Solidarity of EU Member States During the Migration Crisis. Humanitarian Aspect – the Case of Greece

Abstract

This article focuses on the solidarity of EU member states with the so-called “front” country, Greece, which found itself during the migration crisis in 2015 and in the following years on the most burdened East-Mediterranean route, i.e. the route by sea from Turkey to Greece and onwards to various European Union countries. Refugees from Syria but also from Iraq and Afghanistan continue to arrive along this route. The destinations for boats carrying immigrants and refugees via Turkey to Greece are the islands in the Aegean Sea including the island of Lesbos whereon the infamous Moria camp still plays a special role. The island which hosts Moria is the subject of European solidarity research with Greece. The structure of this article consists of three parts. The first discusses the principle of solidarity which, like any community, lies at the heart of the European Union. Part Two deals with the migration crisis and its challenges regarding the solidarity of EU Member States from Greece. The third part focuses on the humanitarian consequences of the lack of solidarity between EU member states and Greece. The source material is scientific publications on the EU, information from EU portals and press agencies and their recordings of developments in Greece related to the infl ux of immigrants along the Eastern Mediterranean route along with the author’s own observations of the Moria camp during a visit at the end of November 2019. This article also partly refers to the new humanitarian challenges arising in the context of the situation of immigrants on their way to Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).