I’d like to begin this by saying, it’s a refugee crisis, not a migrant crisis. Nearly every headline of the newspapers for the past fortnight concerned the “migrants” fleeing from their countries. A migrant is someone who moves country in order to find better working or living conditions, hoping to find a better life. A refugee is someone who is forced to leave their country in order to protect their own life against war, persecution or natural disaster. Thus, these “migrants” the headlines talk about are actually legally classified as refugees, or internally displaced persons, depending on where they choose to seek asylum. The negative connotations surrounding the word “migrant” is nothing but detrimental for these people only trying to save their own and their families lives.
The “tiny victim of human catastrophe” (as the Daily Mail called him), was the heart-breaking victim of the refugee crisis, 3 year old Alyan Kurdi, whose family aimed to flee to Greece, but his body was one of 12 victims found on a Turkish beach a few days ago. Various images of the poor child have gone global, and for some, has been the wake-up call to start doing their bit for refugees from Syria and beyond. The image began its global trend on Twitter through the hashtag of the Turkish phrase “#kiyiyavuraninsanlik”, having been used over 200,000 times since. The sharing of the image has been controversial and personally I have chosen not to share the image, as I consider it too devastating, and the boy should be given respect and dignity that he deserves, however the Mirror have said that the image “must be a wake-up call for Europe”.
Many people flee to the EU to escape the situation of their home country. However, in this day and age, many do not end up where they want to be. More than 250,000 asylum seekers have entered in the UK in the twelve months up to June this year, and to me, it is horrifying that over 2,100 of these were unaccompanied children with their entire lives ahead of them. It is a huge problem, and many people are confused as to where the blame lies.
David Cameron has vowed to allow thousands more people who are currently settled in UN refugee camps on the Syrian border. However, Cameron is still convinced that this will only stir more chaos: Downing Street officials have said that the movement following the image of the Syrian boy on the beach has begun such a movement that Cameron has been influenced to act. The tension in the EU is rising, as nearly 3,000 people are camped outside a train station in Budapest hoping to flee to Germany, however the practicalities are daunting.
A crisis that has peaked after having begun in 2011 is unavoidable, with the EU and UN, needing to up their game in solving the problem. Agreed that there are only limited numbers of refugees that each country can manage, it is obvious that plans do need to be made, and urgently. David Cameron’s idea of simply allowing “more and more” individuals into the country as a result of “moral obligations” is one that I’m sure will be short lived, and is simply unsustainable. It shall be interesting to see how the EU responds next to the crisis, it being one so severe and life-threatening that it’s imperative to keep well informed about it.
Many in Britain are waiting with bated breath for Cameron to respond logistically to the crisis, rather than in the form of polished sound-bites – we can only hope that for once he intends to stand by his word.
Words by Victoria Eden