Critics of migration often ask: why don’t refugees just stay in the first safe country they come to? Why are they coming to northern Europe, passing through conflict-free Greece, Italy and France?
One of the answers from many of the people I’ve met in camps or living on the streets in Greece and Italy is that their most desperate wish is to join family. If you are building a new life, it’s natural that you want to go where you know people who care about you and will help you.
The story of refugees in Europe over the past decade has often been a very depressing one, highlighted again this week by the stories of refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean while countries declared their seaports “unsafe” due to the pandemic, closing their borders to migrant landings.
After a brief period in 2015 when thousands of people moved freely to northern Europe, most safe routes have closed down, and new arrivals now spend many months in the dirty and dangerous camps of the Greek islands. Under European law you are supposed to apply for asylum in the first European country you enter.
But there is one glimmer of hope. Vulnerable asylum seekers, including children, can apply to have their asylum claim transferred to another EU country where they have close family.
Last week a group of British refugees travelled to Heathrow to meet husbands, wives, nephews and siblings from a specially arranged flight out of Athens. For those on the flight it was an incredible moment, the end of months of living in camps.
One pair of brothers who were finally reunited had been in contact with me for a few months, sharing their deep disappointment when family reunions ground to a halt because of Covid-19.
Ahmed has been working nights while studying in college to bring his brother over from Greece. He told me from his home in the north of England: “I have everything ready for him, we will just sit and talk.”
Harriet Grant, reporter, Human Rights in Focus
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