How Europe’s Approach to the Refugee Crisis Enables Trafficking and Exploitation
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the world is experiencing the highest levels of displaced persons on record. By the end of 2019, there were unparalleled 79.5 million people who were forced from their homes due to conflict and persecution. Among those displaced persons, 30 million are classified as refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.
Refugees are one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, which makes them ideal targets for traffickers looking to exploit and profit from human beings. Many factors increase the vulnerability of refugees to trafficking, including economic instability, loss of important community networks, dangerous migration routes, and restrictive immigration barriers. Unaccompanied children are additionally vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking situations. Refugees face this vulnerability whether they reside in refugee camps or in urban areas.
Restrictive immigration barriers created by European Union (EU) migration policies not only exacerbate the refugee crisis but enable conditions that lead to greater incidences of exploitation and trafficking. Due to the influx in immigration from the refugee crisis, the European Union strengthened its external borders to irregular immigration. These measures were intended to prevent the smuggling and trafficking of migrants and refugees. The EU has been unable to successfully pursue asylum law reform because of disagreements about efforts to more equitably distribute the responsibility of migrant and refugee services. This stalemate has caused EU asylum law and policies to remain focused on keeping migrants and refugees out of the EU. These prevention policies are having the opposite effect on trafficking, enabling the exploitation and trafficking of refugees and migrants. Restrictive pathways to refugee and asylee status make desperate people seek alternative, although more dangerous, options to getting onto European soil. These alternative options usually include smuggling, which enables vulnerable people to be potentially exploited and trafficked.
The EU-Turkey agreement and the Italy-Libya agreements are prime examples of this enabling. The EU-Turkey agreement instituted that all irregular or undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers would be sent back to Turkey in exchange for 6 billion euros in aid. The agreement also stipulated that any asylum-seekers that arrived in Greece from Turkey and had their applications for asylum denied, could also be sent back to Turkey. The institutionalized re-routing of migrants and refugees from Europe has resulted in nearly 4 million highly vulnerable people in Turkish refugee camps. A report by the Council of Europe says there have been many instances of Syrian and other refugee and migrant children being trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced marriages, exploitation in begging, and exploitation of labor, particularly in the agricultural sector. There have also been reports of general child labor where children worked long hours, for low wages, and often in substandard working conditions.
The Italy-Libya agreement created cooperation between the Italian government and Libya’s military, border control forces, and coastguard to reduce the influx of illegal immigration. Since its implementation, the Italian government and the EU have supplied the Libyan coast guard with boats, training, and other assistance to stop any refugees and migrants trying to sail across the Mediterranean to Europe. In the wake of their cooperation, there have been reports of elements of the Libyan coast guard working with armed groups and other criminals, including traffickers, to exploit migrants for profit. This is corroborated by the UN Support Mission in Libya who has received reliable information that some members of the Libyan State institutions and some local officials have been compliant in or participated in smuggling and trafficking operations. Reports to the Human Rights Council have stated that captured migrants are being bought and sold on “open slave markets”. Women have also reported being forced into prostitution in Libyan detention centers. Migrants have also reported forced labor in dangerous conditions, without adequate food, unpotable water and no payment or forced labor with debt bondage, where they had to work to buy their way out of detention.
In addition to violating international agreements on human rights and the treatment of refugees, these European agreements are not in accordance with the EU’s Asylum Provisions Directive. Turkey and Libya do not fit the EU’s asylum requirements as “safe third countries”. The European Union is turning a blind eye to the deplorable conditions of refugees and migrants on their borders to avoid taking rightful responsibility for their wellbeing.
Resolving the refugee crisis is in the best interests of the EU and its allies. Instituting agreements, such as those with Turkey and Libya, that lead to an increase in the use of smugglers and traffickers also allows for and enables the growth of organized crime. Additionally, disagreement and inaction towards a more equitable refugee strategy is weakening the European Union and destabilizing EU partnerships. This is a dangerous path considering the increasing political divide and conflict between Europe and Russia. Russia’s influence has heightened from the use of disinformation, interference in democratic elections, economic coercion, support of far-right nationalist groups around the world, and military operations in Ukraine and Syria. The weakening and the destabilization of the EU is a security issue for Europe and its greatest ally— the United States.
In order to stop this weakening and destabilization as well as address the refugee crisis, the following policies are recommended:
- Security Solutions for Security Problems
The refugee crisis, EU policies enabling exploitation and trafficking, and the overall destabilization of Europe is a security threat. The EU and the West must treat it as such. While there is no active conflict requiring military action, the West should utilize NATO resources to address the refugee problem in the following ways:
- Manage the flow refugees at the EU borders as well as within Greece and Turkey.
- Act in a “peacekeeping” capacity to reduce tensions between the local police forces and militaries and the asylum-seekers, while ensuring the safety and well-being of the asylum seekers.
- Cooperate with UNHCR and other refugee organizations to provide the refugees with adequate shelter, food, sanitation and medical services.
- Use NATO office employees to aid in asylum processing.
- Specific strategies must be determined to respectfully and safely address those who have had their asylum applications denied.
- Use NATO forces to aid in safe, equitable resettlement amongst EU members as well as NATO members.
- Stabilize and Strengthen
The most important aspect of resolving this security threat is the solidarity and stabilization of the European Union. The EU must come together, along with NATO, to strengthen its alliances and cooperation to address this issue. They must do this by gaining the support of the Visegrád opposition and relieve the burden on the Mediterranean countries. The most critical being:
- Gaining the support of the Visegrád countries. This group, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, has been vehemently opposed to allowing more refugees to enter the EU. This may require compromises on other EU policies, but it is the upmost importance to have strong unity in the face of this security threat.
- Relieving the burden of the Mediterranean countries. Greece, Italy and Spain do not have the capability to bear the entire responsibility of hosting refugees. Refugee resettlement should be distributed proportionally according to EU member capability, not according to their willingness or geographic location. While the EU is not responsible for what brought the refugees to their doors, they must handle the situation before it breaks down those doors.
Originally published in the Human Trafficking Center’s Blog. See post here.
OLIVIA W. DUDLEY 