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Since the start of the Syrian civil war 10 years ago, Europe has taken in more than one million refugees. So what has been the impact on the continent?

A flotilla of miniature, makeshift boats greets visitors as they return after many months of corona-mandated closures to Amsterdams colonial era Tropenmuseum. The thousands of vessels, making their way, wave after wave, towards the entrance, are the work of Cambridge-based Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj, his way of reminding the world of the ongoing displacement of millions of his fellow countrymen.

Its a timely reminder. Some ten years after the start of the civil war, Syrias dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is back in control of roughly 70% of the country. At the end of May, he had himself re-elected, signalling that hes not going anywhere. This will not help solve the ongoing refugee crisis in the region, where millions are still displaced. It may even presage a new humanitarian catastrophe, if he goes on the attack again.

Meanwhile, the EU is working hard to discourage more refugees from coming. Its seeking to strengthen its deal with Turkey for that purpose while also building new obstacles along its external border. Some countries are taking a harder line towards refugees,notably, Denmark. As of May, the Danes arethreatening to repatriate some Syrian asylum seekers, arguing that the area around Damascus is now safe, which at the very least is a gross oversimplification.

Yet, despite this and occasional eruptions, the Syrian refugee crisis has mostly sunk beneath the surface of the European consciousness and in some ways thats a good thing. Its much less an issue now than it was at its peak when Nigel Farage and UKIP, five years ago this month, pictured lines of refugees in his now infamous 'Breaking Point' poster during the Brexit referendumcampaign. It suggested the EU, and by extension the UK, was facing an unmanageable tide of refugees and thus weaponised the Syrian crisis for British domestic political purposes.

In the UK, this supposed influx was never plausible. The country last year hosted a mere 11,500 UNHCR-recognised Syrian refugees, despite pledging to accept more. Compare that to Germanys more than 562,000, Swedens 114,000 and even the less welcoming Netherlands almost 35,600. All those countries have coped without major disruption to their way of life or their economies, on the contrary, some might argue.

This September, Germany faces its first post-Angela Merkel elections. She kept the borders open in 2015, famously saying, Wir schaffen das, 'we can do this'. Only the extreme-right Alternative Fr Deutschland, AfD, is trying to use anti-immigrant sentiment to curry favour with the voters. The other parties appear to have silently agreed to keep it out of the campaign. Merkels CDU/CSU and the pro-immigrant Green party are vying for the lead, indicating that the anti-refugee issue is not a big winner.

Bente Scheller of the Heinrich Bll Foundation, which is aligned with the Greens, says: When the refugees arrived in large numbers, typical right-wing slogans were, they will be stealing our work etc. But the German economy is doing quite well, despite the pandemic, and it has not affected the jobs market.

Many of the Syrians have indeed found work and built new lives for themselves. Theres a parallel with the arrival of some 325,000 people from the former Yugoslavia during its civil war in the 1990s. There were the same prejudices, people were asking will they fit in? But now nobody talks about them anymore, says Scheller.

Even so, polls show that Germans have toughened their stance on migration since 2015 and might not be as welcoming if theres a next time. When Tareq Alaows, a Syrian refugee, stood as a candidate for the Greens in the upcoming Bundestag elections, he faced a barrage of threats and insults and decided to withdraw.

Elsewhere, resistance to newcomers has not disappeared either. In the Netherlands, for one, the right-wing PVV party is still stoking the fire, recently charging the government with mollycoddling refugees with regard to housing.

Scandinavia offers a different perspective, with Denmark and Sweden on divergent courses. Denmark has a longstanding and powerful political anti-immigrant movement, which has propped up coalitions. The countrys social democrats in response have become tougher on migration and are carrying out part of the right wing agenda. In Sweden, like elsewhere in Europe, theres also a strong right-wing presence but the countrys social democrats have stuck to their traditional welcoming stance towards asylum seekers, even when it seemed electorally unwise.

Apart from the countries with the largest number of refugees, its those in southern Europe that are most directly confronted with the Syrian crisis. In Italy, Matteo Salvini and his Lega keep up an incessant anti-immigrant drumbeat, with Salvini even on trial for having tried to block refugees aboard a ship in the Mediterranean from disembarking in 2019 when he was interior minister.

In Greece the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has disappeared from parliament, after gaining strength during the height of the refugee crisis. But its allies in Cyprus last month almost doubled their representation, partly on the back of a new influx of refugees from Syria.

It shows that Europeans ignore the ongoing Syrian crisis at their peril. More than five million Syrians are living in often dire circumstances in Turkey and Lebanon alone. Inside Syria millions more are displaced, many in Idlib, one of the last rebel-held areas. A push, or even a squeeze on Idlib by the Assad regime, authorized by his Russian and Iranian sponsors, could once again cause more to flee. A scenario that Turkey will try to counter, militarily if necessary.

What has allowed Syria and its displaced multitudes to slip from the European mind to a degree, is the deal that the EU made with Turkey in 2016.

Ankara keeps the refugees from moving on to Europe in exchange for a lot of money. This mechanism also means that when Turkey wants to up the pressure on the EU, it can threaten to unleash its refugee reserves, or bus them to the EU border as it did early last year. This is not a stable situation for the EU, certainly not while its involved in disputes with Turkey, not least over a Turkish push into Greek territory for oil and gas exploration.

The EU response has been to build walls on the Greek-Turkish border, develop high-tech counter-measures to stop refugees entering, and bolster its burgeoning border force,Frontex, which has been accused of participating in, or turning a blind eye to, southern countries increasingly aggressive pushbacks of not only Syrians but also Iraqis, Afghans, Congolese and others who keep seeking shelter and a better life.

Its a devilish dilemma for the EU and also the UK, which post-Brexit is facing an increasing number of migrant-filled boats of its own. Keeping more refugees from coming might be a way to counter popular unease over their presence but it exposes the bloc to international blackmail and demands measures that often run counter to professed humanitarian principles.

Displacement has become a defining feature of our time. It is no coincidence that Kourbajs flotilla, Dark Water, Burning World, was recently added as the 101st item in the BBCs series The history of the world in 100 objects,representing the past decade. Each small boat carries a trauma, says Kourbaj, a trauma that can only be addressed if the refugeesare welcomed and enabled to put down new roots.

What do you think? Have your say on this and more by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk

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Europe and the decade-long Syrian refugee crisis - The New European

Authors: Naila Ahmed, Nour Aoun, Noushig Kaloustian, Farah Asfahani, Ronald Eduardo Gomez Suarez, Sherin Varkey

Countries hosting refugees in the Mashreq region face a daunting challenge. The Mashreq region continues to experience a cascade of forced displacement crises spurred by conflict, violence and political turmoil in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, compounded now by COVID-19 and economic shocks. In the last ten years, approximately 12 million Syrians have been displaced, more than half of them to neighboring countries, and in late 2019 there were new waves of Syrian Kurds leaving North East Syria for Iraq. In addition, an estimated six million Iraqis were internally displaced, with an estimated 4.8 million having recently returned to their place of origin while 1.2 million remain as Internally Displaced People (IDPs). While the long-standing Palestinian displacement continues and Syria and Iraq remain volatile, there is little reason to expect that the scope or impact of forced displacement in the Mashreq will be reduced in the near term.

While COVID-19 has led to multifaceted challenges for all in the region, vulnerable populations in Lebanon (both Lebanese and non-Lebanese) are at a particular disadvantage as the country has been assailed by compounded crises specifically, an economic and financial crisis, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and, lastly, the explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020 which have significantly exacerbated vulnerabilities among specific groups.

Home to the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, Lebanon hosts 855,172 registered Syrian refugees in addition to 600,000 Syrian refugees informally residing in the country, bringing the estimated total to about 1.5 million, equivalent to over 20% of the overall population. There are also approximately 225,000 Palestinian refugee and 30,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria in Lebanon, 15,800 refugees of Ethiopian, Iraqi, Sudanese, and other origins, in addition to 400,000 migrant workers.

Refugees face difficulties in access and are hesitant to receive vaccination. Following the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Lebanon in February 2021, Lebanon adopted an inclusive approach and officially confirmed that its national plan covers all those residing in the country based on priority categories (such as morbidity, age, essential worker status, etc.), regardless of their nationality or residency status. However, despite an inclusive approach and vaccines being made available through public and private sources, several obstacles have emerged, which are particular to refugees and migrant workers living in Lebanon.

One of the platforms established by the World Bank to explore and address such issues is the Joint Monitoring Committee, constituted by the World Bank and UN agencies (WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA, UNHCR and IOM). The objective of this committee is to join efforts to advocate for a fair, transparent, and inclusive vaccination campaign. The World Bank financed Third-Party Monitoring mechanism of the vaccination rollout implemented by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC), has been successful in detecting and reporting violations of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan.

The World Bank has also established robust communication channels to share the monitoring findings with the Lebanese authorities (the Ministry of Public Health, the National Vaccination Committee, the Vaccine Executive Committee) for prompt action. As the Government of Lebanon (GoL), the private sector, World Bank, UN agencies and NGOs come together to support an inclusive vaccine roll out for all residents of Lebanon, what is interesting to note is that legacy issues which range from mis-trust in the Government, high levels of poverty, to lack of documentation are emerging as impediments. There are concerns that requirement for formal documentation for online registration may lead refugees to refrain from registering out of fear of harassment, arrest or detention.

Furthermore, given the fact that mobility is often a barrier for refugees, vaccination centers need to be opened in areas with a high concentration of refugee populations. For example, the largest concentration of refugees is in Bekaa and Baalbeck-El Hermel region (39%) followed by Akkar (27%). While the establishment of a national online platform for pre-registration has been crucial in ensuring a fair and transparent rollout of the vaccination campaign, low levels of literacy and digital literacy might limit the ability of refugees to register online.

Alternative methods of registration exist (through municipalities or national call center), however they require additional support to boost their capacity. The high levels of vaccine hesitancy across refugee groups is well documented, mainly related to concerns on vaccine safety and potential side effects, similar to Lebanese communities residing in the same regions.

According to a recent survey from IMC at MoPH, almost 37% non-Lebanese respondents stated that they do not think the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, while almost 31% non-Lebanese expressed that they do not have enough information about the COVID-19 vaccine and how it works. Only 23% of non-Lebanese respondents stated that they are willing to take the vaccine when available. As of June 17, 2021, only 38,957 Palestinians and 45,195 Syrians had pre-registered on the national platform. The low levels of confidence in COVID-19 vaccination amongst refugees is evident as only 3.0% of the total estimated Syrian refugee population have pre-registered for vaccination.

UN agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF who support Syrians and other refugees, UNRWA whose mandate is to support the Palestinian refugees, International Organization for Migration (IOM) who supports the migrant works as well as relevant NGOs with strong field presence have launched several initiatives to increase awareness, address vaccine hesitancy and support registration. Despite such efforts, the unmet needs are significant. Faced with the magnitude of the multiple crises in the country including the Syrian refugee crisis, new ways and means to mobilize financing to support activities targeting all vulnerable groups and adopting the One Refugee Approach are urgently required.

The World Bank has approved the re-allocation of US$34 million from the existing Lebanon Health Resilience project, which received funding from the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF), to support vaccines for all residents of Lebanon. Launched in 2016, the GCFF provides concessional financing to middle income countries hosting large numbers of refugees at rates usually reserved for the poorest countries. It is the World Banks primary instrument to engage on the displacement response in countries such as Lebanon. In addition, the World Bank is currently mobilizing resources from the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Multi-Donor Trust Fund for refugee vaccination deployment. This initiative aims to deliver a series of interventions intended at understanding and addressing gaps in COVID-19 vaccine preparedness and implementation and COVID-19 response in Lebanon for vulnerable populations, particularly refugees and host communities.

In addition to procuring and financing the costs for vaccines and their deployment for refugees, the Lebanon experience shows that the following approaches are critical for country plans to support vaccination of refugees in any country.

In addition to the above, initiatives to support vaccination of refugees must recognize the complex dynamics of the local context. Lebanon, for example, is currently seeing over 55% of its own population fall below the poverty line due to the economic crisis. It is critical to remain sensitive to the sentiments of the host communities and ensure that there is no privileged access or improper targeting or prioritization of one population over another. The ultimate goal for countries is to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all with the understanding that no one is safe until everyone is safe.

Excerpt from:
Vaccinating refugees: Lessons from the inclusive Lebanon vaccine roll-out experience - World Bank Group

Comics about refugee experiences are not new. After all, even the superhero created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman, is a refugee who landed on Earth after his flight from Krypton.

However, recently there has been renewed interest in comics representing migrant experience namely, that of refugees and asylum-seekers. Since 2011, in particular, and the start of the civil war in Syria, comics and graphic novels have become an important forum for examining global forced migration.

These so-called refugee comics range from newspaper comic strips to webcomics and graphic novels that combine eyewitness reportage or journalistic collaboration with comic-book storytelling. These stories are written with the aim of incorporating the points of views of refugees, artists, volunteers or journalists working on-the-ground in displaced communities, war zones and along the migrant journey. They sometimes emerge in collaboration with human rights organizations.

In light of their subject matter, these comic artists contend with complex and distressing themes that are otherwise difficult to represent.

They draw on the traditional comics format, including the mediums sequential nature, the use of panel walls and a combination of text and image to foster empathy and compassion for the migration journey. In so doing, they aim to give voice to asylum-seekers and refugees, part of 80 million individuals and families forcibly displaced worldwide, whose anonymous images often appear in western media.

These comics are typically drawn by western cartoonists, based on direct testimonies by migrants and refugees or those who have worked with them or encountered them. They are typically not by refugees but about refugees. Scholar Candida Rifkind, who studies alternative comics and graphic narratives, explores how comics about migrant experience often emerge when witnesses to migrant stories grapple with feelings of shame, guilt and responsibility to make western society at large more aware of and responsive to refugee realities.

These narratives prompt ethical questions about what it means to tell a story and who has the right or responsibility to do so. While questions about the power relations embedded in how these texts are produced remain, comics on global forced migration are still an important avenue for interrogating the representation of migrants and the socio-political circumstances surrounding their journeys.

These comics also challenge what may otherwise be relayed in mainstream media as the story of a global migrant crisis that has no human face, with perilous effects for migrants who face xenophobia and hate. In Rifkinds words, they are a kind of intervention into the photographic regime of the migrant as Other that has emerged as the dominant visual record of contemporary globalization.

In comics about forced migrant experiences, people experiencing life as refugees become centred as the subjects of their own stories. But cartooning can allow storytellers to represent individuals anonymously, making it easier for people to give testimony fully and candidly, while affording them the specificity of their humanity.

There can be consequences for refugees who testify about their circumstances and the oppression and violence they encounter. Photographic evidence of unlawful or undocumented residence in migrant encampments or someones journey to seek asylum could in fact jeopardize a persons safety and end goal.

Notably, comics on forced migration are also inventing new visual strategies to recount refugee experiences. Artists use panel borders to add a layer of storytelling that typically vacillates between the creators ability to represent a specific experience, emotion or event and the very inability to portray some forms of trauma and lived experience.

In The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees (2018), American author and illustrator Don Brown depicts moments of hardships and hope in the lives of the refugees that Brown met in three Greek refugee camps in Ritsona, in Thessaloniki and on Leros.

The violence encountered by the refugees of Browns graphic novel is the only graphic element that breaks through panels. Bullets fracture the panel edges, bombs explode out of the picture planes and toxic smoke rises through the frames.

Brown draws on the convention of exceeding and playing with borders in comics to demonstrate a relationship between violence and transgressing borders. Not only did violence in Syria force many of its citizens to journey in search of safety and freedom; fleeing Syrians also also faced violence and hostility beyond the borders of their homeland on their journeys and where they landed.

The panel borders in Threads: From the Refugee Crisis (2016) by British cartoonist, non-fiction author and graphic novelist Kate Evans are comprised of clippings of delicate lace. Threads is a socio-political and cultural critique rooted in the authors experience volunteering in the largest though unofficial refugee encampment in Calais, France, which operated from January 2015 to October 2016.

My research has examined how this lace integrated into the comic is more than simply an analogy for the intertwining factors and complex relationships that emerged in Calais. The lacework is a fundamental structuring principle in Evans text that engages with the regions history of lacemaking, Calais most essential industry and refugee experience simultaneously.

The aesthetics of the smartphone have also begun to play a role in the representation of refugee experiences in comics. Smartphone screens and social media platforms function as frames within some stories.

German graphic designer and cartoonist Reinhard Kleist embeds social media into the comics grid in An Olympic Dream: The Story of Samia Yusuf Omar (2016). The story recounts how Omar, the Somali Olympic runner, died by drowning en route to Italy in 2012.

Some of the story is narrated through Facebook posts based on interviews conducted on that platform with Omars sister and a journalist who had interviewed and known Omar.

Somalian athletes lifted up Omars story to draw attention to the Olympics as a venue to promote awareness about global conflict and peace. In Kleists introduction, he writes that too often, abstract numbers represent human lives.

This comic and others joins several examples of new media, such as viral videos, mobile games and documentary film that are highlighting the role mobile devices can play during the migration journey.

Through their personal stories, comics on forced migration humanize refugee experience. This category of graphic narrative also offers opportunities for articulating the complexity of refugee experience through the narrative techniques and visual strategies of comic art.

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Comics and graphic novels are examining refugee border-crossing experiences - The Conversation CA

OVER 180,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CAUGHT ATTEMPTING ENTRY ALONG THE SOUTHWEST BORDER IN MAY

ABOVE VIDEO: I was extremely proud to speak and stand with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Sheriffs across the state of Florida yesterday, as Gov. DeSantis announced that Florida Law Enforcement Officers will answer a call for help from Texas Governor Abbott and Arizona Governor Ducey in combating the crisis at the border.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey appeared on Fox & Friends First Friday morning to express his disapproval at the Biden administration for not visiting the Southern Border and to witness the migrant crisis firsthand.

Sheriff told Fox & Friends First, its outrageous that deputies from his state may reach the border before Vice President Kamala Harris does.

I was extremely proud to speak and stand with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Sheriffs across the state of Florida yesterday, as Gov. DeSantis announced that Florida Law Enforcement Officers will answer a call for help from Texas Governor Abbott and Arizona Governor Ducey in combating the crisis at the border.

Earlier in the week, Governors Abbott and Ducey collectively requested that Governors across the country send law enforcement resources to help their respective states in securing the border, as the current administration in Washington DC is doing absolutely zero to stop the massive impact of illegal immigration that is taking place.

As part of the announcement, Governor DeSantis asked me to address the importance of border security, why our nations border is currently being overrun, and how failing to secure our borders has a direct impact on communities across the country.

As everyone is well aware, the impacts of illegal immigration dont stop at the border, they filter into every community in every state. In the past 6 months, our country has not only experienced significant increases of illegal crossings at the border, but we have also seen significant increases in victims of human trafficking and smuggling of fentanyl and meth.

As you will hear during the attached video of yesterdays press conference our agency and other agencies across the entire state are committed to assisting in any capacity our Governor needs, to assist Texas and Arizona.

This concept is no different than law enforcement agencies from across the country who have sent resources in past years to aid Florida communities in the aftermath of significant storms and hurricanes.

Let there be no doubt, Texas and Arizona are facing a significant storm and our Florida state and local law enforcement agencies stand ready to respond to protect Americans.

I think its important to understand that we can either go fight this battle at the border where Washington should be fighting it, or we can fight it right here in our own backyards where it should never have made it. While we shouldnt have to be fighting this battle, for the sake of our citizens and their safety Im sure glad that we are.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey

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Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey Bashes Biden Administration in Fox News Interview Over Border Crisis in Texas, Arizona - SpaceCoastDaily.com

CommentaryNewsday22 Hrs AgoTT Red Cross staff conducting an assessment of a migrant familys needs in Wallerfield. - Photo courtesy EU Delegation to TT

European Union Delegation to TT

Statement on the occasion of World Refugee Day 2021

As the world continues to battle covid19, it is easy to forget about the vulnerable in our midst who struggle the most. "World Refugee Day" is an opportune time to acknowledge and reflect upon the hardships of one such community migrants and refugees. These groups, who typically deal with an array of difficulties and obstacles in their host countries, have lately found their struggles compounded by the social, economic, medical and psychological difficulties caused by the pandemic.

Since 2015, over 5.6 million Venezuelans have left their homes, with over 4.6 million remaining in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The continuous cycle of economic deterioration leading to violence and insecurity inside Venezuela, made worse by the lack of access to food, medicine and essential services, has accelerated this mass displacement. The countries and communities in the region, including TT, that are hosting this displaced population have been under increased pressure as they each also wrestle the social and economic challenges caused by the covid19 pandemic. This country has seen a rapid influx of migrants and refugees from Venezuela, leading to the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) projecting that for 2021 the refugee and migrant population in TT will be an estimated 31,000 people.

Urgent support is therefore needed, both for the migrant population and for the countries and communities who continue to welcome and integrate them into their societies.

For years, the European Union and its member states have been supporting Venezuelan refugees and their host communities. In TT beginning in 2020, as part of our Team Europe global response to covid19, the European Union Delegation to TT and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands have been providing support to the local migrant population who lack access to the social protection measures implemented by TT government. The 18-month project, which is being implemented by the TT Red Cross Society, provides immediate humanitarian assistance to migrant families including food, mental health and psychosocial support, and basic health screenings for children.

Another project for Euro 2.7 million (nearly USD$ 3.3 million) has recently been approved to provide protection, education and healthcare for Venezuelan refugee and migrant children in six Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries, including TT. Further, the European Union will implement another regional project with a budget of Euro 16 million (approx USD$19.23 million) entitled Fostering local communities of solidarity for refugees and migrants from Venezuela, which in TT will include the city of Chaguanas among nine other cities in LAC. The project, implemented by UN Habitat, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is designed to show that migrants and refugees can make positive contributions to socio-economic and cultural fabric of their host cities and communities.

Earlier this week the International Donors' Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants 2021 took place. It follows conferences in May 2020, and in October 2019, that the EU organised together with UNHCR and IOM, which aimed to raise awareness about the crisis, as well as to mobilise donor funds. The conference, this year hosted by Canada and with the support of the UNHCR, IOM, Spain and the European Union, brought together over 40 countries along with UN agencies, international financial institutions and representatives of national and international civil society to take stock of the situation, strengthen coordination and mobilise resources, including access to vaccines.

Arising from this years conference, the EU has pledged another Euro 147 million to the Venezuela migrant crisis. This is on top of Euro 318 million already allocated since 2018. This new support will focus on humanitarian assistance (Euro 82 million); development cooperation, focusing in particular on the social and economic integration of migrants and the host communities most affected by the crisis (Euro 50 million); and assistance through the EU Foreign Policy Instrument (Euro 15million) that will target the most vulnerable migrants unaccompanied minors, single parent households, women and girls at risk of being trafficked and prey to violence, the elderly and LGBTI people.

These outcomes reinforce the continuous and increasing attention that the European Union, in partnership with the wider international community, is devoting to this humanitarian crisis in the region.

The European Union is uniquely positioned, by its own recent experience, having itself dealt with a critical refugee situation across Europe since 2014. We understand the challenges of host countries, but at the same time we are committed to humanitarian interventions to support displaced persons. We commend the efforts of state and local authorities, civil society organisations, community groups and other stakeholders in TT who have whole-heartedly stepped in to help. As the worsening of the pandemic makes it even more urgent to assist refugees, migrants, and their host communities in the region, the EU pledges to continue help as much as we can.

Link:
Solidarity in times of hardship - TT Newsday