A Western media’s report on the European Union’s failed asylum policy.
The Austrian newspaper Standard has reported on the EU’s failure in its asylum policy, citing the continued influx of migrants into the EU, writing: “The large number of new arrivals, including on the Greek island of Crete, shows how fragile the EU’s asylum policy is.”
On Greece’s largest island—and also on the much smaller southern island of Gouves – the arrivals of migrants and refugees have increased rapidly in recent weeks. An estimated 10,000 people have arrived there this year, an increase of more than 350 percent compared to the same period last year.
This situation shows, as ever, how fragile and vulnerable the asylum and migration policies of the European Union and its member states are, even 10 years after the start of this major crisis.
Asylum and migration researchers in the EU have long advised that border controls alone will not reduce the influx of migrants and that smugglers will find new routes. Meanwhile, the EU is particularly dependent on its neighboring countries for maritime routes. Because if people are intercepted on the high seas on their way to Europe, they cannot be left alone and must be brought to shore.
Since 2016, an agreement has been in place with Turkey to stem the influx of migrants, which has worked sometimes well and sometimes badly. In the past two or three years, the EU Commission has pursued this approach more vigorously, concluding similar agreements with Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritania and other countries. Under these agreements, these countries prevent refugees from crossing the sea to Europe in exchange for financial injections and promises of investment.