The Syrian war has been raging for four years, but the number of refugees to Europe has drastically risen in 2015
Europe is struggling to manage its worst refugee emergency since World War II. More than 300,000 people have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year and more than 2,600 have died doing so. Many of those making the voyage are fleeing the civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year.
The latest update:
Stop-gap measures allowing refugees free passage to be phased out.
On Sunday, Austria announced that it planned to phase out emergency measures that have allowed thousands of refugees stranded against their will in Hungary to enter Austria and Germany since Saturday.
Many are fleeing war in West Asia and hope to take refuge in Germany, Europe’s richest country, but the EU is divided over how to cope with the influx which has provoked both huge sympathy and anti-Muslim resentment among Europeans.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said the decision, a day after the measures were put in place, followed “intensive talks” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a telephone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“We have always said this is an emergency situation in which we must act quickly and humanely. We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation,” he said. “Now we have to move step-by-step away from emergency measures towards normality, in conformity with the law and dignity.”
In Hungary, migrants boarded trains at Keleti station on Sunday, following handwritten signs in Arabic directing people to trains to Hegyeshalom on the border with Austria. But on Hungary’s border with Serbia there were reports that people spent the night in the rain without food or shelter. The Cypriot coastguard picked up 114 Syrian refugees who were adrift in a fishing boat.
Why now?
The Syrian war has been going on for four years, but why is there a sudden spurt in flow of refugees to Europe?
| 1 | The war is not getting any better, causing those in Syria to leave and those in exile in Turkey to give up hope of returning home.
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| 2 | Though Turkey has taken in about two million refugees, it is not a place to settle as Syrians don’t have the right to work there legally. Also, electoral setbacks for the AKP – seen as refugee-friendly -- have made many Syrians nervous.
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| 3 | U.N. bodies working with refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon and eastern Europe are running out of money, making camp conditions harsher.
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| 4 | People have finally saved up enough money to pay smugglers. Every individual might spend about $3,000 to get to Germany.
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| 5 | There is now a known route through the Balkans. Syrians had not been using it, but that changed late last summer.
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| 6 | EU countries spent all year debating and procrastinating about an appropriate solution.
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Source: Guardian
Young and homeless
More than half of all Syrian refugees are under the age of 18.
| Male (%) | Age | Female (%) |
|---|
| 9.1 | 0-4 | 8.6 |
| 10.7 | 5-11 | 10.1 |
| 6.5 | 12-17 | 6.1 |
| 21.8 | 18-59 | 24 |
| 1.4 | 60+ | 1.7 |
Syrians in Europe
A record 107,500 migrants crossed the European Union’s borders in July, far outstripping the previous monthly record of 70,000 in June, according to the EU border agency Frontex.
Source: Frontex, International Organization for Migration, UNHCR, Eurostat
