanitarian danger but also a security risk. In addition, the position of unaccompanied minors is totally precarious. With no protection, they quickly become victims of trafficking.

Things aren’t going well with the Italian banks. The government wants to give them a fresh injection of capital, but that would cost tens of billions of euros. The danger is then that the desperately needed finance for improving reception and registration of asylum seekers will be stuck in the mire. In that case chaos will grow still greater, especially as now the numbers are growing so rapidly. Against this background Commissioner Avramopoulos’ presentation in the EP was downright shameful, just as was Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s declaration during the July Plenary in Strasbourg when he labelled ‘his’ deal with Turkey a great success for his government’s EU Presidency. It’s time European politicians saw it as their responsibility to give the basic accommodation of refugees within the EU the highest priority. In my view no-one, and certainly no minor, should want for such a reception. Until that is sorted out, no politician can speak of ‘success’ and we will continue to find ourselves in the middle of a refugee crisis.