Refugee Governance Challenges and Responses

Introduction

The moving image of a Syrian child, Alan Kurdi, drowned off the coast of Turkey has shaken the conscience of the entire world. Though it is certainly not an isolated incident, it has become the symbol of the refugee crisis bringing world wide sympathy. And, it has also brought to the fore, hitherto unanswered and uncomfortable questions regarding the movement of refugees across continents and the inheritance of forced responsibility by the local, natural inhabitants of those regions. Given the nature of the subject, it is perhaps inevitable that a discussion on refugees sparks emotional questions and conclusions with strong policy implications. The refugee crisis that has struck the European Union (EU) in the recent past is massive in its scale and unparalleled in its known history. More than a million refugees, reaching the territory of EU after a perilous journey, have been reported as originating from regions as diverse as Syria, Iraq, Morocco, Albania, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. In most cases, the main reason behind their mass migration was to avoid civil war, terror, political prosecution, war time atrocities, and ofcourse, the prospect of a better and secure life for themselves and for their children.

Though the refugee influx is not a new phenomenon, many of the EU countries are either unprepared or unwilling to cope with the scale and diversity of refugees. While some of the EU countries are still struggling to cope with the refugee influx, others have tightened border controls. This has led to a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of migrants are stranded in many entry places to the EU, most predominantly in Greece. Consequently, the EU as a supranational institution has been facing the toughest challenge of ‘refugee governance’ both morally and institutionally. It has had to safeguard its international obligations and commitment to the EU ‘values’ and ‘ideals’.

And at the same time, it has also had to cope with the domestic implications of the refugee arrivals.