Scout Response to Refugees

The refugee crisis has been widely documented across Europe and the world. Thousands of people from Syria, North Africa and beyond have been finding any means necessary to make it to the safety of the EU. Sadly, some don’t make it, but for those that do what lies in wait for them in these foreign lands?

Unlike the arrivals lounge that many conventional travellers will be familiar with when reaching Europe, there is no Starbucks at the refugee transit centres, no warm embraces from a loved one or that comforting feeling of reaching ‘home’. For thousands of refugees there is the daunting feeling of a journey that has only just begun rather one that has now ended.

As for the Red Cross, UN agencies and governments across Europe the overwhelming task of organising the management of this crisis, and the people it affects, has been a difficult one with the focus being on logistics rather than a warm welcome, and quite rightly so. With thousands of people coming across the border everyday, the process needs to be a fluid one.