In addition, the EU also should help create special economic zones with preferred trade status in the region, including in Tunisia and Morocco, to attract investment and generate jobs for both locals and refugees. EU aid today to Turkey, though doubled last week, still amounts to just €1 billion. If education, training, and other essential needs are included, the annual costs are at least €5,000 per refugee, or €20 billion. Thus far, only a fraction of the funding needed for even basic care has been raised. Second, the EU must lead the global effort to provide adequate funding to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey to support the four million refugees currently living in those countries. Placing refugees where they want to go – and where they are wanted – is a sine qua non of success. It is equally important to allow both states and asylum-seekers to express their preferences, using the least possible coercion. It can raise these funds by issuing long-term bonds using its largely untapped AAA borrowing capacity, which will have the added benefit of providing a justified fiscal stimulus to the European economy.Įnjoy unlimited access to the ideas and opinions of the world’s leading thinkers, including long reads, book reviews, topical collections, short-form analysis and predictions, and exclusive interviews every new issue of the PS Quarterly magazine (print and digital) the complete PS archive and more. The EU should provide €15,000 ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs – and to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states. And, to do that, it must share the burden fairly – a principle that a qualified majority finally established at last Wednesday’s summit.Īdequate financing is critical. Here are the six components of a comprehensive plan.įirst, the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future. This would distribute the burden of the Syrian crisis over a larger number of states, while also establishing global standards for dealing with the problems of forced migration more generally. Similarly, a European plan must be accompanied by a global response, under the authority of the United Nations and involving its member states. But other asylum seekers and migrants must not be forgotten. It is less disruptive and much less expensive to maintain potential asylum-seekers in or close to their present location.Īs the origin of the current crisis is Syria, the fate of the Syrian population has to be the first priority. To be comprehensive, the plan has to extend beyond the borders of Europe. The EU needs a comprehensive plan to respond to the crisis, one that reasserts effective governance over the flows of asylum-seekers so that they take place in a safe, orderly way, and at a pace that reflects Europe’s capacity to absorb them.
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