Trump signs order to bar some refugees; signals prioritizing Syrian Christians

Yes but often those placed are not suitable as they do not allow them to claim asylum, are dangerous to inhabit themselves or the asylum application is unreasonably long and they would struggle to survive it r navigate it (see: Italy). If you're from Eritrea, all the countries you pass through to Italy are dangerous (Sudan, Libya) but so are the surrounding nations: Ethiopia (refugee camp conditions are horrible and intended to be- people are starving there, they are not allowed to leave the camp, are not allowed to work, cannot access medical attention, schools, etc, and cannot be granted asylum), Djibouti (imprisonment in Ethiopia like camps) and Somalia. I mean, you could try to sail to Yemen, but you'll likely be picked up by the gov of Eritrea first (bad idea) or if not, die in a war torn hellhole.

Sudan is the only option, but due to conflict and the active and violent persecution of Eritrean refugees, never mind the fact that they can't claim asylum there, Eritreans have to move on. The CAR is dangerous, due to war and genocide you do not want roc cross the South Sudan border, Chad does not process asylum claims and violence against refugees is rife. Egypt or Libya are the only options. Egypt are more likely to stop you crossing the border, and arrest and imprison you after, but are less war torn than Libya, but neither are good options, and so most choose Libya for convenience; a growing number chooses Egypt.

In Egypt, new border security means it is incredibly unlikely you enter Israel. So you have to cross the sea to reach a safe place where you can claim asylum. Unfortunately, distance wise, this is more difficult than Libya, but you may reach Greece.

From Libya, Tunisia used to be an option, but better border security means entering is dangerous and difficult. Furthermore, ability to claim asylum is limited, and refugees in Tunisia are now often being resettled in European countries.

So crossing the ocean from Libya takes you to Italy or Greece (like with Egypt). Unfortunately, due to so many refugees like you, asylum procedures take forever, in fact, for a few years, it was legally accepted that Italy did not count as a safe country to return someone to because it was realised that people just couldn't be granted asylum. This leaves you in a limbo, with no rights, little access to food, medical care, education, welfare etc which means you rely on charities or suffer terribly, and don't access your key human right of asylum.

So you move on. From Italy, you get to a western country immediately pretty much. From Greece, most countries are not suitable due to not granting asylum or rather making this process accessible: see, for example, Hungary. Getting to a western or northern country is a guarantee of asylum rights and financial and medical support. However people can and do pass multiple countries which are suitable, in Eastern and Central Europe for example. Returning them may be right, but I think we can understand why someone escaping persecution, who risked their life and nearly died in an ocean crossing, would want to get the best result out of this? It's called being human. Legally, sending asylum seekers back to the first reasonably safe country (excluding Greece or risky who can't handle the crisis) is fine imo. But there's a reason why this is difficult to do for Western European countries....

1) many refugees don't know or realise they are in a safe country. If they pay a trafficker/agent, they may be in the back of a lorry for a month, at risk of suffocation, with no idea of where they are.

2) if they don't want to cross a border, the agent may force them across. You don't want them to be picked up by border security and blab your name, you want to benefit them in some way in order to ensure they keep silent as they've been implicated in an illegal crossing too. Punching, beating, kicking etc is used.

3) you may be trafficked. Children, teens and women are at a high risk of sexual trafficking, and all groups may fall prey to enslavement on cannabis farms, or into begging gangs. This often takes you across borders. You may not know where you are, or escape only in one country, or be allowed to leave only in one country, despite having been in many.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - reuters.com