In summer of 2015, EU experienced the biggest influx of refugees since WW2. Why? because Syria has become the worlds largest source of refugees. Syria is located in the middle east, an ancient fertile land settled for at least 10,000 years. Since 1960 it has been led by the al-Assad family. It was a quasi dictatorship kind of democracy. During the spring, there were massive outbreaks and protests which led to the fall of many of the authoritarian regimes but the Assad refused to step down and started the most brutal civil war of the era. Syria is a place with different ethnicities and religious groups they fought each other during this changing coalitions. ISIS, a militaristic jihadist group used this an opportunity and entered this chaos with an ultimate motive to create a totalitarian Islamic caliphate. Very soon it became a very successful violent extremist organisation on Earth. This did not stop both the sides from committing to horrible war crimes, using chemical weapons, mass execution, torture on large scale and repeated deadly attacks on the innocent civilians. The Syrians were trapped in between the regime, rebel groups and the religious extremists. Over 4 million Syrians were displaced and seeked refugee in the camps of the neighbouring countries like Iraq, Egypt and Turkey - who are taking in almost 95 percent of the refugees. While the Arab countries of the Persian gulf closed their doors to them and accepted zero Syrian refugees. This gesture has been termed as greatly shameful by Amnesty International. No one was prepared for this even the UN and the world food program. They were not equipped for a refugee crisis of this scale.So, many refugee camps were over crowded and under-supplied. Cold, hunger and diseases were by products of these. They lost hope that things will get better for them any time soon. So many decided to take asylum in Europe. Between 2007 and 2014, EU has invested billions in weapons, defence systems and border patrols but not enough prep for the influx of refugees. As per EU, a refugee has to stay in the state they arrive in first. Which put enormous pressure in the border states that were already in trouble. Greece, who was in the midst of the economic crisis in the scale of Great Depression was not able to take care of so many people at once. the world needed to come together and act as one instead they became divided. Many states downright refused to take in any of the refugees, leaving the border states to struggle alone. Mare- Nostrum was a search and rescue mission deployed by the UK government to prevent people from drowning in the Mediterranean. the idea was solid at the time as the number of people braving the open sea would be few but in reality it was chaos. The perception of the entire crisis changed by a photo - a photo that went viral and shook many hearts.The photo of an innocent Syrian boy lying face down in a Turkish beach. Germany proclaims that they will accept all Syrian Refugees and is preparing to accept 80000 by 2015 which was more than what the EU did 2014. it proved to be a nightmare and they had to shut down their borders. They then demanded EU for a wider solution. Over at the west more and more civilians supported the refugees through supplies like food, medicine and other materials. Most of the support only came for concerned citizen and not from any politicians. There are also concerns in the west about Islam, high birth rates and crime may collapse the social systems. Lets take this account and look at the facts. Lets assume that EU would accept the entire Syrian refugee's of about 4 million people this would only result in a rise of Muslim population from 4% to 5%.
This is not a drastic change and would definitely not make it a Muslim continent. Muslim minority is neither new nor to be afraid of. In some part of the population is low, so, they fear that the refuges's might overtake the natives. Birth rates, they are higher but they gradually drop as the standard of living and education increases. In Syria, the birth rates were going on a decline. As most of the Syrian nationals are educated. The fear of crime rates can also be dealt with this, the probability of an immigrant committing a crime is less than that of the native. Given an opportunity to work, they would start a business and integrate strongly in the work force of the society and in turn contributes to the societies welfare. The west badly needs professionals to sustain the Europe's ageing population. Another point made is those who carry smartphone does not need to be given refuge. Smartphone's are a way to guide them to a refuge camp with social media giving tips and rel time information. Would we loose our smartphone if we are to undertake a dangerous journey ahead with no idea of what is going to happen. ? It just proves they are like us, humans.EU is the wealthiest bunch in the world with well organised states functioning social systems, well laid out democracy and huge industries. It can handle the challenge of refugee crisis with ease if it chose to. The same can be said about the entire western countries. While the tiny Jordan has taken over 600000 refugees. UK with 78 times the GDP of Jordan has said they will only allow 20000 across its borders over the next five years. US has agreed to accept 10000 and Australia 12000 people. Overall, things are getting better but the rate is not fast enough. We are the ones who are writing history now, let us be known as the people who opened their doors to people in shelters than the guys who hid behind the fences. We have to realise they are people who are fleeing from, death, destruction. These are people who are giving away everything they worked and lived for so that they can just be alive with the hope of a better future. They are people like us, accepting them into the society makes us richer and stronger. Its time to act and let us be the reason for someone else's smile. Let us unite and pray for the lost souls and extend a helping hand to the needy.
There are many organisation trying to meet the ends to provide support for the affected, those who want can help. The websites and the organisations helping can be found in Google or you can simply donate or volunteer for UN.
*PS: this is just my interpretation. I haven no intend of hurting anyone and this is just my personal opinion. Majority of the content and facts have been taken from a video i happen to watch about this and felt people should know what is happening around them.
Good one
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