Refugees in Europe. How to get refugee status?

One of the most popular topics, which is now exaggerated at various levels, are refugees in Europe. Indeed, the issues associated with them and the threat they represent for the traditional European way of life have reached the front pages of newspapers. But maybe not everything is as bad as it seems at first glance? Let's study this issue in detail, and at the same time learn how to obtain refugee status in European countries.

Who are the refugees?

First of all, let's find out who should be referred to refugees in the broad sense of this concept.

Refugees are people who, for some extraordinary reason, left their permanent place of residence. The reasons for these can be completely different: war, natural or man-made disaster, political repression, hunger, etc.

All refugees can be divided into two large groups: internal and external. Domestic settlers are people who are forced to change their place of residence within the state. External, on the contrary, move to other countries. Given that we will be considered as refugees of the East in Europe, we will continue to talk exclusively about external settlers.

Background

Refugees in Europe are not a matter of yesterday. It has been brewing for more than a decade. Economically developed Europe has always seemed to the inhabitants of third world countries as a kind of paradise. It was believed that after hitting after moving here, you can solve all material problems. Therefore, not only people who really needed asylum, but also those who simply dreamed of a better life, aspired to European countries. Therefore, the issue of refugees is closely intertwined with the issue of illegal migration.

The flow of refugees to Europe began to flow after the end of World War II. This was facilitated by the absence of military conflicts on the continent, a high standard of living in European countries, and the gradual liberalization of the laws on settlers. Over time, this flow became more and more, turning into a cultural, demographic and economic problem for Europe itself.

Causes of the migration crisis

But the real migration crisis erupted only in early 2015. This was facilitated by the massive collapse of the former regimes in the Middle East that occurred in the second decade of the 21st century, which caused chaos in these states, as well as, especially, the civil war in Syria. Syrian refugees in Europe are currently the main problem for the authorities of the EU countries. In addition, a significant number of immigrants were immigrants from Iraq, Afghanistan, and also Libya, as these countries also experienced active fighting.

In addition, additional reasons for the influx of refugees to Europe are insufficient funding of their camps on the territory of Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, as well as a significant expansion of the territories controlled by the terrorist organization "Islamic State". Also at the same time, fighting intensified on the territory of Libya, which further exacerbated the situation.

The main problem was not so much the influx of refugees, as the unpreparedness of European states to cope with the emerged state of affairs. The situation with refugees in Europe was becoming more and more aggravated: they had no place to be accommodated, and additional funds were not included in the budgets of the EU countries to provide resettlement. In addition, European countries could not come to a common agreement on what to do with refugees. Each state wanted the main burden of providing displaced persons to be hired on other countries, but not on it.

Directions for the movement of refugees to Europe

Initially, the main stream of refugees penetrated into Europe via sea - through the Mediterranean Sea from Africa. It was a very dangerous path. In April 2015, a series of sea accidents took place with more than 1000 lives, with the ships of immigrants, who were overloaded. In addition, this way did not allow many people to enter Europe because of the small capacity of sea transport.

But already in May the refugees opened a new path for themselves - through the Balkans. He was much safer than the previous one, in addition, he had almost unlimited bandwidth, which greatly increased the influx of immigrants to Europe.

The procedure for receiving refugees

The trouble was that, according to the Schengen agreements, customs control between the member countries of the EU was canceled and remained only on the external borders of the European Union. Therefore, having got to one of the countries of the European Union, refugees could practically freely move to other EU countries.

According to the Dublin agreements, the responsibility for granting admission to the territory of persons claiming refugee status rested with the first EU state to which they fell. Therefore, before allowing access to the territory, the authorities of this state had to study the case in detail in order to determine whether migrants really seek refuge, or are ordinary labor migrants. But in the Middle East a situation has developed that most of the settlers, indeed under European laws, had the right to refugee status. But, in view of their mass character, it was not possible to verify the validity of the entry of each of them. Therefore, there were many cases when migrants migrated with the refugees to the EU territory.

The delicacy of the situation was also in the fact that for the same Dublin agreements, the country that hosted the refugees granted them the right to reside on its territory. But if these people were found on the territory of other EU states, they were subject to deportation to the first country from which they arrived. Thus, according to the internal legislation of the European Union, the main burden of providing resettlers was placed on border countries, which, of course, the latter considered unfair. This fact actually gave rise to a split in the EU itself.

The aggravation of the crisis

Refugees to the European continent penetrated from Turkey, through Greece and Macedonia. The latter is not a member of the EU, and therefore was not bound by the Dublin agreements. Initially, Macedonia tried not to let the refugees into their territory, but they broke through the barriers. After that the government of the country allowed to issue to immigrants three-day visas, which without registration allowed to cross the territory of Macedonia on the way to the EU countries. This served as a new impetus to the fact that refugees in Europe increased significantly in number. Thus, the Macedonian government opened a gate, which allowed the flow of migrants further to Europe, refusing to take their security on themselves.

Refugees first went to other countries of the former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia), and from there - to Austria and Hungary. The final destination for most refugees was the states with the highest standard of living - Scandinavian countries, Germany, France and Great Britain.

Number of immigrants

Now let's find out how many refugees are in Europe. In 2015, which was the peak of the migration of immigrants, in Europe there were about 700,000 people claiming refugee status.

What countries prefer refugees in Europe? Germany takes in about 31% of all immigrants, Hungary - 13%, Italy - 6%, France - 6%, Sweden - 5%, Austria - 5%, Great Britain - 3%. The highest density of settlers relative to the permanent population of countries is in Hungary. Here the number of refugees reaches 0.7% of the total number of inhabitants. The proportion of immigrants is high in Germany, Austria and Sweden. Refugees in the European countries listed above make up 0.2 to 0.3% of the total number of inhabitants.

Problems of migration crisis

Refugees in Europe have created a number of problems, both for the states of Europe separately, and for the EU as an organization.

First of all it is:

• The problem of additional financing;
• Political divisions within the European Union, on the issue of attitudes towards settlers;
• The danger of the end of the existence of the Schengen zone;
• The need to increase the cost of social support for refugees;
• The growing contradictions between the EU countries;
• The competition of immigrants with local residents in the labor market;
• The actualization of the issue within individual EU countries, the withdrawal from its composition;
• Wave of terrorism.

The last question became especially relevant after a series of terrorist acts took place in France, Belgium and Germany, in which refugees were also involved.

Solutions

Despite all the acuteness, the refugee problem is not insurmountable for Europe. With the appropriate approach, this task can be solved, but this requires coherence of action between all EU countries. At the present time, we are seeing how all European countries are trying to relieve the burden of solving this issue on the shoulders of other states.

A radical solution to the problem would be the cessation of hostilities in the territory of the countries from which the flow of refugees comes, as well as the improvement of the social and material security of the population in these states.

One of the options for overcoming the refugee crisis is to prevent them from entering the territory of the EU countries, either by reviewing the legislation with the introduction of more stringent restrictions, or by creating camps for refugees in the territory of third countries with satisfactory living conditions.

However, many experts believe that if the EU countries correctly distribute the flows of settlers among themselves and establish a clear organization, even the current influx of refugees will not carry serious problems for them.

The process of obtaining refugee status

Now let's find out how to get refugee status in the EU countries.
In order to obtain this status, a person must prove that he was persecuted in his homeland on religious, national, racial or social grounds. The most significant reason for granting refugee status is the war in the territory of the native state for the migrant.

To obtain the status, the person applying for it must fill out an application for asylum and a questionnaire. Then fingerprints are taken and the medical commission is examined. Then, within a month after writing the application, the migration service conducts an interview with the migrant (interview). On its basis, a decision is made on granting asylum.

General characteristic of the problem

Of course, the refugee problem is one of the most urgent in modern Europe and the world. The solution of this issue with internally displaced persons is located both in the economic and political spheres. The second factor is even more important. After all, the end of wars in the Middle East will solve the problem of a new mass influx of migrants.

In any case, it will be possible to solve the problem of refugees with European countries only when they develop a unified policy towards this issue and will follow it clearly and unquestioningly.