Politically the proposal to share the relocation of refugees across the EU could not come at a more difficult moment. Many governments have seen the dangerous rise of anti-immigrant politics. And in the UK, in the wake of an election in which immigration was an important subtheme, and in which the idea of a collective EU responsibility for anything remains toxic, it was never going to be the moment to countenance mandatory quotas of refugees, an idea to be launched by the EU Commission tomorrow.
Not that either of the two key components of EU strategy to deal with the Mediterranean crisis are easy for anyone. Ireland has nervously agreed in principle to take some of the refugees, but how many is not clear, and is not keen on mandatory quotas. And although the press was yesterday suggesting all 28 member states back the UN resolution allowing the sinking of smuggler ships on the Libyan coast, at most 10 states are willing to take part, Ireland not included.
The commission paper is far more radical and blunt than expected. It argues that “the EU needs a permanent system for sharing the responsibility for large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers.” By December, it will table new legislation for agreement by ministers “for a mandatory and automatically-triggered relocation system to distribute those in clear need of international protection . . . when a mass influx emerges ... There must be safe and legal ways for them to reach the EU.”
The moral argument for sharing the burden is overwhelming – there is rightly an international humanitarian obligation to protect and house those fleeing persecution or war. And being part of the EU means accepting that the problems of fellow member states are the problems of all. Solidarity is a fundamental pillar of the common EU project.
But the devil is in the detail. The “distribution key” allocating individual member states their “share” of the burden is fiendishly contentious – should it be determined by GNP, population, unemployment levels, previous efforts . . .? And there is an important legal distinction between rehousing some of the thousands languishing in camps in Turkey or Jordan from the Syrian war, and those who have already arrived by various means in the EU. Nor does the commission proposal touch on numbers – initial figures of 5,000 were seen by some as too much, but by others as deeply inadequate. The UNHCR has backed a yearly EU target of 20,000 resettlement places, but better to fudge the issue until the principle is agreed . . .
Ireland should respond with generosity by backing the commission wholeheartedly. This country has known too well the pain that drives forced migration. We owe it to our own lost generations to provide succour to those who flee today’s wars and calamities.