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ABSTRACT
Between the summer of 2015 and early 2016, an unprecedented number of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, mainly Syrian, passed through the Greek border with Turkey, landing on the island of Lesvos. This article recognizes the failure of Europe's haphazard patchwork approach to migration, asylum, and refugees in light of the ongoing politics and strategies for dealing with the humanitarian crisis. The article focuses both on top-down policies, namely those agreed by the European Union (EU), Turkey, and those instigated by the Greek state, and bottom-up practices such as those put in place by ordinary individual volunteers and civil society organizations. The article offers evidence and perspective for legislators, academics, and the wider public on the complexities of addressing large scale humanitarian crises with scarce resources while effectively managing the security concerns.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the editors of this special issue. Many thanks also to ordinary volunteers, NGO activists, UNHCR officials, and local authority representatives who assisted us during the time we spent on the island of Lesvos. Special thanks to Eleni Fragkou, Nadina Livaditi (NGO Praksis), Nelly Hatzidakis (NGO Synyparxi Coexistence and Communication at Sea) and Maria Xernou (UNHCR). We wish to dedicate this small contribution to the unfortunate who seek a better life.
Funding
Travelling arrangements for this fieldwork were supported by the DIVERCITIES project, funded by the European Union, under the 7th Framework Programme; Theme: SSH.2012.2.2.2-1; Governance of cohesion and diversity in urban contexts, Grant agreement 319970.
Notes
1. “Asylum shopping” is the practice of asylum seekers to apply for asylum in a series of countries, until their application is deemed successful, or until they end up in the country they had initially chose to settle (usually the one with the best reception conditions).
2. In effect since 1993.
3. According to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees that was signed in Geneva in 1951, a refugee is defined as a person who
owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. (Article 1(A2))
Greece ratified the Convention in 1959. The Convention originally applied only to people displaced before 1951 and within Europe. These geographical and temporal limitations were lifted with the 1967 New York Protocol, which was ratified by Greece in 1968.
4. More on the routes: http://frontex.europa.eu/trends-and-routes/migratory-routes-map/ (Last visit 5/8/2016).
10. Based on the preliminary investigation ,UNHCR Syrian refugees who entered the Aegean during the period April to September 2015.
12. Following the exposure by Brian & Laczko for IOM, constantly updated picture of the losses at the border provides the Missing Migrants Project, accessible on http://missingmigrants.iom.int/mediterranean
13. Eurostat, migr_asyappctza, Link: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do
14. Eurostat, migr_asyappctza, Link: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do
18. This figure relates to people other than the 40.000 that the Commission proposed in May to relocate to Greece and Italy.
20. With the exception of Denmark, Ireland, and the UK, countries which retain the right to self-exclusion (opt-out).
26. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/21/macedonian-police-fire-stun-grenades-migrants-greece
32. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/france-refugees_us_55ed6ed8e4b093be51bbc5df (Last visit 5/8/2016).
34. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34171148 34. According to available statistics for the period 2010–2015, the total number of arrests of irregularly residing aliens fluctuated as follows:
2010: 132,524
2011: 99,368
2012: 76,878
2013: 43,002
2014: 77,163
2015: 911,471 (Hellenic Police, Citation2016).
35. One of the best examples of the securitization of migration is the 1990 Convention Applying the Schengen Agreement of June 14, 1985 which associates immigration and asylum with terrorism, transnational (organized) crime and border control (Huysmans, Citation2000, p. 756). In a similar vein, Ceyhan and Tsoukala (Citation2002) maintain that in antithesis to the postwar period when immigrants were welcomed as a useful labor force, today “migrants are presented in political discourses as criminals, troublemakers, economic and social defrauders, terrorists, drug traffickers, unassimilable persons, and so forth. They are demonized as being increasingly associated with organized crime” (p. 22).
36. According to Angeli and colleagues (Citation2014), “Greece's policy developed along the lines of a prevalent EU framework that views irregular migrants as ‘illegal migrants’; a terminology that places the emphasis on policing, security and criminality and leaves little space for rights-based approaches” (p. 26).
37. Relevant to the Greek policy on migration management was also the National Action Plan “Greece–Schengen” which was drafted in response to the recommendations of the committees evaluating Greece's external borders, in 2010. However, this document was classified and access to that has not been possible.
38. Up to June 2013 asylum was under the sole purview of the Hellenic Police and asylum seekers were asked to travel to the Asylum service headquarters in Athens in order to submit their asylum claim.
39. The aim of the Ministry of Citizen Protection was to bring up, by the end of 2013, the total capacity of the preremoval centers from 2,000 (in 2010) to a number of 10,000 (Ministry of Citizen Protection, Citation2012, online).
40. Concerning existing facilities for minors in 2010, Greece operated seven facilities with a total capacity for 330 people only (Ministry of Citizen Protection, Citation2010a, p. 18).
41. It should be noted that in 2009 and 2010, the European Commission enforced a process of sanctions against Greece for violations of the EU law on asylum, reception and treatment of people in need of international protection (Spathana & Paramina, Citation2014, p. 42).
42. The Court has ruled that “the living and detention conditions of asylum seekers in Greece (at the time) constitute inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment” (Booth et al., Citation2014, p. 65).
43. By 2014, however, serious shortcomings were observed in relation to the reception of asylum seekers and the general provision to vulnerable groups
44. As Katsiaficas (Citation2014) has put it, part of the EU migration policy
includes managing the security of the external border to guard against irregular migration as well as security, health, and other threats resulting from the movement of people into the European Union. In this regard, the EU has promoted what it terms “Integrated Border Management.” (p. 1)
45. The final construction is 10,365 km long and 3 meters high and it is equipped with thermal cameras, which scan the surrounding area. It runs along the north-eastern side of the Greek–Turkish borders, between the Greek villages of Kastanies and Nea Vyssa.
46. Apart from the Evros area, in September 2014, the operation was extended to the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea.
47. For more details about the role and the full range of possible FRONTEX interventions within the framework of the Operation “Poseidon,” see Booth et al., Citation2014, p. 17.
48. See Article 18, Law 4249/2014.
49. However, Operation “Theseus” aimed not only at irregular immigration in the center of Athens but also at curbing the use of drugs and sex work.
50. Law 3907/2011 increased the maximum period of detention to 18 months.
51. The other two manifestations is discursive criminalization and the use of criminal law for migration management (Parkin, Citation2013, p. 11).
52. According to the New Migration Code, entering or staying the country without the necessary legal formalities is punishable with at least 3-month imprisonment and a minimum fine of 1,500 euro (Angeli et al., Citation2014, p. 26).
53. However, Parkin (Citation2013) notes that there is a general lack of empirical evidence to support the thesis that growth in detention practices causes decreases in irregular migration flows (p. 15).
54. Data provided by the International Organization for Migration, https://www.iom.int/news/migrant-arrivals-greeces-lesvos-island-approach-10000-week.
55. According to the 2011 census, http://www.statistics.gr/el/2011-census-pop-hous
56. This shipwreck led to a further mobilization of the local community and drew global attention to Lesvos. See, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-migrants-greece-shipwreck-idUSKCN0SM2MI20151028
57. Statement by the EU commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, visiting the informal camp in Eidomeni in March 2016.
58. More broadly, the same can be said to apply to the existing vocabulary of reception. The use of metaphors taken from biology or even logistics (“flows,” “congestion,” “hotspot,” “warehouse,” “identification,” etc.) are utilized to indicate the shift from addressing a “humanitarian crisis” to countering a “security crisis.”
