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Refugee crisis poses existential threat to EU: Former official

Saturday, 05 March 2016 8:25 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 05 March 2016 9:21 AM ]

Former Head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (photo by AFP)

EU leaders say the refugee crisis faced by Europe poses an existential threat to the European Union because it has given rise to vices which undermine the core concept defining the bloc.

“It’s the most serious crisis in many years the European Union is facing, probably even the most serious since the beginning of the process of European integration,” former head of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday.

According to the Portuguese politician, the crippling influx of asylum-seekers into Europe has revived “old demons of xenophobia and intolerance,” which militate against the idea of integrity.

Barroso said European states are now not just divided over the adverse economic impacts of accepting refugees, but are also split over whether to admit foreigners of a different religion or race.

“It has an existential nature because it is polarizing,” he said.

Refugees wait for food in a makeshift camp at the Greek Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, March 4, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The European Commission bureau of statistics, Eurostat, said in a report on Friday that some 1,255,600 refugees reached Europe in 2015, with more than a third of them going to Germany.

People from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan topped the Eurostat’s list of refugees, adding that some 30,000 asylum-seekers are currently stranded in northern Greece as a number of its neighbor states have imposed restrictions on their borders.

Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia decided to impose a limit of 580 refugee entries every day. Austria would also allow 3,200 refugees to enter the country each day.

Also on Friday, Slovenia’s parliament passed a bill that would make it harder for refugees to enter the country.

The bill simplifies the rejection process for refugees from certain countries, limits the appeal process in case of a rejection and also reduces financial aid for refugees and their families if the latter are also accepted.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Many blame Western intervention in conflicts in the Middle East as the main reason behind the departure of refugees from their home countries.

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