The Syria conflict, which began in 2011 with nonviolent civilian protests and then escalated into a proxy war of powers for control, has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.
More than 7.6 million Syrians now are internally displaced and more than 4.3 million have fled the country (1)—mainly to neighboring countries Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, but also across the sea to Europe. As a result, most of the population is in need of urgent humanitarian support for all aspects of life.
In attempting to grapple with this catastrophe, the 28 European Union member states significantly differed from each other. These distinctions are obvious both in the amount of humanitarian aid given made to the region, and in numbers of Syrian refugees accepted.
Overall, as a continent, much more could be contributed and is expected. However, notwithstanding some areas in need of improvement, the Swedish humanitarian response, including its asylum system, is considered one of the best in the EU and the world as a whole.
The goal of this report is to shed light on the Swedish response in dealing with the Syrian crisis as a model that can be adopted, at least partly, on both European and global sphere. We hope that this report will attract the international community’s attention who has the responsibility to deal with this humanitarian global catastrophe. Specifically, the European Union countries, therefore we hope that this report will be discussed in the European Parliament. Moreover, the report is also aimed to highlight the problematic areas that occur in the Swedish System during handling the crisis, in order to avoid same problems from continue happening further.
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