Geopolitical Risk of Libyan Refugees Fleeing to Europe - Essay Example

GEOPOLITICAL RISK OF LIBYAN REFUGEES FLEEING TO EUROPE by of the of the Introduction Until last few years, the greatest threat to European geopolitical stability was internal. The lowering domestic economic situations since 2011 led to critical economic conditions in many EU (European Union) states, like Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France, benefiting euro-sceptic parties in the European Parliament elections in 2014. The euro-zone debt crisis caused a rift among and within the EU member states which at several times seemed likely to trigger a massive social turmoil and even a collapse of the union currency, Euro. Instead, the greatest threat to Europe’s geopolitical stability is now external. Instead, now the greatest threat to Europe’s geopolitical stability is external. Europe has been final destination of majority of immigrants from Africa, Middle East, and Asia. However, after the eruption of democratic revolution, ‘Arab Spring’, in 2011 in Tunisia, which swiftly spread to Syria, Egypt, and Libya, the enormous number of refugees and asylum seekers from these countries and other parts of Africa have been risking own lives in overcrowded, decaying boats to enter Europe. According to the reports of Frontex, the European Union’s border control agency, over millions of migrants from Northern Africa, especially from Libya, have attempted to enter Europe via Mediterranean Sea route in the last 2 years. Libya, which is currently suffering from the clashes between two rival governments and their militia, possesses a serious threat to stability and peace in Europe as major terrorists organizations are regularly threatening to infiltrate Europe with a great number of terrorists through massive migrant flow from Libya to Europe’s southern coast. Furthermore, the economic burden and the ineffectiveness of EU to tackle the issue of Libyan refuges is intensifying political and social unrest in affecting states, like Italy, Malta, and France. The present paper highlights the growing issue of North African refugees in Europe, which is significantly affecting the geopolitical stability and peace in the region. Analyzing Root Causes of Massive Number of North African Refugees Fleeing to Europe The root causes of rapidly increasing number of African refugees fleeing to Europe lies in the 2011 Arab spring and ineffective policies of the EU towards it. In 2011, widespread demonstrations against housing shortages and political corruption in Libya quickly turned into violent clashes between government forces and anti-government rebels. In April 2011, when the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was about to succeed in crushing growing opposition of rebels, the US and major European powers, like France and the UK, started an air-strike campaign against Gaddafi forces, supporting anti-Gaddafi rebels who even included radical Islamists. As the country was liberated from the 42 years of Gaddafi’s dictatorial ruling, Western leaders acknowledged it as a victory of democracy and human rights. However, after 3 years of uprising, Libya remained no longer free. The country is mainly divided into 2 camps. One is Libya Dawn, a radical Islamic umbrella group, and other is the group of the nationalists and liberals under the leadership of Khalifa Hifter. Both the groups and their hundreds of allied militias are striving to acquire power. As the country is suffering from violent civil conflicts, the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), an international terrorist organization, took the advantage of situation by establishing own influence in the country. Certainly, Gaddafi regime was oppressive with dark history of brutality and human rights violations. However, with the help of Italy, he successfully held the flow of African refugees going to Europe. During the Gaddafi era, Libya and Italy secretly signed several friendship pacts according to which Libya formed several detention units for illegal migrants to prevent illegal migration through its northern coasts and allowed Italy to forcibly redirect boats full of African migrants back to Libya. In return, Italy provided financial and military support to Gaddafi regime. However, with the growing protest against such treaty by the United Nations (UN) and the EU and with the collapse of Gaddafi regime, so-called diplomatic ties and pacts between Libya and Italy ended. As a result, the Mediterranean Sea route to Europe through Libya which had been previously restrained for illegal migrants became completely open. Besides, the flawed policies of the UN and the EU played a major role in triggering the current disastrous situation in Libya. Similar to the case of Iraq where western powers emphasized overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein, neglecting “post-peacekeeping” operations, in Libya the western powers showed more interest in overthrowing the dictatorial regime of Gaddafi, neglecting proper democratization and stabilization process in the country. The aftermath of all these episodes was the beneficial atmosphere for the terrorist organizations and radical rebels to take over the country, leading the continuous series of violent clashes, civil riots, and political and economic unrest in the country. Consequently, with the growing unrest in the country, the number of people willing to flee to Europe has also rapidly increased, triggering enormous geopolitical and security threat to Europe. Consequences of the Libyan Crisis and Flawed Policies of the EU Libya has been home for more than 2 million refugees from failed African states, like Eritrea, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Iraq, and Sudan. As the conflict broke out in Libya, these refugees trapped in a critical situation in which they couldn’t stay in the country neither returned home due to more or less identical security concerns. In such situation, Europe remained only possible safe destination in front of them. Therefore, since the end of 2011 almost 150,000 of refugees from Libya fled to Europe. In 2013, Germany registered almost 128,000 African asylum seekers compared to 28,000 in Italy. Due to the ineffectiveness of the EU to control this growing flow of illegal refugees, Southern European countries are suffering from excessive economic burden of border control operations, rescue operations, and resettlement of refugees. Due to the growing domestic pressure and lack of sufficient financial support from the EU, Southern European states, like Spain, Italy, Cyprus, France, and Malta have began to take support of old policies of preventing refugees from entering into their borders. Despite regularly emphasizing the commitment to human rights and democracy, the EU has violated the international law of non-refoulment which gives the right to victims to apply for refugee status. In other words, the ineffective policies of the EU towards the issue of Libyan refugees have exposed victims of civil conflicts in Libya to torture, human rights abuse, and ill-treatment in their war-torn states like, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and other. Potential Geopolitical and Security Risks to Europe The Libyan refugee issue has provoked disputes among the member states of the EU. The South European countries, like Italy, Malta, Spain, Cyprus, and France are arguing to revise the EU’s 2003 Dublin regulation. According to the regulation, asylum seekers’ applications can only be considered in the country where asylum seekers first set foot in Europe. However, this biased system has transferred all burden of the issue on South European countries, causing anger among these nations. Initially, Italy, which is nowadays hit by the massive flow of refugees, requested other member states to absorb certain number of refugees as it was unable to take them all. However, the countries like, Germany, and the UK, rejected to take further refugees by claiming they had already taken more refugees than their capacity. Furthermore, according to the Italian officials, the operations related with refugees were causing over 10 million Euros per month, triggering economic crisis and domestic anger due to lowering social welfare budget of the country. Despite constant appeals of Italy to the EU to allocate extra funds, its requests have been rejected by the EU by saying Italy had already received enough funds. Italian leaders have claimed that it is not only Italy’s own problem and have threatened to transfer the currently residing refugees in Italy further in Europe unless the EU increases its assistance to deal with the issue of North African refugees. In 2013, Italy began to issue national residence permits to the refugees in the hope of exploiting the passport-free Schengen entry to release its refugees to other European countries, like France. However, France pointed out that Schengen entry is allowed to only those with proper passports and the funds to support themselves, returning over 2100 North African refugees back to Italy. As the majority of the EU states have closed their borders and restricted the Schengen entry, it has shattered one of the pillars of the EU’s development, i.e., single market and free movement. In other words, the refugee crisis has exposed the weakness of the EU’s political system, collapsing its fundamental regulations and functioning. The ineffectiveness of the EU to deal with the increasing flow of Libyan refugees is further exploited by the international terrorist organization, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). ISIS has threatened to mingle its terrorists among Libyan migrants heading towards Europe. The organization is attempting to flood Europe with almost 1 million of terrorists. The EU’s defense capacity is too weak as Europe spends hardly 1.5% of gross domestic production on defense. Furthermore, the lack of coordination among the EU member states further lowers its efficiency. The result of all these combined factors is Europe has become more vulnerable to terrorist attacks than ever before. With the growing threat of terrorist operations and ineffectiveness of the EU’s border control, geopolitical stability in Europe is at stake. European policymakers are also worried about growing nationalism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia in Europe. In many European countries, the anti-immigrant movements are on the rise. Anti-immigrants and radical nationalist political parties are rapidly gaining popularity in Europe. Even mainstream political parties have increasingly become hostile to refugees. In Germany, a movement known as Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) is gaining a lot of popularity as thousands of people are actively participating in it. In a way, the growing opposition for Islamic immigrants from North Africa and Middle East and presence of large Muslim communities in Europe which are widely protesting against anti-migrant policies of the EU have brought Europe on the verge of domestic instability and security risks. Conclusion The Arab Spring movement of 2011 and the Libyan crisis of 2014 have caused massive civil conflicts and political and social unrest in Libya. Consequently, a large number of refugees from Libya and other North African countries are increasingly fleeing to Europe in the hope of security and better future. However, the growing number of Libyan refugees triggered significant geopolitical and security issues in Europe. The terrorist organizations like, ISIS are willing to exploit the condition to slip massive number of terrorists in Europe through refugees. The weak defense of EU’s border security and lack of coordination among the EU’s member states to deal with the issue of refugees have further worsened the crisis, triggering social and political unrest within Europe. In a way, the issue of Libyan refugees has caused significant threat to geopolitical stability and security of Europe. In order to tackle the issue, it is necessary for the member states to cooperate with each other and implement effective measures and unbiased policies. (Continue) Read More