The Struggles of Refugees in Europe and the Role of Media on Exposing Them

Refugees Influence in Europe and The Media
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Refugees Influence in Europe and The Media
Soon after the end of the Second World War, Europe became a sanctuary for people fleeing their countries to escape the effects of wars, prosecution, and human rights violations. The Refugee Convention of 1951 and the 1967 Protocol were the first formal guiding principles established by the United Nations under the UNHCR to take charge of the refugee welfare and ensure that the international community abides by the standards and regulations that will ensure the rights of the refugee are protected (UNHCR, n.d.-b) As of 2020, the UNHCR reported a population of 12 million people to be of concern across Europe out of a total population of 82 million refugees across the globe (UNHCR, n.d.-a). The Internation Rescue Committee (IRC) is the other humanitarian group concerned with refugee welfare and its integration into the new societies.
Over the past decades, Europe has experienced an influx of refugees and those seeking asylum from countries stricken by violence, such as Greece, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan. This has had a massive impact on the European countries welcoming the refugees, both negatively and positively. The COVID 19 situation put a halt to the high influx of illegal immigrants entering Europe and those seeking asylum. According to statistics from the European Commission, there was a decline of 33 percent yearly, and a record low for six years running for the illegal immigrants entering Europe (European Commission, 2021). Despite the massive decline in the arrival of refugees amid the pandemic, some countries, specifically Italy and Malta, continue to receive irregular arrivals of refugees, some months registering a significantly high number of refugees. On the flip side, the pandemic has had a massive impact on the refugees already having sought refuge in the European countries or those trying to seek refuge despite the pandemic raging. According to BBC News (2021), thousands of refugees continue to languish in poverty in the U.K, while others in France are forced to live in improvised camps with the hope of crossing over to the U.K with their situations exacerbated by the COVID-19.
The media has an important role to play in exposing the unending struggles of refugees even after successfully finding refuge in the European nation. The post-COVID crisis that the refugees have had to face as reported by BBC News indicates that entry into a European country is not the end of the struggle for the refugees. They can sometimes become victims of poverty, indecent housing, become unaccepted in the host society, and even be stereotyped as criminal offenders (Eberl et al., 2018). All this information regarding the ordeals faced by refugees can only be made available to the public through the media, asserting the role that the media has on the overall issue of refugees. The media also can fuel the misinterpretation of refugee crises, bearing in mind that most media content bears misinforming content and may contain some element of hate speech (Eberl et al., 2018), thus contributing to the widening skepticism on issues to do with refugees.
The health care system across Europe has face...