Photo: © UNHCR/Mark Henley
Just in the past several months, hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing from war have risked everything for a chance to take refuge in the EU. The humanitarian crisis unfolding here has caught EU leaders unprepared although they had been warned for long.
But wherein lies the real crisis?
At Lund University this past Friday, a panel discussion open to the public featured three experts on human rights, migration, and humanitarian law. Theydiscussed the important concepts that everyone should know about the refugee situation in Europe. What does the law say and what can be done?
“There is a lot of talk about a refugee crisis in Europe, however the crisis isn’t only a numerical problem, but rather a crisis caused by a lack of coordination and solidarity from a number of European nations,” said Morten Kjaerum, Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
Eleni Karageorgiou, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law in Lund, said 25 years of European cooperation in the field of immigration and asylum have proved inadequate to guarantee a workable and just asylum system both for states as well as towards refugees. “The situation we witness today is symptomatic of a chain of short-sighted, interest-driven decisions that have led to a gradually dissolving legal framework,” she said.
Karageorgiou and Kjaerum were joined on the panel by Amin Parsa, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law at Lund University. “European borders will continue to claim life, not only in the Mediterranean Sea, but in the refugee camps and deportation centers, as long as human mobility is ‘illegalized,’” said Parsa.
The event was jointly organized by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and the Law Faculty of Lund University in cooperation with Jus Humanis.
When
Friday 18 September 16:15
Where
Pufendorf Auditorium Tryckeriet, Lilla gråbrödersgatan 4, Lund
Participants
Moderator and panelist:
Morten Kjaerum, Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Panelists:
Eleni Karageorgiou, doctoral candidate, Faculty of Law, LU
Amin Parsa, doctoral candidate, Faculty of Law, LU
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