Ugly Attacks on Refugees in Europe

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/ugly-attacks-on-refugees-in-europe.html

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It is one of the tragedies of the European refugee crisis that the country with the fewest means, Greece, is the one coping with the greatest number of migrants fleeing tumult and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

It was inevitable that something would go wrong, as it did recently when about 1,000 refugees on the island of Kos, one of several Greek islands overrun this summer by the biggest flow of migrants since World War II, were temporarily packed into a sports stadium in stifling heat, without food, water or toilets. The refugees were eventually moved, but the crisis continues, with about 7,000 refugees on Kos, and more arriving daily.

Meanwhile, Europe to the north has failed to agree on an equitable, humane and properly funded response. If the disproportionate burden borne by Greece, Italy and Spain is not reason enough to inspire joint and urgent action, the human suffering and relentless movement of desperate, illegal and moneyless migrants all across the continent, coupled with an ugly increase in racist attacks, should be.

Germany, which has accepted more asylum seekers than any other European country, is witnessing a spate of violent attacks. In the first half of this year, Germany reported more than 179,000 applications for asylum — and 202 attacks on the housing of asylum applicants by far-right and neo-Nazi bands. To its credit, the German government has condemned the attacks and has pledged to continue accepting asylum seekers, who are expected to exceed 450,000 this year.

In Hungary, by contrast, anti-migrant talk has been coupled with official policies intended to keep migrants out, most notably a high fence under construction along the 109-mile border with Serbia. Austria, France and Switzerland have turned back migrants from Italy, and Britain is up in arms over migrants who are clustered in squalid camps in northern France and trying to sneak into England through the Eurotunnel.

The European Union addressed the crisis at a summit meeting in June. But member states blocked any efforts at setting country quotas for migrants. The best it could do was a pledge to relocate 40,000 refugees over two years — less than a third of those who have already arrived in Italy and Greece this year.

There is no easy answer to the mass migration. The Syrian civil war alone has displaced millions, many of whom will continue trying to reach safe European havens, as will countless other displaced and threatened people in the Middle East and North Africa. What is clear is that no European country alone, and certainly not Greece or Italy, can cope with the flood, or block it. At the very least, the E.U. must allocate far greater resources for humanitarian and administrative work, and it must seek far better ways to share the burden.