Throughout the past few months, amidst campaign drama and new Apple products, the one issue that has remained in news coverage on the daily is the refugee crisis in Europe, yet the situation has yet to be handled effectively. Considering Syria has been in the midst of a civil war for years, the rule of Bashar Al- Assad and several other factors contribute to the fact that Syria is an incredibly dangerous and potentially life-threatening place to live, in its current state, so the numbers of those seeking refuge in Europe should not be surprising.
According to syrianrefugees.eu, over 9 million people have fled their homes since the beginning of this civil war, and primarily to countries that border Syria like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Recently, however, thousands of Syrians fled to Europe instead, as it is the safest, wealthiest and most welcoming place they are able to get to from Syria. Countries like Germany and Sweden are very open to asylum requests from Syrian refugees, but the countries that have unfriendly attitudes towards immigrants pose a problem for those seeking refuge in these countries.
Denmark in particular has been unfriendly towards migrants. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the Danish government released an ad in early September warning immigrants that they are not welcome and rejected pleas to accept more into the country. Until recently, refugees aiming to travel through Denmark to Sweden, where refugees are welcome, were detained by the Danish government, due to chaos at its border with Germany.
The situation has continued to escalate as the number of migrants continues to increase, as the United Nations prime commissioner recently stated that the world has waited too long to respond to the crisis in Syria and underestimated the scale of the problem. United States government officials have also weighed in on this issue, with President Obama recently stating that world leaders need to do more in order to help the millions of refugees fleeing dangerous conflicts.
Since WWII, European countries have grown accustomed to the United States taking charge of addressing major security threats in and near Europe, creating a sense of complacency in European foreign policy, which is now evident considering the lack of organization and agreement regarding the current situation. Germany in particular is known to have been welcoming refugees into their country, yet still fails to take charge regarding the ever growing issue. Once it was clear that the United States was not going to intervene in this situation, Germany should have worked together with stronger European countries like France and Great Britain to find an effective European response to this crisis.
The United States is constantly on the receiving end of criticism from the rest of the world for involving itself too much in foreign affairs. This time, the opposite is true. Instead of stepping back and expecting the U.S. to take action itself, countries that on the surface seem friendly to immigrants, need to take appropriate actions to stem the flow.
