World Refugee Day

A progressive humanitarian approach for the Refugees Issue

By PES Activists Greece

According to the Greek mythology, the European continent derives its name from a
Phoenician woman abducted by the Greek god Zeus, who was forced to come from Lebanon
to Greece. That is to say, the name of Europe was from the very beginning closely
interwoven with openness towards otherness, becoming a symbol of tolerance and of
respect of human dignity. Ironically, in our times, the mere idea of Europe is deeply
challenged by the refugee crisis, because of our striking failure to address effectively the
humanitarian challenges being posed, share the responsibility and protect our values.

Regarding migration and asylum issue, our first task is always to protect human life. But
many have already lost it. At the same time, Europe must respond to its moral and legal
obligation to provide safe access, protection and asylum to all those escaping war,
dictatorship, persecution - including the one based on gender, sexual orientation and racial
or religious identity - and to all those whose lives are in danger. Europe must act under the
spirit of solidarity and promote a fair distribution of responsibilities. We want to tackle the
causes of immigration and improve the security and quality of life in origin or transit
countries of migrants, by supporting countries, promoting peace, democracy as well as social
and economic development. We also need to combat the criminal trafficking networks fed
by the trade of human hope.

Greece has experienced an unprecedented pressure. It is obvious that the optimistic goal
for a 70,000 asylum seekers relocation is just a pain-killer. At the same time, there is a huge
controversy: while the relocation and resettlement criteria direct refugees to countries of
high rates of population, GDP growth and effective asylum applications and low
unemployment rates, the vast majority of refugees arrives and stays trapped- to the
country with the most striking difficulties in all the above fields. More than 50, 000 refugees
in Greece right now remain under an administrative detention regime. Without being able to
go to other European countries and with no immediate prospect of readmission to Turkey.
Without any provision and possibility for quick review of asylum applications, subsidiary
protection or humanitarian protection status. We wonder whether a regime of
administrative detention is the future we envisage for EuropeWorse of all, more than
5,000 refugees were drowned, suffocated or crushed while attempting to cross the
Mediterranean and Aegean seas in 2016, making it the deadliest year on record.

As PES Activists Greece, having participated in several forums and discussions concerning
the Refugees Issue, but most importantly having volunteered to numerous grassroots
actions, having travelled to hotspots and camps all around Greece and having approached
and assisted in practice many refugees who shared their experience, fears and hopes with
us, we know that Europes response is far from sufficient. Instead of business as usual, we
a revolutionary approach and a holistic action plan to:
1. Protect Human Lives and support Human Rights in countries of origin

2. Adopt a new progressive European policy on Immigration and Asylum and

3. Undertake progressive initiatives in Greece and Europe to cope with the Crisis always
based on our core Values as Socialists and Democrats.

We can make it happen, but for this we must focus our policies in 4 main pillars:

1. Changing Philosophy

Humans after All

Conservative Europe is facing refugees as dangerous goods. Even people who are entitled to
the right of asylum and risk the lives of their children in their routes to Europe fleeing war or
HR deficits, under the EU Turkey Treaty are allowed to be returned back. What message is
passed about refugees when we are returning them back? We need another philosophy that
will pass a positive message to local communities for refugees. After all, refugees are
humans in danger and humans are wealth for the local communities and not goods to be
returned.

Globalize not Externalize

EU Turkey Treaty and the Malta Declaration aim to externalize the Refugees Issue both
based on the philosophy that refugees are not welcome in our Union trapping them into
unsafe countries. In contrast to this philosophy, the European Union of Human Rights and
Solidarity must take initiatives in order to globalize the refugee issue aiming to offer a better
life for refugees and their families away from their unsafe countries, in Europe and/or in
another countries that respect human rights.

Regions Are the Cell

Our Union must invest more in Regions making them privileged interlocutor in our common
try to face refugees issue with solidarity respecting the values of plurality and diversity.
States have been proven incompetent and politically irresponsible to manage the issue.
Regions though can better interact with their people and can better work, under an EU
umbrella, in order to integrate refugees and set up permanent mechanisms to absorb the
consequences of a world that is moving and will keep on moving the years to come, a
mechanism that will not only protect the local culture but also that will aim to progress
through interculturalism. (eg Mayor and residents of Barcelona ask for more refugees while
the conservative Spanish government is unwilling even to accept countrys quotas. Such
bottlenecks can be avoided if we invest more directly in Regions.)

Cooperating

The refugee issue as all major issues requires a global approach, requires global solutions.
We desperately need to avoid the so called OHIO syndrome (Own House In Order). No
one can make it by its own in this interconnected world. For this reason, diplomacy and
cooperation shall be the cornerstone of the European philosophy for crisis management. In
particular, the refugee issue must be jointly managed by the EU, UN, NATO. We need a
strong tripartite cooperation. Furthermore we believe in the need to strengthen the Euro-
Mediterranean Partnership with the African Union and the Arab League in security policy, in
economic and trade cooperation, in social, cultural and humanitarian areas.

2. A progressive asylum policy

Fair Share Benefit (not burden) Nor Dublin II is working neither the relocation program.
Common European policy is all but common, as it is up to the states to implement it
arbitrarily. Some countries suffer more being isolated and unable to cope with
disproportionately numbers of refugees. Several local communities want to stand by
refugees but they are unable. We believe that there is a need for those who are entitled to
asylum to be allocated proportionally to all Union States or Regions on criteria such as GDP,
population and the need for labor force, or parameters such as social housing. We believe in
the need to provide incentives to the states or preferably - directly to the Regions to
accept the refugees. We believe in diplomacy, we believe that we must emphasize the
benefits of pluralism in order to encourage local communities to ask for more refugees, to
welcome them.

EU Embassies - European Union, in co-operation with international organizations, should set

up "EU embassies" in third countries neighboring or with safe access from those countries of
mass migration. In EU embassies, Refugees should be able to apply for asylum or
humanitarian visas without having to pass the unsafe routes (such as the Aegean Sea) to
reach a States asylum office. EU embassies should directly relocate a refugee safely and
legally to one of the States or to send them in a safe third country following a new
philosophy of Global cooperation.

Safe Harbor Initiative - Given that Europe has hundreds of harbors and that Greece and Italy
have hundreds of ships and very active coastal navigation lines, it would be possible within a
few weeks to record and transfer hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers,
through sea, in many other European countries, with fair - balanced routes, with coastal
transportation subsidized by EU. Europe should create legal sea routes, directly to all EU
harbors from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, where there will be EU embassies or just
hotspots. In this way, we will manage to smash smugglers networks, saving millions of
internationally protected persons and especially childeren. Moreover, cooperation with UN
and asylum institutions is of utmost importance in order to accomplish the aforementioned
objective and make the Safe Harbour Initiative work.

A common EU Organisation for CEAP Application - For a common European issue, the
solution cannot be national! The common European policy also requires common
implementation, and to do so, it would be useful for all asylum procedures and structures to
be organized and implemented by a common European agency. A European organization
with super-state responsibilities responsible for the construction and observance of hygiene
standards in reception centers, asylum, research and rescue and distribution of refugees in
the Union. Funding should be provided directly from a European fund to be set up and to
which all countries will contribute proportionally!
 3. Protecting Human Life and Human Rights

Safe and Legal Paths Safe and Legal paths of migration for people coming from countries
with a high probability of an asylum application to be accepted

Search and Rescue Operations - Union's first concern should be to save the lives that are
endangered every day in the Mediterranean and other unsafe routes. For this reason, funds
for research and rescue should be increased (instead of being reduced!!) targeting mainly
the most deadly routes.

EU Missions 4 Peace - The Union should undertake peace initiatives with diplomacy and
initiatives to redress deficits and inequalities in the countries of origin of migrants.

EU Missions 4 Human Rights - It is crucial to cooperate with NGOs, with political and social
organizations in the refugee source countries or in countries with a high probability of being
the source of refugee flows in the near future in order to improve living conditions and
protect the human rights. We need to invest more in Human Rights in third countries.

UniVEST - Education against Immigration - Most refugees that are fleeing the conflict in
Syria are, educationally, the flowers of their country. We, the PES Activists, cannot stand to
see flowers withering. We are ready to take action and work together with progressive
parties and citizens! We ask from the European Union in collaboration with EU universities
to undertake gender balanced mobility programs for young refugees or/and citizens
coming from countries with high possibility of their citizens to be granted asylum and to
offer them scholarships in order to be able to come safely and legally to study in our Union
and acquire skills that help them to be involved in rebuilding their own countries and their
own societies. We may also expand Erasmus Program in that respect. Scholarships should
cover tuition fees, travel expenses and the cost of decent living in the reception countries.
One position in each one of the higher education Institutions of the EU means 3300 young
refugees per year should be offered a chance for a new life but also the educational
background to rebuild their home countries the day after the conflicts. But it means also
something more. It means that they will also become our culture ambassadors that they will
play a key role in the near future for the establishment of core values of the Union, like
peace and democracy, in their home countries and they will be a permanent link of the
Union and third countries.

The right for Progress - Everyone has the right to progress. Every child has the right to
evolve, right to a better world. We must ensure decent living conditions in each hosting
center, ensure that all children go to school, we must invest in integration, in training
programs, in languages learning in training and specialization programs for refugees. We
must invest in teaching our culture (eg we should expand our culture cheque proposal also
to refugees)
 4. Initiative for Greece and the internal management of each country

Fair Share in Regions - The Greek government urgently calls for the fair distribution of
immigrants throughout the European territory and rightly, but does not do the same within
the Greek territory that has the ultimate responsibility. We believe in the need for irregular
immigrants to share fairly in all regions until their asylum application be examined. By this
way, the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea and the center of Athens will be decongesting
and part of the responsibility will be shared across Greece. We believe in Solidarity not in
ala cart solidarity.

Efficient Management The Greek Government case is an illustrative example of

management failures and disorganisation: No single actor has overall control of all funding
and management decisions in the camps. Thousands of migrants are still being held in
makeshift tent camps, with several being covered in snow till recently, sparking emergency
measures from Greek authorities aiming to find safer accommodation in empty hotels or on
a navy ship (!!).

Immigration Gardens - Immigrants are carriers of a different culture, they have special
knowledge, and we have a lot as a society to learn and teach them. A network of voluntary
organizations should be established at the initiative of the government in order to
undertake, in cooperation with municipalities, programs of integration. Personalized support
for women and young children and people with special needs who need special treatment
should be offered.

Human + - We recommend the creation of a HUMAN + program with a view to speeding up

asylum requests for immigrants, which will of course require mainly seasonal, as well as the
improvement of reception and accommodation conditions for migrants to meet hygiene
conditions to provide health care and to meet basic human needs.

Regions As Managers - Regions and municipalities should take on the role of coordinator of
hosting and integration programs in each region. Their interconnection with the local
population is direct, they know well the advantages and disadvantages of each region. They
know with which group of locals and how they have to work. Citizens can also easily control
them.

Houses instead of Camps Camps are not the solution. Refugees should be distributed in
houses in order them to become members of a neighborhood. We do not need more Callais.
We need inclusive societies and refugees ready to interact with the local communities. We
want to see refugees children playing with our children because after all they are going to
live together in this big neighborhood, in our world. Isolation cultivate hatred, togetherness
cultivate hope!

NGOs collaboration With Local Societies - NGOs working in local societies should
collaborate more with them. Funding to NGOs should only be offered if they hire local
population if they buy supplies from the local market. It is not about the money. It is about
interaction between refugees NGOs and local communities. Locals become part of the
solution.
The role of Turkish Regime Its time to face the reality: The Turkish Regime (since we can
no longer talk about a normal Government) is abusing the refugee issue to demand
geopolitical returns. Even worse, it is risking peoples lives in order to blackmail and threaten
the EU. Recently, in the context of the 8 Turkish asylum seekers and the respective
extradition request, Erdogan openly threatened Greece that he will unilaterally cancel the
EU Turkey Treaty only for Greece and send to Greek islands millions of refugees in a week!
Similar threats were also directed to Germany and Netherlands, but it shall not be forgotten
that Greece will carry a huge humanitarian burden alone in such a dramatic but possible
scenario. In any case, its time to show our determination to support Rule of Law, human
rights and Democracy, making clear to the Turkish Regime that EU solidarity is not in
question, are values are not negotiable and the EU cannot be threatened. To make this
happen, we need a viable plan B right now!

Concluding Remarks:

The way the refugee crisis is managed till now proves the inadequacy of national
agendas to effectively deal with a complex global issue and concomitantly
challenges the institutional structure of the EU, the functionality of the
intergovernmental method and the level of the European integration. The major
European decisions are still national and therefore insufficient. The EU, namely the
bigger states, moved in the EU-Turkey agreement towards accepting the agenda and
priorities of the Visegrad countries, which is in no case a progressive agenda.
The negative side-effects of the lack of a European-wide solution both for refugees
and countries of first arrival, especially Greece, are self-evident, amongst which the
fragmentation of the economic aid, lack of legitimacy, accountability and of central
planning, fueling a non-stop blame game between EU and member States. The
situation gets even more complicated, with populists exploitating the terrorist threat
blindly against refugees and migrants.
Paradoxically enough, Greece right now is practically excluded from the EU Area. On
the one hand, there is a EU area including Skopje (FYROM) and a common Greece-
Turkish area on the other hand, being used as an immigration parking.
The mainstream European stance till now was: You deal with it, we just help and
provide money. his is not progressive, this is not European, this is neither social
nor democracy.
A progressive solution is a truly integrated European solution. Social Democracy is
at the end of the day about bringing people together and protecting human
dignity.

Yours in solidarity,

For PES Activists Greece

Theodoros Douloumpekis & Alexandros Karidis

National Coordinators

http://www.socialdemocrats.gr/