Europe: migrants and refugees, legal and illegal

Federica Mogherini, the head of European diplomacy, said the refugee crisis in Europe could last a long time. The flow of migrants has risen sharply during the past two months. According to the Greek authorities, since the beginning of the year more than 230 thousand people have emigrated to the country. Refugees use five islands in order to migrate to Europe: Lesbos – about a half of migrants, Chios – 14%, Samos – 12%, Kos – 28%, and a small number of migrants use Leros. The flow of migrants has affected the island's economy and sharply reduced tourism.

According to the Associate Professor of European Law (University) of the MFA of the Russian Federation, Nikolay Topornin, the increasing flow of refugees gives Athens some benefits: ‘‘the main idea is to give the so-called registration campuses, especially in those countries that accept the main flows of refugees, like Greece or Italy, as well as allocate them quite a big sum of money. We're talking about millions of euros. By the way, here, the other side of the issue is very interesting, for example, that the same Greece even earns a bit from this thread, because subsidies have been provided there recently, about 60 million euros for the work of these refugee camps.’’

The situation in Greece is not very good, and then the extra money came from the European Union and the Greeks act simply: they accept everyone, they did not send anyone back. They quickly count the number of refugees, checking that they are not associated with any terrorist organizations, and further they are asking simply: "What do you want to do? Where do you want to go next? " Every refugee says that he wants to go to Germany. This is the main purpose and direction. And then the Greeks calmly give them a so-called transit document. They transfer them with this document by ferry to the mainland of Greece, near the border with Macedonia and send them to Europe. 

The Macedonians are doing the same. The Serbs are doing the same. It turns out now that the first European border is Hungary. In Hungary, too, there is a great flow, but we have also seen the events in Budapest at the train station, a huge number of them. And they say: "We want to go to Germany." 

At the same time, the Germans did not refuse to take them, the Germans are especially welcoming the Syrians, because they understand that there is a serious conflict, a serious war and the people are suffering.

Nikolay Topornin also noted that there were so-called legitimate refugees. This is the second stream which appeared in Europe from the countries of the Balkan region. German Chancellor Merkel says, correctly, that there is not much fighting taking place in some countries, there is a good, peaceful life. That is, what makes these people move to Europe and receive social benefits? There are no grounds, in fact. There is only one thing that they want for themselves – a more comfortable, favorable life for themselves and for their family members. But on the other hand, Europe has not proclaimed anywhere, it is not written in their founding documents, that it invites everyone, that it is open to all. 

The expert noted that there are EU documents related just to the status of refugees, but there is no single EU Convention that regulates the status of refugees, it is governed by national documents. ‘‘Each country, depending on its political, social and economic  features, accepts a certain number of refugees. Relatively speaking, there are quotas. But today, all these conceivable limits have been overcome by the flow of refugees. It has been decided in Brussels recently that the EU can at the most accommodate 60 thousand people in the next two years. Only 60 thousand. The solution was not adopted in the end, because 10 of the 28 EU countries voted against this. First and foremost, of course, you know, the most backward countries in terms of economic development have spoken out against this."