Refugee crisisEurope-wide failure to anticipate, tackle "colossal" migration crisis

Published 3 August 2016

After a year-long inquiry, the U.K. Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee says EU action to address a crisis it should have foreseen has been “too little, too late,” with the EU-Turkey agreement a partial solution at best which raises serious humanitarian, human rights, logistical and legal concerns. The committee notes that current numbers of people seeking to move into Europe are “unprecedented in modern times – with 1,255,640 first-time applications for asylum in EU member states in 2015, double the 562,680 in 2014.

After a year-long inquiry, the U.K. Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee says EU action to address a crisis it should have foreseen has been “too little, too late,” with the EU-Turkey agreement a partial solution at best which raises serious humanitarian, human rights, logistical and legal concerns.

The Home Affairs Select Committee notes the following:

Humanitarian and security issues require immediate action and resources
Syrian refugees resettled by Local Authorities
The reportpublishes for the first time the number of Syrian refugees resettled in each local authority area. These figures show many local authorities (LAs) are not pulling their weight in resettling Syrian refugees, and there is scant evidence that the government is on track to meet its commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrians by 2020. The committee says Ministers should show leadership by encouraging their own constituency LAs to take refugees.

Unprecedented numbers arriving to Europe
The current numbers of people seeking to move into Europe are “unprecedented in modern times.” The Archbishop of Canterbury has described the scale of the crisis as “colossal.”

There were 1,255,640 first-time applications for asylum in EU member states in 2015, double the 562,680 in 2014, with over half of these from ongoing war-torn countries Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Contrary to popular perceptions, only 3.1 percent of these were in the United Kingdom, and in January 2016, 55 percent of the irregular migrants arriving in the EU were women and children.

Security issues
In the context of the current intense security threats to EU countries, it is clearly in the interest of all EU countries for there to be effective security checks at EU external borders. The U.K.’s own measures since the Paris attacks are welcome, but no country can protect its borders alone. The United Kingdom and others need their European neighbors, and the countries on the EU external borders, to take equally rigorous steps.

Smaller ports are now being used by criminal gangs to move people between the continent and the United Kingdom. U.K. Border Force has been given a key role in implementing strengthened coastal security measures but it is clearly under-resourced, with the number of Border Force vessels in operation worryingly low. Royal Navy vessels should be made available to Border Force to make up for shortfalls, where necessary.