EU failing Syria refugees - Amnesty report

European leaders should be ashamed by the paltry numbers of refugees from Syria they are prepared to resettle, human rights group Amnesty says.

Only 10 member states have offered to take in refugees and even then only 12,000, it complains. The UK and Italy have offered no places at all, it adds.

But the UK government says it is focusing on the region and is one of the biggest international donors.

European Union aid has reached 1.3bn euros (£1.1bn; $1.7bn), officials say.

The bloc says its priority is providing help to Syria's internally displaced people, now thought to number 6.5 million, and those hosted in other countries.

The UN estimates almost 2.3 million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries since March 2011.

Most Syrians who have fled their country have travelled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. But some 6,000 this year have reached EU member state Bulgaria, which has appealed for financial help from Brussels in responding to the influx.

In September, Sweden became the first EU member state to offer Syrian refugees permanent residence. More than 14,000 Syrians have sought asylum there in the past two years.

Germany has resettled 1,000 refugees and plans to admit another 9,000.

The UK says it has no plans to resettle or provide temporary protection to Syrian refugees, although individual asylum claims are considered on their merits.

"Instead, we are giving as much help as possible to people in the region. Our £500m pledged so far is more than the other EU member states combined," a spokesman told the BBC.

'Miserably failed'
Earlier this month, the EU put forward plans to do more to stop migrants dying in the Mediterranean, after more than 350 people, many of them from Syria, lost their lives in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa in October.

One of the proposals involved member states making available a number of planes to enable the EU to resettle thousands more people from refugee camps.

The UN has urged Western countries to take in up to 30,000 Syrians by the end of 2014.

A lump sum payment of 6,000 euros would be paid to member states for each resettled refugee from the UN refugee agency's list, the Commission proposes.

EU leaders will consider the package on 19 December.

Amnesty International says the EU has "miserably failed" to provide a safe haven to Syrians, noting that 55,000 so far have been able to claim asylum. Ten countries have promised to allow in 12,000 people, it says, with 80% of the total pledges from Germany. France has offered 500 places and Spain 30, it says.


Syrian refugees are living in makeshift homes in harsh winter conditions
The human rights group's report also criticises "push-back" operations aimed at halting Syrians travelling from Turkey, noting that the European Commission has provided 228m euros to bolster controls.

The harsh conditions faced by Syrian refugees have been highlighted this week with the first winter snowfalls in the Bekaa valley of northern Lebanon, where tens of thousands of Syrians are sheltering in tents.

A total of 838,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon, living either in tented camps, unused buildings or with friends and family.

The bitterly cold weather has also halted a UN airlift of food and other humanitarian supplies from Iraq to Kurdish areas inside north-eastern Syria.

Bron: http://www.bbc.co.uk/, 12/12/2013

Mening: Ik zit met een enorm dubbel gevoel als het gaat om dit onderwerp. Langs de ene kant is het heel erg voor de mensen in Syrië en snap ik best dat ze willen vluchten naar landen waar ze veilig zijn. Langs de andere kant, is het niet altijd even vanzelfsprekend om als land duizenden mensen op te vangen. Niet enkel omdat er niet altijd plaats is, maar ook is het voor sommige landen financieel niet zo vanzelfsprekend. Zo wil Bulgarije gerust Syriërs opvangen, maar enkel als Brussel financieel tegemoetkomt. Asiel is altijd al een erg gevoelig en vooral moeilijk onderwerp geweest. Wie moeten we een verblijfsvergunning geven? Welke voorwaarden moeten er voldaan worden? Ik hoop vooral dat de situatie in Syrië snel verandert zodat de mensen rustig in hun eigen land kunnen blijven. Niet omdat ze in mijn ogen niet welkom zijn, maar het is en blijft wel hun thuis. En ik denk dat iedereen nog altijd het liefst gewoon thuis is. Een nieuw leven opbouwen in een ander land is niet zo vanzelfsprekend en ik denk dat velen van ons onderschatten wat voor impact zoiets heeft op de levens van asielzoekers.