The European response to the refugee crisis: an abdication of responsibility

• The ongoing plight of refugees represents a concrete humanitarian emergency and disaster; at present, there is an unparalleled 65.6 million of displaced people, of which 22.5 million are refugees in acute need of international protection.
• Over the last decade, armed conflict, persecution, human rights abuses and other life-threatening situations engulfing Africa and the Middle East have given birth to an ever-increasing number of forcibly displaced.

In the persistent state of crisis, world leaders have an urgent responsibility to address the question with a greater sense of shared responsibility, empathy and solidarity and need to redouble their efforts to tackle the political instabilities triggering migration, while meeting basic humanitarian urgencies in the short run.

At a deeper level, the evolving crisis threatens Europe in terms of unity and further integration, as it underlines a profound clash of culture between the young post-Soviet states and the rest of the bloc.

(...) Many other European countries, especially the wealthiest nations of Protestant tradition like Germany and Scandinavia, have responded more positively to the moral test posed by the crisis. Nevertheless, in spite of their generous conduct, it is clear that the migratory influx cannot go on being managed in a piecemeal, fragmented way.

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