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But European terrorism has been around since at least the 1960s, said O’Sullivan, recalling that as a boy growing up in Ireland, bombs were an everyday occurrence. “Terrorism is not a new phenomenon,” he said, ticking off the Irish Republican Army, Germany’s Baader-Meinhof gang and the Basque separatist group ETA. “We’ve overcome it in the past, and we’ll overcome it in the future. But the thing we must not do is fall into the trap set by the terrorists — of allowing them to divide our societies or to provoke us into excessive reactions which actually turn us into recruiting centers for those very same terrorist organizations.” O’Sullivan said the solution ultimately lies in stopping Syria’s civil war and getting urgent help to Syria’s neighbors, “which have borne the brunt of that crisis.” That includes overcrowded Lebanon, where Syrian refugees comprise a fourth of the country’s population, and Jordan, where one in seven inhabitants is now a Syrian refugee — as well as Turkey, which is home to 2.5 million refugees. “These people don’t want to leave their country. They’re being driven out of their country,” he said. “We have an obligation to show understanding for their situation and to respect our international obligations under the Geneva Conventions to protect and offer asylum to those people who are fleeing conflict and persecution. They don’t see a future for themselves as long as this conflict continues, so they turn to the next most attractive place, which is Europe.” Absorbing even 2 million refugees for a wealthy continent of 508 million inhabitants would not be too difficult on a continental scale, he said. “But unfortunately, we don’t manage refugees and asylum-seekers on a continental scale. We manage it at the level of each member state. Germany alone has had to absorb 1.2 million asylum seekers, which is equivalent to 5 million in the United States.” Far more dramatic is the case of cash-strapped Greece, whose 11 million people have absorbed 1 million Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi and other refugees; this is equivalent to the United States taking in 32 million desperately poor people. “If faced with a challenge on that scale, the U.S. would also have to struggle to find an immediate answer,” O’Sullivan said, adding that these refugees and asylum-seekers have legal rights. “When these people knock on your door, you cannot simply open the door and close it again, or give them a piece of paper and tell them to come back in a few years,” said the ambassador. “We are legally required to bring them in, look after them, house them, offer them shelter, medical needs and process their application for asylum in accordance with international law. We cannot pretend this is not happening.” But human rights critics say that
Ndumiso Mngadi of the Embassy of South Africa and Lungelo Mngadi.
under a new EU pact with Turkey, that’s precisely what is happening. Turkey has offered to swap refugees traveling the Mediterranean route to Greece for Syrian refugees already vetted in Turkey in a controversial deal that promises Ankara visa-free travel to the EU and sped-up talks on joining the bloc in return for clamping down on migration. Despite the criticism, O’Sullivan said that Turkey is key in the current attempt to slow down the exodus of asylumseekers. “Our objective is not permanent migration, but to create a peaceful situation in Syria to which they can return and build a future. We’re asking the Turkish authorities to help us block the cynical exploitation of these refugees by smugglers,” he explained. “We have said we will provide additional resources to help refugees already in Turkey. This money is not for Turkey or the Turkish government, but for the refugees. We’re trying to break the grip of smugglers and put in place a much more efficient and humane way of dealing with the refugee crisis.” What about Eastern European countries like Hungary, which have no tradition in general of taking in outsiders — and particularly Muslims — and have erected barriers to keep migrants out? “Some member states feel it is not fair to ask them to accept refugees who were not looking to go to their countries but who have landed elsewhere,” said O’Sullivan. “If you manage this on a continental scale, then 2 or 3 million refugees would not mean a very heavy burden for any one country. But if you don’t, then you necessarily push the responsibility onto the frontline states like Italy and Greece, or those countries that have announced a willingness to accept refugees, such as Germany or Sweden.” The dilemma, he admitted, has led to unprecedented disagreements following the European Council’s November 2015 decision to relocate 160,000 refugees throughout Europe. But some leaders, notably Hungarian Presi-
John Boothroyd of Rep. John Moolenaar’s (R-Mich.) office and Katherine Zublin of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
dent Viktor Orbán, oppose the mandatory quota plan and have called for a national referendum on the subject. “We have, for the first time in the EU’s history, a situation where some member states have said that, ‘Well, that may be a legal decision, but we don’t feel very comfortable implementing it.’ This is a very serious situation and we have to deal with it,” said O’Sullivan — though he added that ultimately, the EU itself is built on solidarity. “All of our member states come to Brussels at some point looking for help from other member states. That’s how we function,” he said. “We cannot ignore the pressure on frontline states, particularly Italy and Greece. We have to share this burden equitably or it will become unsustainable — but we cannot abandon our very important European commitment to humanitarian values. We have to show an example to the world.” WD
European Union Ambassador David O’Sullivan talks with news editor Larry Luxner.
The Embassy of Albania’s Eni Juca and Daniela Kristo Nesho, Lendita Haxhitasim of the Embassy of Kosovo and Mamica Toska of the Embassy of Albania.
Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat.
Maria Martinez of Border Federal Credit Union, Carlos Calderon of the OAS Federal Credit Union and Natalie Martinez of the European Union Liaison Office to Congress.
Stephanie Misar, Stephanie Fassier of the World Affairs Council and Daniel Siegeltuch of the World Affairs Council.
Rocio Velluttini of the Peru Trade, Tourism and Investment Office, Yaprak Servi of the World Bank and Luis Change of the Peru Trade, Tourism and Investment Office.
Wolfgang Köhling of the World Bank, Cristina Gospodin and Jennifer Logsdon of the Sofitel Washington, D.C.
Susan Kelly of Absolute Travel, Olivier Behra, Rebecca Martin and Losang Ragbeq.
THE WASHINGTON DIPLOMAT | JULY 2016 | 37