Afghan refugee crisis stokes fears among EU member states

Concern is rising among EU countries about the bloc’s role in managing the emerging refugee crisis in Afghanistan. As thousands try to flee Kabul, EU states are scrambling to formulate an agreed approach. Ireland, meanwhile, promises to do its bit – but it is not at all clear what that will mean.

There are acute memories among several EU countries of the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015-2016, when more than a million people fleeing from the country’s brutal civil war arrived on Europe’s shores.

Many others – including Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach, becoming an iconic image of the crisis – were not lucky enough to make it to sanctuary.

The sudden arrival of so many refugees also had deeply destabilising political effects in many countries – including in Germany, which faces a general election next month.

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Managing what many fear will be another refugee crisis has now become a high priority for EU states.

Justice and home affairs ministers discussed the issue at an meeting on Wednesday, while the foreign affairs council held a wide-ranging discussion on Tuesday at which the concerns of some member states on the refugee issue became clear, according to people briefed.

French president Emmanuel Macron – also facing an election next year – is among the European leaders to warn that the EU must prepare to deal with the coming crisis.

‘Migratory flows’

“We must anticipate and protect ourselves against major irregular migratory flows that would endanger those who use them and feed trafficking of all kinds,” he said in a speech.

A senior official in the German CDU, the party of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel, said there could not be a repeat of the 2015 influx of Syrian refugees, when almost a million arrived at Merkel’s invitation.

“We won’t be able to solve the Afghanistan question through migration to Germany,” Paul Ziemiak said.

Instead, it is likely that EU countries will agree to take a limited number of Afghan refugees, proportionate to their size and capacity, according to sources involved in the discussions in Dublin and Brussels.

In parallel, there is also likely to be extensive support for Afghan refugees who take shelter in countries closer to their home – as the EU did when helping Turkey and Lebanon house millions of Syrians.

Effectively, the EU pays vast sums to keep the refugee problem as offshore as it can. That approach is likely to continue.

Here, the Government as promised to admit 150 Afghan refugees on Monday, but quickly added that it had already approved 45 visas and would also fast track more than 100 applications for family reunification.

Help and settlement

A coalition of groups who work with or advocate for immigrants wrote to the Taoiseach, asking that the number be immediately upped to at least 1,000.

Decision-making can be slow because responsibility for the area is divided between three government departments. The Department of Children and Equality has responsibility for dealing with and accommodating refugees when they arrive; the Department of Justice is in charge of asylum policy and granting legal access; and the Department of Foreign Affairs manages the logistics of actually getting the refugees to Ireland.

The example most often cited is the programme put in place for Syrian refugees in recent years, under which more than 3,000 Syrians have settled in Ireland. But there was a long lull between promises of help and settlement, and the numbers – though large by Irish standards – are a drop in the ocean when the overall number of Syrian refugees, reckoned to be 5.5 million, is considered.

Officials say the Syrian process was more “orderly” – candidates for the Irish programme were interviewed in Lebanon and then transported to Ireland after “pre-departure orientation and medical checks”.

In the case of Afghan refugees, says the Department of Children and Equality, “It will be emergency evacuation.”

That is hoped to begin in the coming days, given few are willing to take at face value the promises of the Taliban of safety and security for Afghans who assisted the Nato forces or worked for the previous government.