Timeless issues, recent legislative solutions, and the course of refugees and migration in the EU
The new migration pact
After about eight years, after many consultations, after countless tragic events such as the death of Alan Kurdi, the fire in the Moria camp, and the shipwreck in Pylos, and after the arrival of over 2.5 million refugees in the European Union (EU), on December 20, 2023, the European Commission, together with the member-states, concluded discussions on the new much-debated migration pact. The Union’s migration and asylum regime practically collapsed in 2015 when more than a million people, most of whom fled from the war in Syria or Iraq, arrived in the EU without authorization, and since then the 27 member-states have disagreed on how to share responsibility for uncontrolled arrivals and their protection.
Discussions on the new pact led to a historic, as it is called, agreement aimed at addressing the refugee and migration issue in a more coordinated and sustainable manner. This envisages strengthening the Union’s external borders, increasing controls, and expediting asylum procedures, as well as accelerating the deportation of individuals deemed to be a threat to the Union’s security or whose asylum applications are likely to fail – including women and children. Despite declarations of a historic agreement, concerns from humanitarian organizations ring the alarm for human rights violations during the asylum recognition process, the lack of protection measures for vulnerable groups, and the weakening of solidarity principles among European countries.
The current situation for refugees and migrants in Greece
Following the publication of videos by The New York Times showing the illegal pushback of migrants to Lesbos, the international community, as well as the EU leadership, rushed to call on the Greek authorities to clarify the allegations. A few weeks later came the tragic shipwreck in Pylos, in which at least 600 people lost their lives. Unfortunately, human rights violations do not stop there. At the end of 2023, over 16,000 asylum seekers and refugees are held in closed controlled facilities on the islands of the Eastern Aegean, where the unpleasant situation of previous years continues, with overcrowded reception centers, inadequate healthcare, and delayed asylum procedures. The situation inland is no better with over 60,000 people residing on the Greek mainland, many of whom face homelessness, food problems, and obstacles to integrate themselves into the country’s workforce.
Efforts for integration are insufficient, and day by day prospects become more ominous, after the closure of the EU-funded vulnerable groups housing program, ESTIA, leaving over 7,000 extremely vulnerable asylum seekers on the streets, such as persons with disabilities, pregnant mothers, and single-parent families, and the limited as well as dysfunctional operation of the only integration and inclusion program for recognized refugees, HELIOS. Surveys by humanitarian organizations and civil society organizations point to tremendous gaps in the integration process and policies of social isolation that exacerbate the dire situation for this population. For example, two out of three respondents in a survey on the food crisis report having access to food only 1-3 times a week.
At the Victoria Community Center, in Victoria Square, where humanitarian organizations operate to provide a plethora of services, from hot meals to psychosocial support, non-formal education activities, and social services, over 300 people with refugee profiles arrive daily, seeking solutions to the complex problems they face. Requests for support in finding housing for single mothers living on the streets with one, two, or even three children are many, certainly more than the options our social workers can offer. Homelessness along with the difficulty of finding work, due to bureaucratic obstacles in obtaining and collecting necessary documents, such as the issuance of a Social Security Number (SSN) or opening a bank account, exacerbate difficulties and make these problems unsolvable.
Most recognized refugees wait for the issuance of their relevant passport to leave the country for another EU country. Meanwhile, thousands of asylum seekers residing in reception centers inland have not been able, from 2019 to today, to work because they must wait six months after submitting an asylum application to be legally allowed to enter the job market.
Greek Government’s amendment
Here comes the government, with the recent amendment of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that was voted in Parliament at the end of 2023, to cover some gaps, not with the aim of protecting refugees and integrating them into the Greek society, but with the aim of finding a solution to the problem of finding labor in key sectors of the domestic economy such as agriculture and tourism, without “importing” migrants from third countries, such as Bangladesh or Pakistan, through intergovernmental agreements, as it has been announced so far.
The amendment entails the granting of residence permits to third-country nationals who have been residing in our country in recent years without legal documents, on the condition that they will be employed by an employer who has been responsibly committed to hire them, in an effort to fill the aforementioned gaps. Also, with the new amendment, the waiting time for asylum seekers without the right to work is reduced from six to two months.
The Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) made an announcement in which it partly welcomes the amendment as it provides for the first time the opportunity for fundamental rights acquisition for migrants working in the country, but it emphasizes that the measure does not address the structural and perennial issues regarding the terms and conditions of their employment.
What will happen?
It is clear that population movement continues to exist, indeed, it continues and increases in frequency and size, despite policies of systematization, legitimization, or limitation thereof. The climate crisis, ongoing armed conflicts, economic inequalities, and changes in the productive needs and economic priorities of countries around the world bring us to a new beginning of things. The basic principles, values, and practices of Europe in recent decades are therefore changing. The defense of basic human rights and the rule of law are declining. Over the past year, we have seen and experienced these changes firsthand. From the shipwreck of Pylos to the fires in Evros and the pogroms against refugees and migrants who were accused for, although fortunately acquitted by the justice system.
The anti-immigration policy, about which much is written by NGOs, independent news groups, and legal and human rights professors, is evident. The causes are many and complex, as are the results, which are even more numerous. What we see on a daily basis is the devaluation of the value of human beings, the targeting of the work of civil society organizations, the marginalization of people seeking protection, and their removal from the eyes of the world. A policy that pushes them into deadlock, into further hardships, and hides bigger problems over time for all of us. The new domestic legislative frameworks and EU migration policies herald further obstacles and undermine the legal right to asylum and international protection for many people, leading to the creation of societies where you will be considered a migrant only if you are needed for cheap labor.
*Lighthouse Relief is a non-profit, non-governmental organization operating in Greece since 2015 with the aim of defending the rights of all people to asylum and international protection, and to address the immediate humanitarian needs of those seeking refuge.
