European Migrant Crisis

As we all know, the last two years are known as the European Migrant Crisis. Thousands of people leaved their countries in order to save their life. In their trial to leave their country safe and sound, most of the people even do not know where they would immigrate. Sometimes, their fate is too cruel and they have to separate from their relatives. There are a multitude of cases when people do not know in which country are their parents, children or siblings.

    Most of the migrants are from the Muslim majority countries. The conflict in Syria continues to be the biggest driver of migration, followed by Afghanistan and Iraq. The migrants have chosen Europe as a safer place to live, travelling across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe.  According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 1,011,700 migrants arrived by sea in 2015, and almost 34,900 by land.  The EU’s external border force, Frontex, monitors the different routes migrants use and shows that the number of arriving people in Europe in 2015 year is more than 1,800,000.

    What is our attitude towards these people? Do we treat them right? The refugees leave their home towns, the houses that they had always taken care of, and sometimes even their beloved people in order to find safe place to live. They travel thousands of kilometers in really bad and unsatisfactory conditions in order to safe their life. In most of the cases, migrants travel by bus or boats, without knowing where they will end up in the end. Some of them do not have a destination, but they have a goal: to survive! In spite of their perseverance and stamina, to reach the final aim, sometimes this trip does not have a happy end for them. There are a lot of cases of people who have died travelling from their home countries to safer places. A multitude of children have lost their life in search of freedom. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 3,770 migrants were reported to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2015. Most, died on the crossing from north Africa to Italy, and more than 800 died in the Aegean, crossing from Turkey to Greece.

According to BBS, the summer months are usually when most fatalities occur as it is the busiest time for migrants attempting to reach Europe. But in 2015 the deadliest month for the migrants was April, which saw a boat carrying about 800 people capsize in the sea off Libya. Overcrowding is thought to have been one of the reasons for the disaster.

    Do they receive a normal attitude? There are a lot of people who do not approve of the refugees being welcomed in their countries and they treat the migrants as bad people. I think we should look on the other side and try to put ourselves on their place. How will we react if our country has a political conflict and it is not appropriate for living here? How will we feel if it is necessary to leave our home country?

In my opinion we should treat the migrants better and we definitely should try to help them whenever we can.  We have to be tolerant and friendly towards them, because their fate is too cruel.

    Nobody can be sure in what situation he/she would be after years. It is really difficult to emigrate to a foreign country, but sometimes it is the only escape from the war. We should be friendly and helpful towards the refugees, because we are all humans and the human love and support are really strong and they may act as a balm for migrants’ souls.

Although refugees have to go through this route full of torture and difficulties, they are persistent and they succeed. The good always wins, that’s why we always have to believe in the good.

Trayana Tinkova

References:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21728992-it-seems-be-managing-how-germany-integrating-its-refugees
  
[artigo de opinião produzido no âmbito da unidade curricular “Economia Portuguesa e Europeia” do 3º ano do curso de Economia (1º ciclo) da EEG/UMinho]