The blame game is no solution to the refugee crisis

In the last few months there have been numerous stories in the social media about citizens in Athens or in the Greek islands assisting migrants, inviting them to their homes, offering shelter, food, clothes, and medications. The language barrier is no obstacle; people know how to communicate with their heart and soul.

Humane stories in the social media become viral and more and more people want to feel helpful and experience giving to the distressed migrants. 

In 2015, about 800,000 souls, mainly Syrians, crossed over to Greece from the Turkish coasts. For them fleeing their country is often a matter of life and death. No one could imagine that the influx of refugees would have been so huge and so constant this year. Although delays and failures have happened, especially in the beginning of the massive influx this year, one thing is certain; no other European country has faced such migration numbers since the Second World War. 

The Greek coast guards are the silent heroes of this unprecedented crisis, having to intervene many times, even within the same night in order to save dozens of migrants.

The Turkish smugglers send dozens of boats every day by the sea. Some of those boats never make it to the shore. Tragic loss of human life happens often. Whole families have perished, women, children and men. More than 600 people drowned this year alone.

Once in Greek waters, respecting international conventions, the coast guards struggle to save lives and host them decently. The inaction of Turkey so far has not left other real alternatives.

Lesbos island is well known for being the birth place of the dithyramb, the progenitor of tragedy, of two of the ancient poets Alcaeus and Sappho, the Nobel Prize poet Odysseas Elytis and lately as the main entrance of migrants into Greece.

Indeed Lesbos Island, because of the narrow Mytilini strait that separates it from Turkey, is the place where about half a million of migrants and refugees have crossed over from Turkey this year.

Other islands like Kos, Leros, Samos and Chios also face the influx on a smaller scale. Everywhere the spontaneous reaction of the overwhelming majority of the local societies has been to offer compassion and solidarity.

Recently positive steps have been taken as Frontex, the European agency for border management, has accepted Greece’s request to deploy its rapid reaction force in the Aegean in order to face the influx of migrants.

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek PM, has stressed that assistance to refugees falls within a “humanitarian duty” asking at the same time for Frontex  to be reinforced. The main objective of the EU and Greece has been to find a solution to the refugee crisis within Turkey, the true gateway to Europe.

“Refugeeness,” displacement and immigration are documented in Greek history also and are parts of the Greek national identity. Nowadays, this historical and moral awareness drives the sense of moral obligation for Greek authorities and citizens in saving lives and offering every assistance they can. Spontaneous hospitality of the inhabitants of the islands together with the remarkable work done by some NGOs, contributed in an overall dignified handling of this unprecedented situation, despite shortages in equipment and personnel.

Greece shows a humane face towards migrants and refugees as she did during the transition of the ’90s when thousands of migrants flowed from distressed economies of the ex-communist countries in Europe.

Greece is determined to face the refugee crisis with humanism, solidarity and respect to international law. Raising fences, using violence and blocking distressed human beings is unacceptable, contrary to European values, contrary to humanity.

Once migrants and refugees are in Greek territory the screening process in the hotspots will determine who has the right to apply for asylum and who should be readmitted to their country of origin.

However, readmission agreements are not fully respected and the relocation process does not proceed fast enough because of poor cooperation of refugees and a number of uncertainties including limited preparation from hosting countries.

This situation though cannot last, it becomes untenable. A political solution in the Syria crisis has to be found, better sooner than later, while Turkey should abide by the obligations of the November agreement with the EU.

Greece, although often criticized about failing to control its borders, has been doing more than she can afford in an unprecedented refugee crisis.

Instead of playing the blame game everyone should take their share of responsibility in a crisis that concerns all of Europe and not only border countries.

Furthermore, the set of measures being adopted by the European Commission to protect Europe’s external borders is a quite significant step. Greece’s borders are also EU borders. The deployment of a European border and Coast Guard, under the supervision and command of Greek border and Coast Guard forces would be not only a useful step, but also crucial in the European integration process. However, any deployment on Greek borders should be under approval or upon request of the Greek authorities. Moreover, Greece is against joint operations but favorable to a technical cooperation with non-EU countries.

Aravantinos is press counselor at the Embassy of Greece in Washington.