I want to talk about refugees again. Excuse me, asylum migrants. It has struck me lately that the word refugee has almost been replaced by asylum migrant, or simply migrant, in the media and beyond. Also in this medium, just pay attention. I know why. A refugee has to leave somewhere, war or oppression force him. We have to help him. But a migrant has a choice whether or not to go somewhere.
Migrants are certainly not popular today, except among employers as cheap or highly skilled labor. If, like the right-wing cabinet in the making, you attach great importance to the fight against the migrant, but so do abattoirs and ASML, the asylum migrant is the obvious prey. The asylum migrant is not a refugee but a fortune seeker who wants to benefit from us without anything in return. Ter Apel as a necessary evil towards free housing and benefits.
Declaring a crisis and closing borders is now the idea. That is theoretically possible, just like denouncing refugee or human rights treaties. If necessary, we will leave the European Union, I heard Henk Kamp say in a radio interview just before he was to be elevated to honorary member of the VVD. Not good for the Dutch image and a lot of hassle, and then the judge can always throw a spanner in the wheel. But fortunately there is no Nexit yet, because the European Union is employing more and more authoritarian regimes at the southern borders for many millions of euros to provide border control and keep asylum seekers within their doors. In 2016 Turkey and Libya – including support for the coast guard that intercepts boat people and entrusts them to the good care of local militias – 2023 Tunisia and this year Mauritania and Egypt. Morocco is still coming.
The latest in the line became bankrupt Lebanon this month, which will receive more than a billion for education and health care in exchange for “good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and combat the smuggling of migrants”, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen 2 May in Beirut. At the insistence of Cyprus, which is fed up with the growing flow of Syrian – and also more and more Palestinian – refugees from there. The Cypriot president stood by her side and radiated this.
I’ll say it again: Lebanon itself is more than overloaded with refugees, in addition to a few hundred thousand Palestinians, around 800,000 registered Syrian ones. But registration by the UN refugee agency UNHCR was stopped in 2015 on the orders of the Lebanese government and it is estimated that there are actually one and a half million, out of a population of more than five million. Demagogically speaking, this would amount to almost five million refugees for the Netherlands.
In reality, according to UNHCR, there will be 218,457 at the end of 2022, including Ukrainians. What are we complaining about? The Lebanese Minister for Displaced Persons said angrily last week: “With a population of 750 million, Europe refuses to accept a million displaced Syrians and instead demands that Lebanon bear the burden.” He suggested that Lebanon could open its ports to departures.
Lebanon no longer wants to bear the burden and regularly pushes refugees back across the border; hence the growing flow of Syrians and Palestinians towards Cyprus. The Ministry for Displaced Persons has a plan in place to repatriate fifteen thousand Syrians every month whether they want to or not. One problem is that Europe is not yet prepared to declare parts of Syria safe for this purpose, although some member states (soon probably also the Netherlands) have no problem with this. How onsafe which parts are according to human rights organizations.
Yes, times have changed since Bashar al-Assad was banned in 2011. That is to say: here. Assad has not changed. Another problem: Assad doesn’t want any refugees at all, sorry, asylum migrants back.
Carolien Roelants is a Middle East expert. She writes a column every other week.
To share
Email the editor
