In the years that followed some of the worst atrocities in human history — the Holocaust and the Second World War — statesmen from Europe and the rest of the world tried to create a planet in which it would be harder to repeat such ethical catastrophes. In 1948, our ancestors created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which among other things upheld access to asylum as an incontestable human right.
In 1951, they came together again to create the United Nations refugee convention, the document that — to this day — provides the legal basis for signatory countries to offer asylum to refugees arriving on their soil. The latter was by no means solely a European project, nor was it solely an altruistic gesture. It was in part a pragmatic response to a postwar dynamic which had led to an estimated 12-14 million people being displaced across Europe, in a refugee crisis far worse than today’s.
But, like the 1948 declaration, the 1951 refugee convention was the product of a time when European leaders attempted to build a more peaceful continent. A continent whose countries would not sit idly by as humanitarian crises occurred on their doorstep. A Europe whose countries would not turn Jews away from their borders, as some states did in the late 1930s. At least in part, leaders were motivated by a desire not to return to the ethical nadir of the pre-war years when, among other failures, western countries gathered at the Evian conference of 1938 and decided against accepting more than a token number of Jewish refugees.
In short, documents like the 1951 convention were “milestones of humanity”, as a UN spokesperson told me in January. They were created on the basis that, whatever the cost, there are some eternal values that are worth upholding in a civilised society. Later adopted by all EU states, the 1951 convention is arguably therefore integral to the identity of a post-war Europe which sought to rectify the mistakes of the past.
Less than 70 years later, Europe faces throwing much of this progress away, and returning to the ethical disasters of the 1930s. The proposed migration deal between the EU and Turkey is still being thrashed out and may yet stall. But as it stands, it would, according to refugee rights specialists, break the terms of the 1951 convention. The deal would see all would-be refugees returned without assessment to Turkey, a country where most refugees lack full access to things they are meant to be guaranteed under the 1951 treaty: Jobs, education — and often safety. Rights groups have also accused Turkey of sending some refugees back to war zones including Syria .
Under a one-in one-out mechanism, for every Syrian sent back to Turkey after arriving in Greece, a Syrian would in theory be flown to Europe from Turkey. But since those returned from Greece would go to the back of the queue of those being transported on to Europe, the EU has now clarified, the policy is likely to discourage illegal boat crossings between Turkey and Greece — limiting the potential success of a one-in one-out system. It’s easy to get bogged down in the detail, but the broader picture is clear.
As it stands, the deal would risk betraying elements of the world that Europeans fought to build following the end of the Second World War. “It’s a really grim deal,” John Dalhuisen, Europe director for Amnesty International, told me last week. “It’s being celebrated by people who are dancing on the grave of refugee protection. If it applied in its absolute sense, then the number of refugees that Europe would take would depends on the number of refugees prepared to risk their lives through other means — and that is staring at a moral abyss.”
Many of the enlightened international treaties created in the 1940s and 1950s were made with the knowledge that they would be accompanied by administrative and financial burdens. World leaders, nevertheless, realised that this was a price worth paying for legislation that upholds ethical norms. Their successors have forgotten this lesson — even though the administrative challenges Europe now faces in welcoming refugees are far smaller than those of the late 1940s. (Ironically, its new strategy may also add to these challenges, if refugees simply decide to try other routes into Europe.)
Today, Europe is emerging from a financial crisis, but it is in a far stronger state than the continent of the post-war period and must deal with a far smaller number of refugees. One million came by sea last year, a 12th of those displaced after 1945. Just as many refugees currently live in dysfunctional Lebanon (population 4.5 million) as we now have in the world’s richest continent (population: 500 million). “Never again” was a commonly expressed sentiment in the aftermath of the Second World War. “Once again” might turn out to be a better slogan for our own times.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
Patrick Kingsley’s book about the refugee crisis, The New Odyssey, will be published in May.
