Migration it’s not a new problem, for the European Union(EU), it’s actually an old one which started many conflicts between themembers.

However the tremendous number of refugees that came in 2015, over theMediterranean, rekindle the conflict between those states that wanted to regainmore of their sovereignty. No one was prepared for the humanitarian crisisbrought by the Syrian Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead, and millions are now displacedand looking for asylum elsewhere.  Manyof these people risked their lives to come in the E.

U., although even moresought refuge in closer proximity. Syrians are now the largest refugeepopulation in the world, according to Marcy Corpse.

5.2 million persons wereforced to leave their homes. Turkey alone host now more than 3 millionrefugees, one in six people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee, and one in 14people in Jordan is a Syrian refugee.1The European Union is struggling, for several years, with a big wave ofmigration.

However, prior to the Syrian refugee crisis, the EU’s stance towardsthis situation was disappointing, constituted either by lack of common policiesin this direction, or measures orientated more on securing the bloc’s bordersthan on protecting the rights of migrants and refugees, according to AmnestyInternational. The best example in this sense is the reaction of our neighbouringcountry Hungary who constructed a big wire fence, that didn’t solve theirproblem with the migrants, and didn’t slow down the huge wave of people comingacross the Aegean from Turkey, escaping the wars in the Middle East. In this situation the number of first time asylumapplicants increased in the European Union by more than 150 % in the third quarter of 2015compared with the same quarter of 2014 and almost doubled compared with thesecond quarter of 2015, according to Eurostat statistics.

In order to come to Europe,this person’s risk their lives, and pay large amounts of money to smugglers,who take advantage of their despair. Europe is currently the most dangerousdestination for irregular migration in the world, and the Mediterranean Sea is theworld’s most dangerous border crossing, as stated in the InternationalOrganization for Migration. While Syrian refugees account for the vast majority ofnewcomers, refugees are also pouring into the EU from other conflict zones inAfrica and the Middle East. Mingled among them are migrants, from more politicallystable, but poor countries, which are running away from poverty. This huge wave of refugees and migrants coming in Europeplaced an enormous burden and pressure on EU migration policies, bordercontrols, human rights and the execution of international refugee and asylumlaws. This challenges that the refugee crisis brought have tested the Europeanvalues and principles to their very core, leaving many Europeans feeling thattheir way of life is being threatened. Also the states that received the bruntof the refugee wave, especially Greece, were hardly prepared to house, feed, oreven process this staggering number of people without additional help.Greece has not yet recovered from the Eurozone crisis,and is still on the brink of the abyss from an economic point of view, and isalso in a perpetual political unrest.

Therefore, it is no wonder, that the hugewave of Syrian refugees willing to cross the Aegean Sea risking their lives inprecarious boats took them by surprise. The situation on arrival of therefugees, particularly in Greece, has been extensively covered by mediareporting through the summer of 2015. Especially in the small island of Lesbos.

The people that arrived here, after a dangerous and tiring road at sea, havemet new obstacles such as poor organization, the absence of a first receptionmechanism, and limited qualified personnel and first response services (like coastguard, police, firefighters and medics). Also there for a long while there wasa complete absence of a national and European response. In 2015, the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), estimates that more than850,000 refugees and other migrants have entered the European Union throughGreece. More than half – slightly more than 500,000 – have arrived in Lesbosalone.

In this situation the intervention of volunteers and that of theNon-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and especially that of the Non-profitOrganizations NPO’s was more than welcomed. Ourcountry didn’t really had an official position regarding this refugee crisis until2015 when the EU who was struggling with a huge number of refugees opened a discussionabout how to distribute them within the members. Then the Romanian PresidentKlaus Iohannis declared in a press conference in July 2015 that ‘Romania is willing to take 1.785 refugees.

Not more!’. Romania wasnot highly affected by the refugee crisis. Our geographic position, the factthat we are not in the Schengen Area, and last but not least the fact that weare EU’s second-poorest country,have made us less attractive than the northern European countries. We were noteven a possible transit country because of our closed borders.

Although the BlackSea has been, and is still being used sometimes as a route for border crossing,it is even more dangerous that the Mediterranean Sea. Asa matter of fact Romania became more attractive for irregular migrants in thelast two years after the closureof the Balkan borders and the implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement from 18March 2016, according to which all new irregularmigrants crossing from Turkey into Greek islands as from 20 March 2016 will bereturned to Turkey.2In August and September 2017, five boats with a total of 476 persons (excludingthe alleged smugglers) arrived in Romania from Turkey via the Black Sea. All thepeople were from Iraq and Iran. Aside from one person crossing this way in2016, the previous boat using this route was in February 2015 and this year’s arrivalsare now higher than the 433 that crossed in 2014.

In addition to those who reachedRomania through this route, over 900 others attempted to cross and wereintercepted or rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard. 3According to the Romanian Frontier Police in 2015 they had 1.917 illegalmigrants attending to enter in Romania and this number increased to 2.362 in2016. On 8 September 2017 Romanian Coast Guard vessels are reported to haveblocked a boat on the Bulgarian coast preventing it from reaching Romanianterritorial waters and requested the intervention of the Turkish Coast Guard tointercept and return the group to Turkey. The Turkish Coast Guard subsequentlyreported disembarking 149 Syrian nationals from the vessel. On the same night,Bulgarian authorities reported a second vessel east of its coast and requestedthe Turkish Coast Guard to intervene.

A further 68 Syrians and two Iraqis weresubsequently disembarked in Turkey.424people are believed to have drowned and another 14 were missing when their boatcapsized off the Turkish coast en route to Romania this year according to UNHCRdata. And Today therefugee population in Greece: 62,000+ (over half of them women and children)According to IRC (International Rescue Committee).5 This paper will explore how the Syrian refugee crisishas exacerbated some of the European Union’s governance issues, and which wasthe contribution of the NPOs in solving some of them.

Did these NPOs provethemselves helpful or a hindrance in solving this crisis? What type of supportthey gave? Research for this paper will incorporate existingprimary and secondary data using peer-viewed literature on the subject. Datawill also be collected from EU, UN and NGO reports.1https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/iraq-jordan-lebanon-syria-turkey/quick-facts-what-you-need-know-about-syria-crisis2consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18/eu-turkey-statement3politiadefrontiera.ro/ro/garda-de-coasta/i-ambarcatiuni-cu-migranti-interceptate-si-blocate-de-politistii-de-frontiera-romani-in-marea-neagra-10364.html4sahilguvenlik.gov.tr/haberdetay/2017/eylul/08_EYLuL%202017_kKARADENiZeng.pdf5rescue.org