The Refugee Crisis
2019 marks the sixth year in a row where more than one thousand refugees and migrants die in the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to get to safety in Europe. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, also called UNHCR for short, is pressuring countries in the European Union to continue search and rescue operations. In other words, he wants to get EU countries to actively search for refugees in boats. Charley Yaxley (the spokesman for the UNHCR) said in a statement that "The tragedy of the Mediterranean should not be allowed to continue."
In my opinion the European Union should be obligated to help refugees. Not necessarily because of the immorality of this, which is another reason why they should. No, they need to help them because of one reason: The UN. When founded UN had many goals, but one of them stands above all: "Founded [...] by 51 countries committed to keeping international peace" (United Nations, 2015). By not helping these people they are going against their very own foundations.
Un.org. (2015). History of the UN | United Nations Seventieth Anniversary. [online] Available at: https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/history/index.html
Nypost.com. (2019). Migrant, refugee death toll in Mediterranean tops 1,000 for 6th year: UN.
[online] Available at:
https://nypost.com/2019/10/01/refugee-death-toll-tops-1000-in-mediterranean-sea-for-6th-year/
European Union. (2019). The history of the European Union | European Union. [online] Available at: https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/history_en
