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NATO wars root cause of refugee crisis in Europe: Analyst

Friday, 04 March 2016 5:46 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 04 March 2016 5:45 AM ]

Refugees gather near a gate of the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 3, 2016. ©AFP

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gearoid O Colmain, a political analyst and journalist from Paris, and Jonathan Fryer, a writer and lecturer from London, to discuss the EU’s response to the inflow of refugees into its borders.

Colmain says although European states lack a “coordinated strategy” in their immigration policies, the current refugee crisis in the continent stems from the NATO-sponsored wars that are uprooting people from their homelands.

The Western military alliance has a hand in the Syria crisis and “most of the wars that we see right across the world,” he says.

He further points to the 2013 revelations by the former French minister, Roland Dumas, who said the crisis in Syria had been planned with the help of Britain some two years prior to its outbreak in 2011, blaming the warmongers in Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv for the chaotic situation in Syria.

Turkey is also using the exodus of refugees into the country as leverage to put pressure on the European Union and gain membership of the 28-nation bloc, according to Colmain.

Fryer, for his part, emphasizes the need for a “coordinated” European response to the refugee crisis unfolding in the continent, saying the Turkish government should also be involved in the process.

Such a response could include the establishment of refugee camps inside regional countries such as Turkey and Lebanon, Fryer adds.

“The only solution is to make sure there is a lasting peace” in the entire region, particularly Syria and Iraq; otherwise, the violence-stricken asylum seekers will keep flooding the European borders, he concludes.

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