Europe's refugee crisis: more than 100,000 asylum seekers cross over, starting with Greece

Rough waters, lack of supplies, and even the fatal risk of being turned away could not keep the thousands of refugees from making the journey through their Mediterranean to the borders of a Europe that is already struggling with an unprecedented migrant crisis straining its resources. 

According to the Independent, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) places the number at more than 100,000, all of whom had arrived only in the past two months. About 97,000 landed in Greece. Of these Greek arrivals, 50% come from Syria, 25% from Aghanistan, 17% from Iraq, and the rest are divided among Somalia, Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Fueling their departure from their countries of origin are the wars in Syria and Iraq and the resulting conflict. Many of these refugees had fallen victim to smugglers; women especially are vulnerable to human traffickers.

The total estimate of the refugeees who had fled to Europe since last year is 1.015 million.

The strain on the resources of the European countries brought by these new arrivals has caused a chain reaction restricting further entry. According to the Guardian, Australia placed a cap on the refugees seeking to cross its borders to continue onward to other European countries. This set off the Macedonian government to prevent entry of refugees coming in from neighborly Greece.

The UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, asked Europe to make one unified policy concerning immigrants, to prevent similar reactions from other countries, as well as their inevitable backlash. It said, "These newest restrictive measures risk violating EU law and undermine efforts for a comprehensive and coordinated approach to deal with the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe." 

In a related report by ABC, the UNHCR also protested each asylum country's profiling of refugees at the door. They said that refugees should be checked not for their country of origin, but of their need for international protection.

Tags

European refugee crisis, asylum seekers, IOM, UNHCR

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