The EU has begun legal action against against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for refusing to accept refugees under a 2015 solidarity plan. The migration commissioner of the EU, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that the three countries had ignored 'repeated calls' to take their share.
The three states could be referred to the European Court of Justice and eventually face heavy fines. Only 20,869 of the 160,000 refugees have been relocated in the EU so far, and the western media appears largely to have forgotten about the plight of refugees.
What is the background to the relocation plan?
The 2015 relocation plan was made in response to the so-called international 'refugee crisis', in which there was a large influx of migrants and refugees. It was agreed in an attempt to relieve pressure on certain countries, mainly Greece and Italy, where the vast majority of migrants were arriving.
EU countries agreed to relocate 160,000 asylum-seekers between them, though Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary voted against accepting mandatory quotas.
The UK and Ireland were exempt from the original 2015 proposal, while Poland's previous government backed the plan, though its current, Eurosceptic administration has since rejected it.
Hungary and Poland have received none, while the Czech Republic has accepted only 12 of the 2,000 it had been designated.
What is the Turkish connection?
A year after a separate, controversial deal between the EU and Turkey blocked the flow of asylum seekers into Europe, tens of thousands are stuck in camps, with suicides and trauma reportedly on the increase there.
Since the Balkan migration route was closed in March last year, and the EU-Turkey accord drawn up a few days later, around 62,000 have been left in limbo in Greece, 14,000 of them on the islands of the eastern Aegean, where they arrived after crossing by boat from Turkey. Some 8,000 asylum seekers, meanwhile, are stranded in Serbia.
What was the accord between Turkey and the EU?
On March 18, 2016, the EU and Turkey agreed a joint statement which sought to implement policies that would stem the flows of asylum-seekers and migrants crossing from Turkey's shores to the Greek islands.
In exchange for visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the EU, a revival of negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU, and billions of euros in financial assistance to Turkey, it was agreed that Greece would return people who arrived irregularly on its shores after March 20, 2016. The agreement also provided for a 'one in, one out' policy under which, for every Syrian who traveled irregularly from Turkey to a Greek island, another Syrian would be resettled to the EU.
What have been the results of the accord?
While EU leaders have presented the policy as a success, heralding a decrease in the number of arrivals on the Greek islands since March 2016, campaign groups say that the policy has also left thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers stranded in Greece and has eroded the right to seek asylum in Europe.
By February 27 of this year, 3,565 refugees had been resettled to the EU under that arrangement.
What other hidden problems are there?
There is the huge psychological cost. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently documented a 2.5-fold increase in the number of refugees suffering from anxiety and depression and a threefold increase in the number of people with post traumatic stress disorder between the start and the end of 2016.
As well as mental distress, asylum seekers who are stuck in the Balkans have reported being beaten up by police and border guards, bitten by police dogs and repelled with tear gas and pepper spray.
'The deal is having a direct impact on the health of our patients, and many are becoming more vulnerable. These people have fled extreme violence, torture and war and survived extremely dangerous journeys,' said Jayne Grimes, an MSF psychologist working on the Aegean island of Samos.
What do the experts say?
Christian Aid's Refugee Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Fraser Murray says: 'The global displacement situation has not changed much in the last twelve months. In Europe there has been a marked decrease in the number of people arriving via Greece, yet number of migrants arriving via Italy has not decreased (in the last seven years). This drop in numbers is almost solely related to the EU extra territorial border controls and the EU-Turkey deal which came into effect earlier this year. It has nothing to do with the end of the conflicts that cause people to become displaced.
'The number of displaced globally has in fact risen in the last year. Around Syria the number of people who have fled the conflict has risen. The UN is in a two-year process of developing and signing two compacts; one on refugees and another on migration. Unfortunately neither of these compacts will address the largest number of the global population who are forcibly displaced; these are what is known as Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). Of the global displaced population which is over 65 million, approximately 43 million are IDPs, yet there is little being done by the international community to address this situation. Countries such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, DR Congo, Colombia as well as central American states have shown a rise in IDPs in the last 12 months.'
Sarah Rowe, also of Christian Aid, adds that most people who have been forcibly displaced remain in their own country and therefore do not get the attention or support from the international community that they need. 'Most of those that do cross a border remain in countries nearby and therefore poor countries are bearing a disproportionate burden in offering support to refugees,' Rowe says.
'Humanitarian, refugee and aid systems are currently unable to cope with such large-scale displacement. UNHCR reports that it is consistently underfunded. The international community needs to find a fair way of sharing responsibility for people forcibly displaced from their homes. Next September, the UN is calling a summit to agree two new compacts on refugees and migrants. Countries should ensure the UN Compacts increase support and recognition for internally displaced people and host communities, by providing predictable and appropriate financing to programmes for short- and long-term support to refugees and other displaced people.'
