BELGRADE (Serbia), April 13 (SeeNews) – Passing the responsibility for managing refugees and protecting EU borders on to the Western Balkans is neither fair nor without its own dangers, independent watchdog organisation Freedom House said.
The flow of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and North Africa in 2015 presented the European Union and its leading governments with an emergency that could not be contained with half-measures or delay, and the disjointed response they offered was plainly inadequate, Freedom House said in its latest Nations in Transit report issued on Tuesday.
Leading politicians in Central and Eastern Europe — backed by some counterparts in Western Europe - embraced xenophobia and nationalism, positioning themselves as protectors of their countries’ Christian identity against an “invasion” of Muslims, it added.
Europe’s disunity left the field open for populists, the organisation noted.
"In the Balkans, the leaders of Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro have turned the EU’s disarray to their advantage, trusting that its longing for stability will outweigh clear evidence of individual politicians and parties capturing the state to promote their own interest," it added.
Middle Eastern and African refugees movement into Europe in 2015 also overshadowed the outward migration from the Balkans, especially from Kosovo. In the first three months of 2015 alone, more than 50,000 Kosovars sought asylum in the European Union. As the number of Balkan applicants tapered off during the spring, the number of Middle Eastern refugees rose. By May, asylum applications from Syrians alone equaled those from all of the Western Balkans.
"The massive outflow of migrants from Balkan countries in the first half of 2015 should stand as a warning about the economic and political fragility of this region, which is increasingly trapped between Greece and the rest of the EU," Freedom House said.
In early September, the European Commission proposed adding all Balkan countries and Turkey to its list of safe countries of origin, meaning asylum applicants from those states could be returned automatically. In the next few months, the flow from the Balkans shrank to a trickle.
In December, Austria and Slovenia announced the strengthening of border controls and started building their own fences. While the flow slowed somewhat during the winter months, the EU is set to face the full consequences of its fitful actions this spring, the organisation warned.
Tension on Macedonia's southern border has been escalating over the past months after the government in Skopje, acting in line with an agreement with Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, decided to seal its borders to migrants, leaving thousands stuck in Greece.
In an attempt to find a solution to the aggravating refugees problem, last month the EU signed a deal with Turkey, under which Turkey should take back all migrants who arrive in Greece illegally and the EU in turn should welcome an equivalent number of Syrian refugees from Turkey. As part of the deal, the EU granted Turkey funding and lifted visa requirements for its citizens.
The deal with Turkey neither solves the problem nor complies with international law, Freedom House commented. By granting accession progress to Turkey’s deeply authoritarian government in exchange for a crackdown on refugees, the EU has undermined its moral authority and left itself vulnerable to blackmail.
In conclusion, the watchdog organisation said it sees the migration crisis as a threat to the survival of the overall European Union.