EU leaders leave refugees out in the cold

THOUSANDS OF people are being left out in the cold to suffer as European governments react in increasingly hostile ways to the plight of refugees seeking shelter from war, repression and poverty.

In an attempt to cross the Mediterranean before cold winter weather and rough seas make crossing even more perilous or altogether impossible, more and more refugees are attempting to reach Europe, even as governments across the European Union (EU) crack down on borders and step up repression in an effort to dissuade others from coming.

Over just three days--from October 30 to November 1--some 28,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean into Greece, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported. Well over 200,000 people crossed into Greece during the whole month of October, and according to the IOM, as of November 3, some 761,000 migrants and refugees had arrived in Europe in 2015.

An even grimmer statistic: At least 3,406 have died or gone missing. It's likely that many were drowned in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels, sometimes abandoned to their fate by smugglers to whom they gave their life savings for passage.

In perhaps the worst recent loss of life, at least 42 people died and 242 had to be rescued when their boat turned over and sank off the coast of Lesbos in late October. Many of the dead were children and infants--pictures showed their small bodies washed up on the rocky shore.

Commenting on the reality now facing the refugees, Spyros Galinos, the mayor of Lesbos, told the Guardian: "I worry about the weather, I worry about the winds turning, I worry about these poor people putting their lives in danger, I worry about how we are going to cope. Victims will have to be buried. Efforts are being made to create a new cemetery."

IMAGES OF lifeless refugees are becoming increasingly familiar.

Only a few months ago, photos of the body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach shocked millions and spurred calls for Europe's leaders to take action. But EU politicians have done little to address the crisis--preferring to play a sick game of "hot potato" and blame neighboring states for not doing enough to stem the crisis.

Rather than opening borders to ease the crush of refugees and migrants landing primarily in Greece and Italy, the leaders of EU governments have responded with lip service about respecting the human rights of refugees--while closing their borders and passing laws to bar refugees without "proper documentation" from finding shelter, accessing social services or even crossing through their countries on the way to other destinations.

The frustration at the lack of action is palpable for those attempting to address the refugee crisis on the ground. At a recent summit, EU leaders talked about "cooperation" and agreed to provide United Nations-aided housing for 100,000 people, half of them in Greece--but this is a drop in the bucket of what's needed. "Aid organizations say it barely addresses the problem of ensuring safe and legal routes for people to seek refuge," Reuters reported.

As Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe, said: "What we don't need in the wake of this tragedy is another 'extraordinary' meeting that leads to a dead end. What would be truly out of the ordinary--but completely necessary--is real and concerted action."

Peter Bouckaert, the director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian that all the way along the route into Europe through the Balkans, "there is virtually no humanitarian response from European institutions, and those in need rely on the good will of volunteers for shelter, food, clothes, and medical assistance."

THERE ARE also rising fears that, as more and more refugees are forced into overcrowded, undersupplied camps as they await processing or find their travel to other EU countries barred, already dire conditions will deteriorate further, leading to outbreaks of infectious diseases or violence.

According to the Guardian, for example, an estimated 42,000 to 50,000 refugees across Germany are being housed in tent cities--despite the fact that temperatures have dropped to near-freezing in many places. Additionally, human rights advocates say that young people--especially unaccompanied children and young women--are vulnerable to human trafficking, and in some cases are being forced into prostitution or slave labor.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras expressed frustration at the way EU leaders have left Greece to shoulder much of the crisis--at the very moment when those same leaders are pushing for greater austerity measures in Greece.

This is especially galling since the cause of the refugee exodus can be laid directly at the foot of Western imperial intervention in the Middle East. "I want to express...my endless grief at the dozens of deaths and the human tragedy playing out in our seas," Tsipras told Greece's parliament, adding, "The waves of the Aegean are not just washing up dead refugees, dead children, but the very civilization of Europe."

Referring to the fact that an estimated 80 percent of the refugee population currently seeking shelter in Europe is from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Tsipras went on to say that responsibility for the current humanitarian crisis lies squarely with Western countries, whose military interventions in the Middle East "were not to introduce democracy...but to serve financial interests...And now, those who sowed winds are reaping whirlwinds, but these mainly afflict reception countries."

As bad as the crisis is in Europe, it is worse in Syria itself and its neighbors, including Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, where the bulk of Syrian refugees are located and where promises of Western aid have failed to materialize. As the Independent reported:

Despite the promises of the UNHCR [UN High Commission on Refugees] and Western governments, the plain truth about the 4 million Syrian refugees living in makeshift accommodation is that they are facing an extremely bleak winter with only the flimsiest of defenses against the cold. The other, still more disturbing truth about the aid effort was revealed by the BBC recently: much of the money that Western governments have donated has been squandered, and in all events has failed to reach those most in need...

So as the first winter frosts begin to bite, the rains become heavier, the ground turns to mud and snow and storms loom, we witness the international community, through its principal agencies, failing utterly to protect some of the most vulnerable and desperate people on the planet.

THE OFFICIAL response from many of the EU's governments has been to go on the offensive against refugees--tightening borders, building fences, and increasing police and security personnel.

While the crackdown has been especially dramatic and severe in Hungary--where the right-wing government has passed laws allowing security forces to use increasing force against migrants and refugees--governments across Europe have attempted to discourage the influx of asylum-seekers through both physical and legal barriers.

On October 16, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that the country would close it border with Croatia to all migrants. The move came after the completion of a 216-mile razor-wire fence along the border--and after Hungary closed its border with Serbia in September.

In a chilling illustration of what might be in store if Fortress Europe continues to attempt to block the path of increasingly desperate people, an Afghan refugee attempting to cross from Turkey to Bulgaria was shot and killed on October 15 after a group of some 50 people allegedly refused a police order to halt. "This plan for barriers, fences and police cannot solve the problem of desperate people," Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Bulgaria, told Agence France Presse.

Yet the obvious fact that such measures won't stop refugees from knocking on the door of Fortress Europe won't stop governments from continuing to implement them--and attempting to make an example out of some.

The New York Times recently reported on the case of Abdul Rahman Haroun, a Sudanese refugee who "managed to reach Europe, get all the way to Calais in the north of France, then over the security fences and past police officers guarding the mouth of the Channel Tunnel and steer clear of 100-mile-an-hour trains to finally reach Britain."

Haroun, however, was caught by police before he left the tunnel--and for the past three months has been detained in prison, awaiting trial on a charge of "obstructing a railway carriage or engine." EU laws protect refugees from being prosecuted for illegally entering countries, so the decision to prosecute Haroun under this obscure law is clearly meant to send a message to the other 6,000 refugees currently estimated to be waiting in camps near Calais to make the crossing of the English Channel to Britain.

Even Germany, which has been more welcoming--however reluctantly--of refugees in comparison to other EU states, restricted the number of entry points for those crossing from Austria. At the end of October, Germany instituted a new rule that only 50 migrants an hour can cross into Bavaria at five border crossings with Austria--a restriction that migrant advocates say will create a potentially explosive bottleneck.

According to the Telegraph, Germany's border controls are escalating tensions with neighboring Austria, and the right wing is attempting to capitalize on fears that too many people are entering the country:

Tensions grew between Germany and Austria...when German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière accused Austria...of transporting asylum seekers to its 500-mile-long border at night without any warning. But the Austrian authorities hit back, with a police spokesman dismissing such accusations as "a joke" that Bavaria was unable to process the new arrivals, given that 11,000 people a day were entering Austria just at the Spielfeld crossing from Slovenia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was praised for defending migrant and refugee rights, hasn't been able to win agreement within her own center-right coalition government on how many migrants and refugees Germany should accept. One section of German capital is eager for migrants and refugees to fill labor shortage currently impacting the economy, but the right has been only too happy to exploit fears and scapegoat refugees.

Leaders of some of Europe's wealthiest nations continue to back away from any firm commitment to accept significant numbers of refugees, instead preferring to double down on attempts to discourage migration to Europe.

At a meeting in Brussels in mid-October, EU leaders agreed to offer the Turkish government 3 billion euros, plus visa-free travel to Europe for Turkish citizens beginning in 2016 and the resumption of negotiations over Turkey's bid to join the EU--in exchange for the Turkish government cracking down on refugees attempting to leave Turkey. This comes at the same time that the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is engaged in a brutal crackdown on the country's left and the Kurdish population.

THE INSULAR attitude of the leaders of Fortress Europe has made it more important than ever for the left to stand in solidarity with the refugees.

There are already countless small acts of support for refugees, like donating and volunteering to clothe, feed and house refugees in cities across Europe--as well as larger actions, like protests in defense of refugee rights that have drawn tens of thousands.

Another positive sign was the statement of "Diktyo Spartakos" ("Spartacus Net"), a formation of the anti-capitalist left inside the Greek army. Greek conscripts (Greece mandates a year of compulsory military service for men) expressed solidarity with the refugees and promised they would disobey orders to use the army against them. Among other things, the statement declares:

The Greek state and the army are part of the problem and not its solution...The Armed Forces call on us, the conscripted soldiers alongside professionals and officers, to make war on the "enemy within...

WE DON'T FIGHT, WE DO NOT SUPPRESS, WE DON'T HUNT DOWN MIGRANTS

We, the soldiers in struggle are against all this, against both their past and present crimes.

We call for a mass movement, both inside and outside the Army:

To block in any way we can Frontex, NATO, the European army, the actions of the Armed Forces as this massacre goes on. We don't participate in arrest patrols.

To assist in demolishing fences and not creating new ones. No soldier boards ships on missions against migrants...

We refuse to convert the Greek army into a repressive apparatus, whether that involves migrants or social movements...

We call on our colleagues to not only show compassion but to take note of our common class interests. It is the bourgeois institutions, bourgeois policies, bourgeois governments themselves which are destroying even our dreams.

Actions like this show an alternative to the current climate--one that builds solidarity across Europe in defense of refugee rights and demands a true humanitarian response in opposition to Fortress Europe.