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EU must plan for refugees’ return once conflicts end: Analyst

Friday, 29 April 2016 9:00 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 29 April 2016 8:57 AM ]

Refugee men attend a silent protest at a makeshift camp for refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, April 23, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mike Harris, a political analyst, about the European Union (EU)’s way of handling the refugee crisis.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It is quite clear that the European refugee system and policies are pretty much in tatters. Now, in your opinion, how can the EU Parliament at the moment negotiate and navigate these troubled waters?

Harris: Well, the best thing that the EU can do right now is to outline a plan for return of the refugees after the hostilities cease in the war zones. Today, there is no plan to return these refugees. It’s unlimited. They move into the country and they stay there forever. The EU would be much more willing and much more compliant if there was an exit strategy that once the hostilities stop in Syria, in Iraq and other places, that there is a plan to return these refugees back to their homelands.

That would make it much more palatable, and much more agreeable for the citizens of the EU itself.

As far as Turkey goes, I mean Turkey should stop aiding ISIS and stop aggravating the situation there with allowing many materials to cross their territory… and in the violence in Syria, so that these refugees are safe to go home. That’s one of the direct actions that Turkey is responsible for and should take responsibility for is ending the material support for the terrorists.

Press TV: Now, apart from the root causes and the core issues that brought this tragic episode to pass, but don’t you think that the whole body of the European system, legally speaking and operationally speaking, needs to get its act together and do something in unison and arrive at consensual will to strike at the very heart of this problem? And we don’t seem to be there just yet.

Harris: Well, we don’t. Let’s ask ourselves: What responsibility does the EU actually have for this? They didn’t cause this war. They’re extending the welcome mat now and helping people who are in time of need. Do there need to be changes? Yes, there do need to be changes. And like I said, getting a return plan. That the plans, as they are right now, are incomplete, it takes refugees in. There is no plan to return them. And countries like Syria cannot afford to lose the human capital of a generation.

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