Translator: Hélène Vernet Reviewer: Helena Bedalli
According to the High Commissioner for Refugees, the H.C.R.,
there are 60 million of uprooted people in the world:
20 million of refugees who were forced to flee
beyond the borders of their country,
and 40 million of displaced people who took refuge inside their own country.
Today, in the world, one out of every 122 persons
is either uprooted or refugee.
In Europe, in 2015,
1.2 million people applied for asylum.
That’s 600,000 more than last year.
The curve that you can see on this graph is amazing.
Yet, there is no refugee crisis in Europe.
Because a number has more than an absolute value.
We should put it into perspective.
We need to look at the scales,
the geographic scale and the historic scale.
But first, let us look at the numbers.
I agree with you: 1.2 million of refugees in Europe,
that’s a lot.
We already know that the arrivals are not going to decrease over the coming years.
But do you know how many people live in Europe?
508 million.
So last year in Europe,
one asylum seeker for every 500 inhabitants came in.
In a visual representation, it looks like this:
one red star …
lost in a sea of blue stars.
Even with the arrival of 600,000 people as was the case last year,
last year, there was only one asylum seeker out of every 500 [inhabitants],
and the year before, one out of every thousand.
Now, let us look at the geographical scale.
Let’s try to see what is happening beyond our continent.
I am a geographer. I am involved with these issues on a daily basis.
I am concerned about borders and migratory movements.
If we examine the statistics in the world,
we can see that the reception, the weight of hosting refugees,
lies on the shoulders of the poorest countries.
That’s right, 86% of the refugees are received in the southern countries.
It is this “arc” of displaced refugees
that has been designed by Philippe Rekacewicz.
This arc expands from Indonesia to Tanzania.
Even when war is very close to us,
as is the case for Syria,
refugees seldom reach us.
Of the 5 million of Syrian refugees,
2.7 are settled in Turkey today,
and 1 million in Lebanon.
In Lebanon today, one person out of four is a refugee.
It is as if Europe were receiving 125 million refugees.
We are very, very far from that.
So yes, there is a refugee crisis,
but not in Europe.
Europe is very little affected by this crisis.
Yet, Europe has already suffered a few refugee crises in the past.
Between August and December 1921,
some 1.5 million Russian refugees fled the Soviet famine
and settled all over the world and in Europe.
In 1945, at the end of the second world war,
40 million displaced and refugees were received in Europe.
More recently, from 1975, 3 million boat people
who fled from the ex-French colonies of Indochina,
were received somewhere in the world, including Europe.
So, yes!
Forced displacements have always existed.
That’s not a new phenomenon.
And essentially, history tells us
that Europe knew how to receive these people
who were fleeing from wars and conflicts.
Today, as in the past,
we face a world that experiences numerous crises.
Wars and political instabilities,
there are many in the world.
Some are close to us. This is the case of Syria.
There are other wars in far-off places that are less well known :
Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan,
Somalia, Ethiopia, Libya and Turkey.
These are the countries in red on this map.
But if, in the past, refugees were able to find
a safe haven somewhere in the world,
today, doors are closing.
We are erecting walls to stop their arrival,
as shown in this map from Elisabeth Vallet.
There were about ten walls at the end of the cold war.
Today,
they are seventy, already built or being built.
25,000 miles of borders, today in the world, are bricked up.
Thus, the word “crisis” is not used to describe a phenomenon.
It is mainly used to base policies and actions.
Talking about refugee “crisis”
is calling for urgent and exceptional measures.
it is justifying the closure of borders,
as the sole tool to manage human mobility.
By increasing border checks,
we are forcing the refugees
to travel by paths increasingly longer,
and increasingly dangerous.
Today, in order to reach Europe, Syrian refugees
are forced to transit through
the Arctic,
through the Norwegian-Russian border,
or…
through West Africa:
syrian refugees fly to Mauritania,
and cross the Sahara Desert to get to Europe.
These roads are not only longer but they are also more dangerous.
The consequences of the closure of borders are right in front of our eyes.
Two doors down from us, where we go swimming in the summer,
in the Mediterranean, thousands of people are dying.
Since 1993, more than 30,000 bodies have already been identified.
And we know for sure, that this number is underestimated.
So, it is a humanitarian crisis.
Physical obstacles to migration
are responsible for the increase of deaths on the migratory roads.
In the case of Vietnamese boat people,
H.C.R. has implemented a program for their resettlement.
Vietnamese boat people were able to benefit from these programs
and stop taking dangerous roads to get to their new host countries.
These programs
save the life of tens of thousands of Vietnamese.
Today,
we could implement the same kind of program.
But, instead of creating fleeing roads
for Somalian, Eritrean, or Syrian refugees,
Europe and the other western countries,
are barricading themselves.
That map from Philippe Rekacewicz
represents the sanctuarization devices of the Western countries.
They are displayed in red tunes on this map.
By doing so,
the states are in breach of their international obligations,
because refusing to receive refugees is violating international law.
So, the crisis is an humanitarian crisis.
But it is also a crisis of migratory policies
and a crisis of the Rule of law.
Thank you.
(Applause)
According to the High Commissioner for Refugees, the H.C.R.,
there are 60 million of uprooted people in the world:
20 million of refugees who were forced to flee
beyond the borders of their country,
and 40 million of displaced people who took refuge inside their own country.
Today, in the world, one out of every 122 persons
is either uprooted or refugee.
In Europe, in 2015,
1.2 million people applied for asylum.
That’s 600,000 more than last year.
The curve that you can see on this graph is amazing.
Yet, there is no refugee crisis in Europe.
Because a number has more than an absolute value.
We should put it into perspective.
We need to look at the scales,
the geographic scale and the historic scale.
But first, let us look at the numbers.
I agree with you: 1.2 million of refugees in Europe,
that’s a lot.
We already know that the arrivals are not going to decrease over the coming years.
But do you know how many people live in Europe?
508 million.
So last year in Europe,
one asylum seeker for every 500 inhabitants came in.
In a visual representation, it looks like this:
one red star …
lost in a sea of blue stars.
Even with the arrival of 600,000 people as was the case last year,
last year, there was only one asylum seeker out of every 500 [inhabitants],
and the year before, one out of every thousand.
Now, let us look at the geographical scale.
Let’s try to see what is happening beyond our continent.
I am a geographer. I am involved with these issues on a daily basis.
I am concerned about borders and migratory movements.
If we examine the statistics in the world,
we can see that the reception, the weight of hosting refugees,
lies on the shoulders of the poorest countries.
That’s right, 86% of the refugees are received in the southern countries.
It is this “arc” of displaced refugees
that has been designed by Philippe Rekacewicz.
This arc expands from Indonesia to Tanzania.
Even when war is very close to us,
as is the case for Syria,
refugees seldom reach us.
Of the 5 million of Syrian refugees,
2.7 are settled in Turkey today,
and 1 million in Lebanon.
In Lebanon today, one person out of four is a refugee.
It is as if Europe were receiving 125 million refugees.
We are very, very far from that.
So yes, there is a refugee crisis,
but not in Europe.
Europe is very little affected by this crisis.
Yet, Europe has already suffered a few refugee crises in the past.
Between August and December 1921,
some 1.5 million Russian refugees fled the Soviet famine
and settled all over the world and in Europe.
In 1945, at the end of the second world war,
40 million displaced and refugees were received in Europe.
More recently, from 1975, 3 million boat people
who fled from the ex-French colonies of Indochina,
were received somewhere in the world, including Europe.
So, yes!
Forced displacements have always existed.
That’s not a new phenomenon.
And essentially, history tells us
that Europe knew how to receive these people
who were fleeing from wars and conflicts.
Today, as in the past,
we face a world that experiences numerous crises.
Wars and political instabilities,
there are many in the world.
Some are close to us. This is the case of Syria.
There are other wars in far-off places that are less well known :
Yemen, Eritrea, Sudan,
Somalia, Ethiopia, Libya and Turkey.
These are the countries in red on this map.
But if, in the past, refugees were able to find
a safe haven somewhere in the world,
today, doors are closing.
We are erecting walls to stop their arrival,
as shown in this map from Elisabeth Vallet.
There were about ten walls at the end of the cold war.
Today,
they are seventy, already built or being built.
25,000 miles of borders, today in the world, are bricked up.
Thus, the word “crisis” is not used to describe a phenomenon.
It is mainly used to base policies and actions.
Talking about refugee “crisis”
is calling for urgent and exceptional measures.
it is justifying the closure of borders,
as the sole tool to manage human mobility.
By increasing border checks,
we are forcing the refugees
to travel by paths increasingly longer,
and increasingly dangerous.
Today, in order to reach Europe, Syrian refugees
are forced to transit through
the Arctic,
through the Norwegian-Russian border,
or…
through West Africa:
syrian refugees fly to Mauritania,
and cross the Sahara Desert to get to Europe.
These roads are not only longer but they are also more dangerous.
The consequences of the closure of borders are right in front of our eyes.
Two doors down from us, where we go swimming in the summer,
in the Mediterranean, thousands of people are dying.
Since 1993, more than 30,000 bodies have already been identified.
And we know for sure, that this number is underestimated.
So, it is a humanitarian crisis.
Physical obstacles to migration
are responsible for the increase of deaths on the migratory roads.
In the case of Vietnamese boat people,
H.C.R. has implemented a program for their resettlement.
Vietnamese boat people were able to benefit from these programs
and stop taking dangerous roads to get to their new host countries.
These programs
save the life of tens of thousands of Vietnamese.
Today,
we could implement the same kind of program.
But, instead of creating fleeing roads
for Somalian, Eritrean, or Syrian refugees,
Europe and the other western countries,
are barricading themselves.
That map from Philippe Rekacewicz
represents the sanctuarization devices of the Western countries.
They are displayed in red tunes on this map.
By doing so,
the states are in breach of their international obligations,
because refusing to receive refugees is violating international law.
So, the crisis is an humanitarian crisis.
But it is also a crisis of migratory policies
and a crisis of the Rule of law.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Please follow and like us: