Summary:
The present essay is a Thesis for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, Master’s Degree program in Disasters and Crisis Management Strategies for the educational year 2016 - 2017.
Its main and of most importance axis is the Refugee Crisis, which has mostly affected the countries of Southern Europe in the past two years. The above-mentioned Crisis has been one of the basic subjects of global concern since 2015. Millions of refugees having suffered for several years a series of adversities (civil wars, dictatorships, starvation, etc), decided that they had no other choice than to abandon their families, employments, homes and lives and flee to Southern Europe in order to reach their final destination, which would ideally be the countries of Central and Northern Europe.
Against peoples’ beliefs, however, the Refugee Crisis did not begin in 2015. The Mediterranean Sea was a tank of moving refugees from Syria, Lebanon, sub-Saharan Africa and Middle-East Countries to Europe since 2009, when the Arabic riots were noticed for the first time. The Crisis in Syria only increased an already existing problem, which led to a 42% increment in refugee movement towards Europe, 91% of which headed to countries geographically closer (Greece, Italy and Spain). The European Union in an (unsuccessful) attempt to fortify itself, built fences across the ground borders between Europe (Greece) and Asia (Turkey), later designed the project ‘’Mare Nostrum‘’, an undertaking, according to which Italian authorities guarded the Mediterranean Sea, whilst, enacting strict legislature concerning safety and measures for the redirection of the illegal aliens.
2015 was named ‘’Annus Horribilis‘’. More than 800 refugees lost their lives when the boat leading them to Italy sunk on April 19. To date it is considered to be the most horrendous tragedy ever occurred in the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the fact that, it was only a matter of time for it to happen, the European Union declared to be ‘’shocked and devastated‘’ and announced an extraordinary summit in order to take measures, due to the fact that, E.U. ‘’has the moral and humanitarian obligation to act‘’.
In the following six months, the Refugee phenomenon had an explosive growth. More specifically, Europe received one million refugees (of which 818.654 crossed the naval borders from Turkey to Greece) and the numbers only grew larger. Each day numerous families begun an extremely perilous journey to Europe, without documents, without being able to know if and when they would reach their destination, hoping to be accepted, with the only reassurance of their belief that they would be relocating in a (better) society.
During their provisional settlement in Greece, millions of refugees, who had just arrived after a very difficult journey (mostly by sea), needed to be fed, dressed, vaccinated, hosted, documented and somehow absorbed. The lack of designing such scenarios and protocols, the implantation gap from the directives ordered by the E.U. to what was actually implanted, and the strict measures that had been decided by the Lisbon Treaty, inevitably, led to absolute chaos. It was then that many Non-Governmental Organizations appeared in southern Europe offering supplies, manpower and expertise.
The role of Non-Governmental Organizations in the Refugee Crisis is the secondary axis in this paper. At first, the institution of NGOs is presented to the reader, highlighting their creation, their evolvement during the years, comparing their initial and current form. A Non-Governmental Organization is a legally formed group of people (mostly volunteers) that have no connections to states or governments and that do not seek profit for the aid and service they provide. In 2014 the estimated number of NGOs worldwide was estimated to be approximately 3.7 million, noting that in some countries, the NGOs are called NPOs (‘’Non-Profit Organizations‘’).
NGO’s appeared for the first time in the early 19th century. Since then they evolved and a great part of them (around 40.000) became international, but they never ceased to be non-profit organizations and independent of governments or political parties. Subsequently, the major international NGOs (and their work) are presented.
Moreover, the aforesaid Institution is examined in modern Greece, taking into consideration the amount of affection of the Financial Crisis, which began in 2010. However, there is no difficulty in founding a Non-Governmental Organization or a Non-Profit Organization, which in Greece are two different types of associations with the same result. This essay presents the legislative frame that regulates these types of organizations in Greece, the types of funding they may have and the judicial supervision which may refer merely to their non-profit goal and the services they provide. Lastly, the findings are compared to the corresponding results of other countries, a comparison from which a series of interesting conclusions are derived.
The present essay focuses on the meaning of the necessity of NGOs: Why do we, as a society, need them? How is this necessity interpreted? If all political mechanisms functioned properly or at least adequately, would we still need NGOs? Leaving the above rhetorical questions aside, it could be stated that ideally mankind should not need Non-Governmental Organizations.
The Refugee Crisis has an anthropocentric character. Consequently, the presented thesis studies the citizen, as a core of this crisis, his expectations of NGOs and how they interact with his social and psychological standards. Furthermore, the Press and Social Media’s influence on the public opinion is introduced with examples.
With all the previously presented facts, insight and sidelights, the Thesis ventures to deduce conclusions in an attempt to evaluate the work of Non-Governmental Organizations, the contribution of this Institution to society but mostly to the Refugee Crisis. Finally, having taken into consideration what is expected of NGOs, their capabilities and the actual aid they provide, a series of suggestions is presented in order to make their service more efficient and more fruitful, during Disasters and Crisis Management.
For all the afore-mentioned opinions and information, the writer conducted a thorough bibliographical and Internet survey, studying newspaper articles, magazines of relative issues, Press publications, Internet websites (mostly websites of Non-Governmental Organizations), textbooks and reference books, a full list of which is cited at the end of this essay.
