Refugees

The right to asylum is not a numbers game, it is a human right.

What responses are being prescribed by Greens who hold office in places heavily affected by these developments?

The influx of refugees to the shores of Greek islands has generally been met with overwhelming support from locals, eager to provide much needed aid to the refugees.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a coalition of Left-wing, Kurdish and progressive parties, was founded in in 2012 in order to help smaller parties amplify their voices and gain access to the Turkish Parliament, where the electoral system stacks the odds strongly against them. In both the 2014 and subsequently recalled 2015 parliamentary elections, the party succeeded in winning over 10% of the vote, the necessary threshold for entering Parliament.

The conflicting messages of welcome displayed by the German government towards refugees is hindering integration processes, for the state, the refugees and the citizens. For the sake of all three, accepting the situation is the only way of moving forward.

The response of the EU to the arrival ‘en masse’ of refugees in need of a safe haven has left much to be desired, and some leaders have used the issue of security threats as an excuse to avoid taking up their responsibilities to provide humanitarian assistance. But until European leaders and citizens join the dots between the complex but interlinked issues of migration and climate change, a secure environment will remain out of reach for all of us. An interview with Bodil Valero, Green MEP for Sweden.

Europeans have to make their societies genuinely inclusive, and Greens could play a constructive role in making this work – says Green MEP Jean Lambert, in an interview with the Green European Journal, which touched on Jeremy Corbyn, Calais and the British response to the refugee crisis.

The idea that the war in Syria can be partially explained by climate change is one that is often overlooked. The connection between conflict and climate change – whether it’s down to drought, food scarcity, or environmental degradation to homes – is stronger than it appears, and is one that needs to be urgently addressed before it is too late.

This year, hundreds of thousands of refugees have entered the EU in the hope of a new life and a safer future for themselves and their families. However, instead of welcoming them, European politicians are trying to keep them out EU territory, or at least away from their own countries.

The European Union today is witnessing an ideological battle over its economy and politics. A cycle of austerity, fuelled by short-sightedness and irrationality, is creating a major setback for European integration and driving disillusioned citizens to turn away from the European project in even greater numbers. While dissenting voices and visions are silenced, this amounts to an attack on democracy and solidarity. An interview with Mar Garcia Sanz and Ska Keller.