The refugee crisis in Europe, known as the European migrant crisis, is a situation that is characterized by high numbers of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the European Union, usually originating from the Mediterranean Sea. Even though the European Commission declared the migrant crisis to be over in March 2019, recent events and analyses show that the situation is far from over.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than a million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, with the numbers remaining in the hundreds of thousands in following years. By sheer numbers, it is easy to say that the migration crisis “is over”compared to its peak, but European politicians have yet to be jolted into migration reform.

European leaders first acknowledged the problem only after bodies started mounding on an Italian island named Lampedusa near Tunisia back in 2013. The situation was declared a crisis when over a million people entered the EU in 2015, bringing along horrifying cases of human rights abuses that still occur today. There was one incident of 71 people suffocating inside a meat lorry, four of them being children; they were only discovered when a policeman noticed their liquid remains exuding out.

The majority of migrants arrive in Greece and Italy, home to large refugee camps including Moria, a camp located in Lesbos. One month ago, Moria’s overcrowded facility suffered a tragic fire that displaced the about 13,000 people it was housing (over four times its original holding capacity), leaving them with nowhere to go. It’s unclear how the fire originated but it seems to have come after clashes between Greek police and migrants who were protesting the conditions within the camp.

Humanitarians around the world have described the devastation of Moria as the “moral failure of Europe”, saying that it shows just how little has been solved regarding the refugee crisis. Since 2015, the Greek islands have been home to congested, unsafe, and unsanitary refugee centers like Moria, with hundreds of thousands of refugees spread across the country. UNHCR data has indicated that the majority of migrants come from countries like Afghanistan, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amongst others.

The reason why Greece became such a hotspot for refugee arrivals begins in 2015 when German chancellor Angela Merkel says that Germany and European states should “share the responsibility for refugees seeking asylum.” Hundreds of thousands of people crossed through the Balkans and Hungary to get to Germany. Merkel even went as far to say that there would be “no limit” to the numbers of people Germany would take in, changing her mind in December and limiting the inward migration flow.

Even though she was starting to reduce the number of migrants coming into Germany, the earlier announcements had produced a sort of irreversible invitation for migrants coming from North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Europe’s southern countries, which also happen to be the most economically afflicted, have since then been suffering Germany’s “unilateral decision.” After the first announcement in 2015, rates of migration into Greece and Italy picked up, with almost 10,000 people arriving every day in the Greek islands, resulting in situations like Moria.

Moria was regarded as a humanitarian crisis waiting to happen, and lockdown measures brought on by COVID-19 were the tipping point for people in the camps living in horrid conditions. This comes to show that the migration crisis, even though it is regarded as such, is not in the past, but is still with the European Union today, and will likely remain so for years to come.

Earlier this month, European Union home affairs ministers started the process of fixing the bloc’s disastrous migration policy, something that will be no easy task seeing as the 27 countries have extremely different values and proposals regarding a new “pact” on asylum. The Commission has called for faster pre-entry screening and swift returns of alone who does not qualify for asylum, as well as ending the inhumane border management process that leaves people in limbo for years on end.

A compromise between countries is what the Commission needs to come up with. As was mentioned before, countries are varied in terms of their views on what should be done for migrants. For example, Germany quickly committed to taking in 2,750 asylum-seekers originating from camps in Greece, whereas Austria repeatedly established that it wouldn’t be taking in any people.

Other proposals this plan includes is having “front-line countries” such as Italy and Greece become stricter with registering arrivals and sort them into categories. Those who are more likely to receive asylum are sorted into one group with a faster track towards asylum, and anyone coming from a relatively “safe” country is diverted towards deportation. After being granted asylum, refugees are then distributed across the European Union.

The main problem arises when countries that have a history of accepting migrants try to force compassion onto countries who do not, take Hungary for example. Those who arrive in Europe don’t want to go to Hungary, and Hungary doesn’t want to receive them either; if the plan forces countries into accepting these refugees, the result will be blatant discrimination and national failure to comply with enacted policies.

What officials have proposed as a solution to this situation is for hardline countries to become responsible for removing those without the right to asylum, a difficult task. The process of “returning” refugees is legally complex and needs strong diplomatic efforts. As of right now, only around 40% of people who were not granted asylum are actually sent back. If there isn’t an effective system in place to deport people, the entire trip to the EU is a calculated risk.

The Commission’s efforts are crucial to solving problems in current asylum policies, with many saying that the recent crisis could either create the necessary political space for compromise, or worsen tensions. However, if a deal isn’s possible when things are “calm”, experts are questioning the possibility that they will be able to cooperate through tensions, casting doubt on the future of this crisis.

The migration crisis, contrary to popular belief, is not supported just by sheer numbers. The arguments that the European Union continues to have about border controls, claims to asylum, and “solidarity” show that there is a much deeper divide between the nations and there are darker discussions to have.

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