Europe Must Take on its Share of the Syrian Refugee Burden, But How?

While peace talks between Syria’s government and opposition bumped along in Geneva, battles raged on the ground and the death toll and the refugee wave both rose. Europe wanted its voice to be heard in the talks, but could it keep its eyes — and borders — closed to the men, women, and children fleeing Syria? How could Europe better respond to the human and political disaster looming on its external border? Europe had only taken in a small segment (2.9 percent) of the overall Syrian refugee population and European nations had responded to the refugee crisis in an uneven fashion. While asylum opportunities offered to Syrians in Europe had grown, these opportunities had not kept up with the war and obstacles that Syrian asylum seekers met on their way to the EU had increased. Europe was currently discussing burden-sharing, or ' responsibility-sharing ' between those member states that were geographically exposed to irregular entries, and those that were not. While this discussion would be crucial to improve the Common European Asylum System, its results would come too late to address a refugee crisis that risked undermining or even overturning fragile states in the Middle East. The situation was grim, and the near future promised to see the conflict get worse, if anything.

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