Humanity: An economic burden these days?

Alyan Kurdi: The three year old, still, question mark to humanity

It was four and a half years ago when Syrian civil war broke out due to President Bashar al-Assad brutally cracking down on peaceful protests against him and people took up arms. It has claimed more than 240,000 lives and driven nearly half of Syria's people from their homes. Some four million people have fled abroad, primarily to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Refugee migration in Central European countries is gradually becoming an economic burden not only to the sheltering countries but to rest of the world as well.

As numbers are showing up; Syria, Libya, Iran and Afghanistan have shown maximum emigration. Under the Schengen system, citizens are free to travel across borders of member countries for a period of 6 months. The policy of freely allowing refugees by these countries has backfired on them.

Most refugees are trying to reach rich countries with generous immigration policies like Sweden and Germany, and many eastern European countries are refusing to take in any refugees. As the situation has worsened over time some countries have adopted measures to control the inflow of refugees.

Hungary has completed the construction of the wall along its southern border with Serbia and with new laws that have come into force allow Hungary to reject asylum requests from anyone who did not apply for asylum in Serbia. The government has also declared a state of emergency in its two southern counties over the refugee crisis, paving their way to engage the army at the border.

German government has decided that there would be no "legal limit" to the number of refugees it would take in - but stressed that the people coming into Germany who did not have the right to claim asylum would need to go back to their countries.

Germany has also announced that it would comply border controls with Austria to stem to flow of refugees coming into the country. The next day Austria did the same and other countries are set to copy them as the situation worsens by the day.

Some of the measures go against the principle of the Schengen agreement, which guarantees free movement of people among the countries that are part of the zone.

Syria and Afghanistan are countries torn apart by war, dictatorial oppression, and religious extremism – and, in Syria’s case, all three. Their citizens almost always have the legal right to refuge in Europe and added to the mix those coming from Iraq too.

Budgets for migration and asylum issues in many of these entry-point states hardest hit by the economic crisis have not kept up with growing demands and needs. In August 2015, the European Commission has approved emergency aid packages worth billions of Euros to different countries to subsidise migration.

Fences and deployment of troops to guard borders will do nothing to deter refugees, however. Instead, they argue, it only will force more refugees to seek out people smugglers, and to pay them higher prices, to reach the safety of Western Europe.

The risks can be fatal, as shown by the death of 71 refugees in the back of a Hungarian-registered truck abandoned beside an Austrian highway late last month.

Well, practically the European nations may be right on their stand but as far as humanitarian grounds go they are commiting a crime that even god won't forgive.

#politics