ББК 67 Право. Юридические науки
С древних времен и до наших дней человеческие сообщества и, в частности, государства постоянно сталкивались с потоками населения: с отъездом или исходом населения, а также с прибытием и поселением на отдельных территориях людей, которые там не родились и которые по экономическим причинам (бегство от бедности, поиск земель для обработки или мест, более благоприятных для развития) или по политическим причинам (избегание войн, преследований или вторжений) предпочли покинуть свои родные земли. Эти причины сохраняются, и сегодня люди переселяются ненамного чаще, чем вчера. Некоторые экономические, политические и даже климатические явления привели к увеличению миграционных потоков по всему миру, которые достигли своих пиковых значений начиная с 2012 г. Ярким примером этого служит миграционный кризис в Европе.
мигранты, беженцы, лица, ищущие убежища, миграционный кризис, миграционная политика.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, significant population movements to Europe will be observed. In 1967, the Biafran war displaced 2 million people in Nigeria, in 1979, the invasion of Ethiopia by Somalia displaced 600,000 refugees [1].
In 1985 the war of independence in Eritrea made 1.2 million refugees, in 1992 the civil war in Mozambique made 6 million displaced, in 1994 the genocide in Rwanda 3.5 million. In 2007 the UNHCR estimated that 2.2 million Iraqis had fled the country mainly to its neighbors. Historically, wars and violence are therefore the main causes of fluctuation in requests for protection [2, 55–62].
The migration crisis in Europe is the increase, in the 2010s, of the number of migrants arriving in the European Union via the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans, from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia and which makes it one of the most important migration crises in its contemporary history [3]. In 2015 and 2016, the European Union (EU) experienced an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants. More than one million people have arrived in the European Union, most of them having fled the war and terrorism that are hitting Syria as well as other countries.
According to data published by the European Asylum Support Office, some 634,700 asylum applications were filed in the European Union in 2018, 10% fewer than in 2017, a figure similar to that of 2014. Asylum applications peaked at 1.4 million and 1.3 million in 2015 and 2016 [4]. Even if the vast majority of refugees remain in the countries of the South [5], this "migration crisis" is causing significant divisions and diplomatic tensions between the countries of Europe, which are struggling to agree on the attitude to adopt: while the European Commission seeks to impose quotas on each country of the Union. For some researchers, it is Europe's attraction to economic migrants and its laxity in border control that are at issue. For others, it is selfishness, the barricading of legal entry routes, and disregard for human rights that mark the moral bankruptcy of Europe.
In this context of globalization, the EU is therefore working, among other things, to address the root causes of the crisis and is significantly increasing its humanitarian assistance for people in need, both inside and outside its territory. But providing refugees and migrants with food, water and shelter puts a heavy burden on the resources of some EU countries. This is particularly the case of Greece, the country through which the vast majority of refugees and migrants enter the EU.
The EU has therefore adopted a series of measures to deal with this crisis. This is how Angela Merkel and François Hollande agree on binding quotas for the reception of migrants in 2015. However, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, considers that the influx of Muslim immigrants poses a threat to the Christian identity of Europe. But in September 2016, Angela Merkel was finally forced to acknowledge the failure and the abandonment of the mandatory allocation mechanism. This revision of the European refugee reception policy will therefore be reinforced by the agreement concluded between the EU and Turkey in March 2016 [6].
As a result, measures are being taken to relocate asylum seekers already in Europe, to resettle and rehabilitate vulnerable people in neighboring countries, and to return people who do not meet the conditions for obtaining the right to asylum. The EU is strengthening border security, combating migrant smuggling, and providing safe routes for people to enter the EU legally [7].
However, on November 19, 2021, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, considers that the influx of immigrants does not pose a threat to his country, but rather a danger to the Schengen area. For he says "we are Slavs. We have heart. Our troops know that migrants are going to Germany" [8]. This new migration crisis, unlike the previous ones and in particular the one related to the war in Syria that occurred in 2015, does not concern the borders of southern Europe, but the east. On the Belarusian border, in the face of Lithuania or Poland, thousands of migrants are amassing, from all over Iraq or Syria.
However, anyone arriving in Europe does not need protection. Many people leave their homes to improve their lives. Such persons are often referred to as "economic migrants" and, if they do not have a legitimate reason to claim protection, the national authorities must ensure that they return (either voluntarily or by coercive measures) to their country of origin or another country they have crossed. This is the case with the EU-Turkey migration agreement, which provides for the return of irregular refugees arriving on Greek shores to Turkey. Thus, an important case law is developing at the level of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and extends certain protections, hitherto reserved for refugees, to people who cannot avail themselves of this status [9]. As Alexander Betts notes: "The most high-profile cases have shown that those who are not included or are excluded under international refugee law may never be entitled to international protection if they face, for example, the prospect of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment on their return" [10, 82]. Matthew Price talks about the depolarisation [11] and humanitarianization of asylum [12].
Therefore, only those people who have been granted the right of asylum, who have been arrested for committing a crime, or who belong to a vulnerable group remain on the Greek islands. In the latter case, they can then be transferred to the mainland. As a result, the number of arrivals on the Greek islands has decreased by 97% thanks to the signing of this joint mechanism, according to the Greek Ministry of Immigration [13].
Two years after its signing, the immigration agreement between the EU and Turkey caused the number of arrivals in Greece to drop. But the living conditions of refugees in Greece remain catastrophic. The EU-Turkey agreement was initially "a temporary and extraordinary measure, necessary to put an end to human suffering and to restore public order" [14] but "this agreement is paid for in human lives, not in money," Luca Fontana lamented. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 3,072 people died or disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea in 2014 while trying to immigrate to Europe [14]. The EU-Turkey migration agreement is therefore a success on paper, but a humanitarian failure.
Schematically speaking, migration is part of the history of mankind. Today, people who are trying to reach the shores of Europe are doing so for different reasons and by different means. They seek to take legal routes, but they are also willing to risk their lives to escape political oppression, war, and poverty, as well as to join their families, work, and access education. In short, to have a better life. Thousands of people have lost their lives at sea trying to reach the European Union. Almost 90% of refugees and migrants have paid criminal organizations and smugglers to help them cross borders. Thus, although the figures show that the migration crisis in Europe is over, the topic continues to be used by politicians. And remains at the top of the list of concerns of Europeans. Faced with the migration crisis, Europe can legitimately define and develop, according to its political, economic, and social characteristics, the methods of reception and integration of foreigners. Because, in my opinion, sovereignty also does not mean closing or blocking borders as an attempt to (re-)distance refugees.
1. Hélène Thiollet. Wad Sharifey, Kishm el-Girba, Asotriba... Metamorphoses of a regional network of twelve Eritrean refugee camps in eastern Sudan (1962-2013) // In A world of camps / Edited by Michel Agier. Paris: The Discovery, 2014.
2. Gérard-François Dumont. The EU in the face of immigration // Bulletin de liaison de la Société de géographie. 2016. № 29. Pp. 55-62.
3. Europe is facing one of the most serious migration crises in history // Sudouest. 26 August 2015.
4. URL: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index. php/Asylum_statistics (asylum applications filed for the first time).
5. UNHCR Statistical Yearbook 2016. Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2017. We use the term "northern countries", in the English-speaking sense of Global North, to refer to rich liberal democracies and "southern countries" in the sense of Global South for less advantaged countries.
6. For the Twenty-Eight, exit the right of asylum (archive) // Libération.fr. March 18, 2016.
7. URL: http://publications.europa.eu/webpub/com/factsheets/migration-crisis/fr/.
8. Statement by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in an interview with the BBC on November 19, 2021.
9. UNHCR, Refugees in the World 2000 - Fifty years of humanitarian action.
10. Betts A. Survival Migration: A New Protection Framework // Global Governance 16. 2010. № 3. Pp. 361-382.
11. Determining whether asylum-related issues are becoming depoliticized is tricky. At the international level, there is a depoliticization (asylum is no longer a diplomatic issue (high-politics)), as well as at the individual level (broadening of grounds). But at the same time, a politicization is manifested because asylum is becoming a debated issue in domestic politics ("low-politics").
12. Price, Rethinking Asylum.
13. EU-Turkey Declaration, 18 March 2016.
14. Migrant deaths crossing Mediterranean top 3,000 in 2014 // BBC News, 29 September 2014.
