We all know that the refugees issue is one of the greatest issues examining the European Union in the past few years. The Union recently exposed to the refugee issue a state of complete disruption with all its values, standards and quality in management.
There is no doubt that the refugee issue is a difficult test for Europe, just as Germany in particular has tried to extract lessons from its harsh experiences in the past, making a great effort not to face the same fate again. Regardless of what they say about Europe’s reception of Syrian refugees, Germany has done a thing to be appreciated when it has received more than a million refugees; It did so while bearing in mind the problems that the presence of refugees on its soil will cause, such as xenophobia and the extremist rhetoric espoused by right-wing politicians.
However, although the rest of the European Union did not share this responsibility and burden to Germany, xenophobia and the spread of right-wing movements in these countries did not decrease, but rather increased significantly.
When refugees take refuge in a country, they do so peacefully, looking for basic needs that are sufficient for them only to survive. They are thus persons who do not enjoy any advantages, as the legal support is ambiguous and their psychological state is exhausted after they were exposed to injustice and persecution. That is why asylum has been viewed as a human right, and the treatment of refugees at some level has become an international norm that no one denies.
Of course, not only do refugees face problems related to finding food and drink, but they also face real problems related to efforts to maintain their security. For example, they may be exposed to conditions that make them unable to protect their children due to the weakening efforts they are exposed to by the governments of the countries to which they seek refuge.
Serap Yasar, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has prepared a report dealing with the situation of missing refugee and migrant children in Europe based on the information that more than 10,000 refugee children are lost after arriving in the European countries, and this is the information contained in a report prepared by Early 2016 European Law Enforcement Agency (Europol). The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe accepted the report by consensus.
This report indicates that the number of missing refugee children in Germany between 2017-2019 was more than 11 thousand, while in France the number was 6 thousand, in Italy between 2018-2019 about 20 thousand and in Spain in 2018 alone 9218 and in Sweden between 2009-2019 reached 4,659, in the Netherlands between 2015-2019 it reached 1,600, and in Britain between 2015-2016 it reached 1,337 children. And when we assess the situation in other countries as well, we see that there is some speculation about the loss of a refugee child in Europe every two minutes. On the international level, it records the daily loss or death of a registered refugee child.
These statistics are truly terrifying and represent a terrible sight depicting how refugees are being attacked in complete silence in the countries of Europe where they have sought safety. In addition to the pain left by the refugees in their countries, other pain in the countries where they have taken refuge … How do they lose these children? Who kidnapped them and for what purpose did they take advantage of them? It is not difficult to guess that some of them fall into the hands of the organ trade mafia. What kind of other exploitation are the rest of these children exposed to?
Turkish MP Yasar reports on all these issues, indicating that the United Nations recorded the death or loss of a registered refugee child daily around the world between 2014-2018, and also shows that this figure represents only the visible part of the iceberg; As there are many loss cases that are not recorded. The report adds that these children need special protection to face risks that come from violence, sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
The report also stressed that all member states of the Council of Europe are parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and therefore they are obliged to provide the necessary care to achieve an adequate standard of living for children, which requires that the supreme interest of these children be considered a key component. The report suggested that member states bear some responsibilities in this field, stressing the need to meet the basic needs and rights of children, taking into account the specific requirements of the issue of their protection in the first place.
There is no doubt that it is at the forefront of these possible measures to change the view of refugees and to consider that asylum is a human condition that can happen to any person at any time.
Perhaps a more sympathetic initiative for refugees based on this point of view and a legal initiative that gives him more of his rights provides us with a model that can help the refugee protect himself and his children. Otherwise, no one will be able to prevent the refugee children from being used as commercial products. A civilization that kills children will do nothing good for its children or for the rest of the nations.
By the way, I would like to congratulate Mrs. Yashar on her handling of this humanitarian issue and making a great effort so that she could pass it in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for approval.
This post is excerpts from an article by Dr. Yassin Aktay, advisor to the Turkish President
The statistical study of Mrs. Serap Yasar, a Turkish Member of Parliament and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Publication date 6 July 2020