Despite the fact that global media interest in the refugee crisis has waned and public opinion has become sufficiently accustomed to images of a “great exodus” from the Middle East, thousands upon thousands of foreigners continue to arrive in the EU.
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Slovenia has become a new “transshipment point,” where several tens of thousands of people have arrived over the past week. The small country has already said it can no longer cope with the growing influx of refugees whose camps are overcrowded, and its authorities have said they are being forced to reduce the number of people crossing the border to 2500 a day.
The latest crisis showed that the EU countries were not ready either for the phenomenon of a mass “exodus” or for coordinating efforts among themselves. Most EU countries don’t even really hide the fact that they just want to “let” refugees through their territory so that they get to Germany, the richest and most prosperous country in the EU.
Against this background, it is very difficult to talk about the unity of the European Union. The summit, held in Brussels on October 25, did not produce much results. Leaders of Balkan countries that are not part of the EU but were invited to the meeting have threatened to close their borders unless the EU guarantees it will accept all refugees.
The leaders of the EU and the Balkan countries have nevertheless developed a plan according to which the countries will inform each other about the movement of people. Countries also commit to abandoning the policy of "subterfuge" that involves deliberately directing refugee flows to neighboring countries and which has dominated in recent times.
In addition, an additional 100 thousand places will be created in the so-called “Balkan Corridor”, the costs will be covered by European banks, the European Commission, and the administration and control of the project will be carried out by the UN.
In addition, it was decided to strengthen control at the EU borders, which, among other things, would mean removing the issue of a visa-free regime with Ukraine for an indefinite period.
In addition, at the initiative of the German government, a decision was made on the speedy signing of an EU agreement on readmission (that is, on the acceptance by states back into their territory of refugees who arrived from there) with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Such an agreement has been in force between the EU and Ukraine for many years.
The possibility of receiving refugees at the borders of Balkan countries and sending them on planes to countries willing to accept them, so that they would not have to walk across the entire Balkans, was also discussed.
According to the European Commission, since the beginning of the year, 710 thousand refugees have submitted official applications for asylum in EU countries. The UN believes that there are currently 8 million internally displaced people in Syria, and another 4 million in neighboring countries.