The journey by migrants seeking a better life in Europe is extremely dangerous. The International Organization for Migration released a report that found since 2000, at least 40,000 migrants have died - or about eight each day over the past 14 years.
"The system is designed to keep newcomers out, and force those who are already in the country to leave. Detention is a major pillar of that policy," says Amnesty International's Greece researcher Giorgos Kosmopoulos.
Under European law, detention of irregular migrants is allowed, yet the law also stipulates that it should only be used as a last resort, and after individual assessment of each case. European Union funding has been largely geared towards securing borders. For the period 2007-13, the Directorate for Home Affairs of the European Commission allocated €.8bn ($2.28bn) towards securing external borders, compared to €700m ($888m) to support asylum procedures, reception services, and the resettlement and integration of refugees.
Bulgaria recently failed to adopt an integration action plan for the many refugees who have received humanitarian protection, but are unable to move to other European countries. In Bulgaria, volunteers set up a coordination platform to help the unprepared authorities cope with an unexpected influx of migrants during the second half of 2013. Whether to show solidarity, counter populist rhetoric or defy corruption, many of these initiatives have been motivated by broader objectives than simply giving charity.
"We got together because we disapproved of the corruption and inefficiency behind the government-run aid programmes," says Tzvetko Tzankovski, who has delivered dry food to thousands of refugees around Bulgaria as part of a small group of volunteers.
Maria Cheresheva, another Bulgarian volunteer, organised information campaigns to counter polarising media coverage. "The political discourse revolved around fear from extremism and the high financial support refugees were getting, which wasn't the case. Once the issue is framed like this by media, it is extremely difficult to change it."
Volunteers in Harmanli, one of the country's biggest refugee camps, were no longer allowed to deliver food. Lydia Staikova, who volunteers at Harmanli, recently submitted an action plan to the camp's director to propose other activities geared towards integration. But, she says, "We are still not fully trusted. Being a volunteer in Bulgaria is a very strange thing, so people expect some agenda that we are hiding."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/09/plight-europe-unwanted-migrants-2014923765398684.html
2 comments:
Charity is not the answer. We workers need is classwide solidarity with an agenda to socially own what they produce.
We agree that charity, per se, is not the answer and I believe the quote at the end of my comment gives a clue that those volunteers recognise that too, and although hamstrung by the system they wanted to make their own point against that system and the corruption in government agencies and false propaganda in the media:
"Whether to show solidarity, counter populist rhetoric or defy corruption, many of these initiatives have been motivated by broader objectives than simply giving charity."
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