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migreurop | 25.01.2017

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Press Release

„The European Union cannot abolish winter : it must instead put an end to the criminal hotspot policy !“

At what point does failing to assist a person in danger become a crime ? How many deaths are necessary to constitute a crime against humanity ? These questions have been raised for years in relation to the thousands of people who have died in the Mediterranean due to the lack of legal routes into the European Union (EU). Today, the increasingly serious situation of thousands of refugees, trapped by freezing temperatures in Greek camps and on the ‘Balkan routes’, directly challenges the choices made by the EU concerning its ‘management of migration flows’.

Last spring, to avoid taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and other regions in crisis, European Commission officials and members of the European Council implemented a ‘hotspot solution’ which evidently failed to take into account meteorological variables : in winter, temperatures drop and the cold is intense, even on the Aegean islands deserted by tourists. Nothing more than tent camps has been put in place for refugees to be ‘stored’ in while forced returns are organised, considered by European officials and leaders as the best solution to resolve the ‘migration crisis’.

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