This past Sunday saw a stunning defeat of Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at the hands of an ascendent radical right-wing party known as the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD).

The local defeat took place in Merkel’s own parliamentary constituency in the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. While the results do not threaten CDU’s hold on power nationally, they provide a sobering look at voter sentiment just a year out from national elections.

Merkel’s governing party not only fell behind AfD in this past weekend’s elections, but was also defeated by the center-left Social Democrats, leaving CDU in third place in what has historically been a safe district for the party.

Analysts point to the Germany government’s policy on refugees as the primary catalyst for the rise of populist, anti-immigrant sentiment among the nation’s population. Frauke Petry – leader for the AfD – credits Merkel’s open border policy for her own party’s success:

The CDU is falling apart, but not only [in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania]. We see that in many regions of Germany where the CDU bases, the party bases, don’t agree with Merkel’s policy anymore. We want that the German government closes German borders to illegal migration… We need controlled borders. We need a change of legislation on a German level, but also an EU level, to avoid illegal migration.

CDU candidate Lorenz Caffier agreed, stating that “there was only one subject during the campaign, and that subject was the refugee policy. The refugee question was decisive.”

In 2015, Merkel’s government accepted more than 1 million refugees – mainly Syrians fleeing the intractable conflict in their home country – making it the single most open nation in Europe. Over the past year, several attacks linked to Islamists have heightened fears of immigration and provided fuel for nationalists to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

Far from being unique, Germany is a piece of a larger puzzle. Far-right nationalist parties are succeeding across Europe. In France, the National Front has made great strides in recent years, taking advantage of voters’ insecurities stemming from immigration and terror attacks.

Earlier this year, Petry sparked outrage when she suggested that the border patrol shoot immigrants attempting to cross illegally into Germany. This language is a big deal. Since the horrors of WWII, Germany has celebrated a culturally liberal spirit that has shamed many other nations with an emphasis on multiculturalism and acceptance.

These historical tendencies – however – are now under threat from rising populist parties that offer few solutions to their voters’ economic and cultural fears other than promises of international isolation and the marginalization of disadvantaged communities. While the issues that have caused the largest displacement of people in a century are complex and variegated, further disenfranchising desperate populations will only abet the very terrorists that have contributed to refugees’ plight.

Not only is a more humane treatment necessary to promote the general social good, but it’s integral to any meaningful security policy designed to keep Western nations safe.

(Milana Vayntrub speaking at VidCon 2012. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore)

Following a recent trip to Greece, Milana Vayntrub – the actress who plays the buoyant shop clerk in AT&T commercials – has found a new cause: the Syrian refugee crisis.

The actress was once a refugee herself, fleeing Russia as a child in the 1980s. In an essay for the website Popsugar, she writes:

My family fled the Soviet Union because of hostile circumstances for Jews in the late ’80s. I was too young to remember details of the yearlong journey, but my parents have told me stories about the poverty and constant uncertainty they faced before we were lucky enough to settle in Los Angeles.

With this experience in mind, Vayntrub was struck by the plight of Syrian refugees in Greece, who often risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean on rafts. According to the European Union’s border control agency – Frontex – 131,724 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2016. The vast majority of these refugees have arrived in Greece, a nation still in the throes of a debt crisis and bruising austerity imposed by EU fiat. The prime minister of Germany Angela Merkel has recently underscored the additional assistance that the Hellenic Republic needs to cope with the ongoing crisis.

In her essay, Vayntrub describes the scenes in Greece that compelled her to not only ditch her vacation and help in the moment, but to also create a new nonprofit as well:

I’d never seen anything like it. As we rushed to the shore, people stepped off the rafts, some in tears, some celebrating. They passed their children off the boat to volunteers before jumping into the water themselves. Some people collapsed as they got off the boat because their legs had gone numb from spending an hour with 50 people on a raft only meant to carry a dozen. On the shore, volunteer doctors checked the babies’ temperatures and dried them off. I tried to contain my shock and concern, focusing on greeting people with a smile and a warm hug.

Moved by the experience, Vayntrub founded #CantDoNothing, a nonprofit campaign to raise awareness of the Syrian refugee crisis and to raise money for affiliated organizations working to ameliorate migrants’ tenuous and dire situation.

“I learned a lot in Greece,” writes Vayntrub, “One of the biggest lessons was that everyone has something powerful and important to contribute — something that can make the world a little (or a lot) better.”

Read the whole essay here and visit #CantDoNothing to learn how you can help.

(A Hungarian police officer stands in front of Syrian refugees made to disembark a train en route to Germany)

Tensions are mounting in Europe, where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have sought stability and security after fleeing their home country, which is embroiled in an ongoing civil war fought amongst a dizzying array of factions.

On Monday, French authorities cleared a highly publicized refugee camp in Calais – a town situated on the English Channel in the north of France.

The camp in Calais – pejoratively known as “the jungle” and housing an estimated 4,000 migrants from across the Middle East and Africa – was torn down following a court order that denied an appeal filed by nonprofit organizations that sought to stay the order. While many of the residences inside the camp were destroyed, the order prevented the demolition of religious centers, schools, and medical facilities set up in the area.

One photo taken of the eviction shows a camp resident holding a sign that reads “we are not terrorists so don’t destroy our homes” as he flees a water canon deployed by French authorities against migrants protesting the camp’s demolition.

The government’s decision to destroy the camp essentially kicks the can down the road, as European governments continue to drag their feet on a united and comprehensive plan to deal with the refugee influx.

Many migrants – especially young refugees – have already moved to a camp located in Dunkirk, which nonprofits say has even worse conditions and poses a serious sanitation emergency with about one toilet for every 100 refugees. Mathieu Balthazard – an aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the non-governmental organizations working to help refugees – remarked on the makeshift community in Dunkirk:

It is truly exceptional to see a camp like this. I have seen a camp in Ethiopia which had mud like this, but here it is worse: there is less organization. It is becoming more and more shocking every day.

While many refugees have been accepted by EU member countries, there are a number of signs that individual governments are at the breaking point. Sweden – famed for its strong humanitarian position and open border policy for refugees – has enacted identity checks on trains and border crossings and has announced plans to stop accepting new refugees. Austria has introduced border controls. Italy and Greece – cash-strapped EU member states that have borne the brunt of the crisis – received more than 110,000 refugees in the first two months of 2016 alone.

Outside of logistical issues posed by what some analysts are calling the greatest displacement of people since WWII, the influx of Syrian refugees has stoked racial tension, with far-right nationalist politics on the ascent across Europe. In Germany, there have been more than 200 arson attacks on refugee centers, raising eyebrows in a country that – in acknowledgement of its role in the Holocaust – has long boasted a strong track record on tolerance and the respect of human rights.

While governments struggle to muster a unified response to the crisis, there are many organizations and individuals stepping up to ensure that migrants stuck in this tortuous limbo receive bare necessities including food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Charity Navigator has a list of vetted, highly credible organizations working to ease the plight of Syrian migrants. A number of US organizations are stepping up as well, accepting donations to help provide basic needs assistance and educational opportunities for children caught up in the crisis.

Nonprofits are now mixed up in the dispute over Syrian refugees. As leaders representing well over half of the 50 U.S. states have announced their opposition to accepting Syrians displaced in their country’s intractable conflict, organizations have begun receiving official requests to desist from settling Syrians. These letters amount to state interference with nonprofits’ operations.

In the wake of the Paris attacks, the rhetoric in the United States concerning the asylum of stateless refugees has reached a fever pitch, with political leaders and pundits voicing concerns that some refugees could be affiliated with ISIS – the terrorist organization responsible for the carnage in France. Donald Trump – the current frontrunner in the GOP presidential race – has referred to the acceptance of refugees as a “Trojan Horse” for terrorist cells entering the United States.

The process through which Syrians can gain entry into the United States takes between 18 months and three years, and involves intensive screening from multiple government agencies.

The protest of state governors is largely toothless, as elected officials possess little power to actually bar refugees approved by the federal government from entering the United States. They can, however, make the situation more difficult, redirecting funding from state-level refugee agencies. They can also bully nonprofit organizations working to help the settlement for approved refugees as painless as possible.

Greg Abbott – Governor of Texas and vocal opponent of accepting Syrian refugees – sent letters to nonprofits in his state that work with refugees asking that they refrain from working with Syrians. While the letters contained no actual legal power to stop nonprofits’ work, several groups capitulated to the demands.

Syria’s refugee crisis is a big test for nonprofits, as articulated by Rick Cohen in The Nonprofit Quarterly.

Cohen:

If the U.S. slams the door on desperate Syrian refugees, the nonprofit sector that claims to represent openness, inclusion, and democracy will find its credibility seriously damaged should it fail to do whatever it can to confront the politicians using fear and hatred as a tool for political advancement.

Whether or not nonprofits stand up to state pressure, the current situation by itself taints the United States’ self-avowed openness to accepting deserving immigrants into the nation’s storied cultural melting pot. Passionate nonprofit professionals committed to the social good need to stand up in the face of fear and anti-democratic bullying and pursue their missions with clear eyes and a sense of human decency.

In recent weeks, Shaping the Story has looked at the ongoing refugee crisis stemming from the conflict in Syria. Relief agencies are struggling to cope, having raised only a fraction of the funding necessary for the massive scope of operations required to deal with the situation.

A new partnership is looking to buck the trend, raising money from U.S. citizens to help support the millions impacted by the intractable Middle East conflict.

After being contacted by the White House, crowdfunding website Kickstarter has teamed up with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to raise money on behalf of Syrian refugees. The Guardian will contribute video reporting on the crisis to be featured on the campaign page.

The alliance correlates with the Kickstarter’s new socially oriented direction. Recently reincorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation, Kickstarter possesses a charter requiring it to invest in nonprofits and expend resources on social good causes. The partnership will surely satisfy a portion of the company’s obligations.

It remains unclear if Kickstarter will profit from the campaign, or if all resources raised will go to relief efforts.

As governments in Europe struggle to produce a unified response and raise the requisite funding, this development is a welcome addition to humanitarian relief efforts. The world is witnessing the single greatest displacement of people since World War II. Many countries receiving massive influxes of refugees – from Turkey to Greece, Italy to Lebanon – are so cash-strapped that they cannot provide meaningful unilateral assistance.  The situation is exacerbated by xenophobic tension in host countries, evident in the hostile reception of refugees in countries such as Hungry.

Desperate people are also subjected to risky, potentially lethal migrant routes. Mediterranean raft travel has grown in frequency, as refugees try to land in European Union nations. This has resulted in a number of tragedies, including drownings. This horrific reality was documented in the widely circulated image of a drowned Syrian boy discovered on the coast of Turkey.

While a truly impactful approach will require the collaboration and robust efforts of world governments, the Kickstarter-UNHCR partnership will at least get the ball rolling. Visit the campaign page to learn more about how you can help make a difference.

(Photo: Arbat Transit Camp for Syrian Refugees in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan)

As part of our ongoing coverage of the global refugee crisis, today we look at how UN agencies are quickly running out of cash and consequently edging closer to bankruptcy.

In an interview with The Guardian, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres relayed a dim situation marked by increased need and declining budgets:

If you look at those displaced by conflict per day, in 2010 it was 11,000; last year there were 42,000. This means a dramatic increase in need, from shelter to water and sanitation, food, medical assistance, education. The budgets cannot be compared with the growth in need. Our income in 2015 will be around 10% less than in 2014. The global humanitarian community is not broken – as a whole they are more effective than ever before. But we are financially broke.

As world governments struggle to cope with the glut in refugees fleeing war torn countries including Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea, it is unclear how aid agencies will be able to raise the necessary funds to keep aid programs afloat. The Syria Regional Response Plan – the overarching program to assist Syrians displaced by their nation’s intractable civil war – is barely 23 percent funded. Funding across the board is inadequate: relief efforts in Yemen are only 20 percent funded, programs to help internally displaced populations in Iraq are only 30 percent funded, and aid for Nepal earthquake victims is currently only 33 percent of the overall projected amount necessary.

Budget shortfalls take a large toll on refugees’ living standards, with UN agencies and aid providers cutting food rations and medical services. Refugees from Darfur received the distressing news that their food rations may end toward the end of the year. The World Food Program – the UN’s food agency – will suspend aid to 1.7 million Syrians because of funding shortages. Considering that displaced peoples possess virtually no means to generate income or sustenance, these realities pose tall and difficult challenges.

Unlike other arms of the UN, humanitarian efforts do not receive regular contributions from world governments. In other words, relief agencies – including the UNHCR and Unicef – depend on additional voluntary gifts from governments, as well as philanthropic contributions from individual global citizens.

Underfunded programs impact ongoing crises in a number of ways. Refugees that make the risky and potentially fatal trip by boat to Greece’s archipelago have told frontline UNHCR workers that they were compelled to flee camps in Jordan because of a dearth of food rations, declining living conditions, and the fraught and tense situation with native residents resulting from these worsening social conditions. This means that underfunded aid programs contribute to the mass migration fanning out through the Middle East and Europe.

Additionally, analysts are concerned that harrowing camp conditions could be a large boon for extremist organizations. Reports from refugee camps inside Turkey indicate that ISIS recruiters operate with relative impunity, attracting disaffected and hungry refugees lured by the promise of steady pay and food.

The amount of funding needed to fully support relief programs will unlikely come from private and voluntary gifts The total necessary is simply too high. Guterres and others are openly calling for reform that would require governments to contribute more mandatory funding for relief efforts. The commissioner remarked that to not “spend more on humanitarian aid is a bad strategy, not to say a suicidal one.” As programs begin unraveling due to the stress of higher demand sapping fewer resources, relief programs may indeed make situations even worse than they currently are.

Europe was rocked by tragedy on August 28, when Austrian authorities found 71 dead refugees inside the back of a truck that had passed from Hungry into Austria. The truck was abandoned two days earlier, but the degree of decomposition of the bodies indicates that the migrants may have suffocated and died even before August 26. Authorities believe the victims to be Syrian refugees.

This tragic event was just one of many over the last month that has illuminated how pressing and massive the global refugee crisis is, as well as the problems facing EU member nations. Increasingly complex trafficking schemes are emerging to meet the demand of refugees, who are entering southern Europe at an unprecedented rate. Indeed, analysts are calling the crisis the single largest movement of people through Europe since World War II.

As Key Elements Group LLC has previously covered, the migrant crisis in Europe poses profound questions. The traditionally open-border mentality of many European nations is dissolving under economic strain and populist backlash – evident with the emergence of nativist, anti-immigrant and (in several nations) fascist political parties. What course that is both humane and politically feasible is possible? What role does philanthropy play in alleviating the suffering of migrants and helping host nations cope?

Over 72 hours at the end of August, cash-strapped Greece rescued over 2,500 migrants making the risky Mediterranean crossing between Turkey and the Greek archipelagos. Since June 1, approximately 142,000 migrants have entered Greece by sea, a number that amounts to nearly 13 percent of the Greek population. While migrants enter through several different points along Europe’s southern boarder – including Italy and Spain – Greece bears the brunt of the influx, a situation exacerbated by its fraught financial and political crises.

After entering Greece, many migrants pass into Macedonia, move through the Balkans and try to make it into wealthier European countries. The stress, difficulty, and complex social circumstances revolving around this system emerged on August 21 when Macedonian riot police fired stun grenades near a border crossing, causing a brief period of chaos and fear.

In the absence of meaningful public funding to address the crisis, philanthropic Greek citizens are stepping forward and offering what support they can – even while  tensions rise and some Greeks are losing patience. On the island of Lesbos, islanders have formed a nonprofit relief organization called Angalia – or “Hug” – that provides basic needs support to migrants rescued off the island’s shore. Yet balancing their own responsibilities (as well as the turmoil of their country’s political and economic systems), volunteers can only do so much, as one Lesbos resident and organizer for Angalia recently told the Wall Street Journal.

Fleeing the convoluted and violent civil war in their own country, many Syrians are effectively stateless, and require an immense and fully international assistance in order to regain a semblance or order and stability in their lives. As the Economist recently suggested, greater EU investment in refugee processing centers in Greece is a logical first step. Authorities will also probably have to expand current plans to resettle around 22,000 migrants. In order to break through the bureaucratic morass that prevents swift action on these sensitive and contentious issues, authorities should also invest in nonprofit initiatives that strive to assist and acclimate refugees entering Europe. This situation calls for a holistic, multi-lateral approach that integrates philanthropic relief across the entire geographic migrant route from Syria to Germany.

Nonprofit and NGO relief organizations are incapable of preventing the rising tension between refugee communities and Middle Eastern host countries such Jordan and Turkey. With increasingly hostile natives and crowded conditions, experts expect the situation in Europe to get even worse as people begin traveling north in the hope of better living conditions. Without bold action now, it may be difficult for future solutions to include the humanity and comprehensive assistance that the refugees deserve.

[This is part 2 in a 2 part series on migrants in Europe]

In our previous installment on Europe’s migrant crisis, we explored the April 9 disaster that claimed hundreds of lives. A boat carrying an estimated 900 people capsized, drowning hundreds. The catastrophe occurred following the discontinuation of Italy’s operation Mare Nostrum, which balanced border enforcement with humanitarian aid, and was responsible for saving thousands of migrant lives. A new European Union-led operation – fronted by the union’s border control agency Frontex – has since taken over, with a significantly smaller budget, fewer personnel and boats, and a singular focus of enforcing border security over humanitarian aid.

EU foreign and interior ministers met in an emergency session following the April 9 incident – termed a “massacre” by the UNHCR – to hash out new guidelines for the union’s policy in the Mediterranean. Critics have called several of the measures – including plans to sink smugglers’ boats – a militarization of policy, ill-suited for dealing with the growing number of desperate refugees planning to enter Europe. The plan additionally calls for an increased budget, as well as a resettlement plan that would offer asylum to some refugees across the EU’s 28 member nations.

Yet another European nation that has been in the news – albeit for different reasons – is coping with a spike of migrants: Greece. 

While Italy and Spain – two other top destinations for migrants trying to enter Europe – are struggling economically, Greece is in particularly dire straits. The nation’s sovereign debt crisis is an ongoing source of consternation for EU and IMF officials. The media is rife with talks of default and of a potential “Grexit” from the European Union – which would imperil the very premise of the union’s mission and identity.

With Greece’s cash-strapped government and its population disaffected with bailout-mandated austerity and ridicule from the international media, the nation’s economic and social environment is not equipped to adequately and humanely deal with the influx of migrants.

Mainstream politicians across the European continent have kept a weary eye on populist, anti-immigrant groups popping up throughout the union. Among the most virulent and hateful of these groups is Greece’s Golden Dawn – a neo-nazi group with its own paramilitary that has been implicated in a number of assaults and murders. Benefitting from the economic downturn and the heterogenization of European society, Golden Dawn and other extreme right-wing parties are providing a frightening, hateful, and ultimately very dangerous outlet for people who feel helpless.

While its leadership has since been charged with operating a criminal organization (the trial was recently postponed) and its electoral popularity has shrunk, the relative success of Golden Dawn in attracting a base of support nonetheless reflects the disastrous consequences of underfunded, non-holistic, and piecemeal approaches to the continent’s inter-related migrant and domestic social crises.

Detained migrants live in squalid, dehumanizing environments that fuel the demeaning and racist perceptions propagated by groups like Golden Dawn. From exacerbated health to diminished life prospects and social standing, migrants’ living conditions – generated through government neglect, inhumane policy, and underfunding –  ultimately make the process of otherization easier for hate groups.

As Doctors without Borders/Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) has noted, many migrants face indefinite detention with little to no medical care, often kept in unsanitary and confined environments. The organization has provided care for some migrants who have been detained for over six years, evidence of a policy that permits Greek authorities to let migrants languish until they volunteer to head back to their nation of origin. Many of these migrants, of course, are refugees, and simply do not have the option to self-deport. Invisible Suffering – an MSF report six years in the making – details a number of disorders plaguing detainees, including upper respiratory tract infections, gastrointestinal diseases, anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic disorders.

Solving the migrant crisis while improving migrants’ living condition will not be easy, especially in a county whose citizens are reeling from economic insecurity and many of whom are dependent on charitable social services such as soup kitchens (indeed, one of the ways that Golden Dawn appealed for support was by offering food and other forms of social assistance to struggling Greeks). Nonetheless, it is often necessary to step back and see the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate social issues. By exploring the ways in which the plight of migrants, struggling Greeks, and hateful political ideologies are part of the same puzzle, NGOs, government officials, and aid works can begin to construct new and nuanced strategies for ameliorating these issues.

[This is part 1 in a 2 part series on migrants in Europe]

Tragedy struck on Sunday, April 9 in the Mediterranean, in an event that may prove to be the worst refugee disaster in decades.

A ship carrying up to 900 refugees capsized after passengers swarmed to one side of the ramshackle boat to get the attention of a Portuguese merchant vessel. The traffickers allegedly kept many of the refugees locked in the lower decks, meaning that many of the victims’ bodies remain at the bottom of the Mediterranean. Italian authorities have arrested two individuals – survivors from the disaster – on charges of human trafficking. The sinking coincided with a similiar yet unrelated incident off the coast of Greece, where a makeshift raft carrying refugees crashed ashore, killing several passengers.

Human rights and government officials have swiftly condemned the underfunded and understaffed European Union rescue efforts. Many commentators argue that current EU policy is woefully insufficient for grappling with migrant issues. While the overall increase in attempted crossings is up only slightly from the same period last year, deaths have increased tenfold.

Operation Triton – the European Union’s current search-and-rescue program – is a watered down version of its predecessor, Italy’s unilaterally-operated Mare Nostrum. The EU’s program has less jurisdiction and operating power than Mare Nostrum, a program that was generally lauded as an efficient and life-saving enterprise shouldered by the already cash-strapped Italy. The funding for Operation Triton comes from EU member nations.

The current refugee crisis stems from a number of ongoing problems in the Middle East and Africa. From the civil war in Syria to repression in Eritrea, many refigures are fleeing violence and political conflict. As Sofia, an Eritrean refugee, explained to the Guardian, the dangers of the sea voyage are worth it: “In Eritrea you’re even afraid to talk to your family. The person next to me . . . could be a spy, and they are looking at what you are doing. People disappear every day.” While Syrians and Eritreans represent the two largest ethnic groups of refugees, still many others are simply trying to get a foothold in Europe to escape poverty endemic to sub-Saharan Africa.

Crossing attempts are abetted by sectarian conflict in Libya. The country’s instability has given smugglers and human traffickers a virtual carte blanche for operating out of Libyan ports. Though a big business in Libya, migrant smuggling networks stretch along the horn of Africa, encapsulating multiple countries and affecting refugees of many different nationalities. In Libya alone, there may be anywhere between 500,000 to a million people ready to make the treacherous voyage.

Nonprofits have stepped in, calling world attention to the complex issues at hand. Save the Children is offering migrants advice on the southern shores of Europe. Its leadership has also appealed to EU foreign ministers, who are meeting this week to come up with impactful solutions to the crisis, to “increase the number of Syrian refugees being resettled in Europe through legal channels, according to the criteria and needs identified by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.”

Other small groups are bringing philanthropists, humanitarians, and security professionals together to provide rescue services. Migrant Offshore Aid Station was founded by former Maltese military professionals, and has come to the aid of 3,000 refugees in distress off the shores of the island nation Malta. But these efforts simply aren’t on the scale necessary to deal with the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable persons poised to make the arduous, potentially fatal attempt at crossing the Mediterranean. 

While the myriad issues that contribute to the crisis may seem daunting, a comprehensive, unified response is needed immediately. Not only do migrants risk their lives during the voyage,  but they also face violence in their host countries. Migrants awaiting the opportunity to cross in Libya face beatings and rape. In Greece, an ongoing economic crisis and a large influx of migrants have created a social environment in which a resurgent neo-Nazi party has risen, with an uptick in paramilitary violence and xenophobic attacks.

In our next installment, we will look at the plight faced by migrants in southern Europe, breaking down the issues and exploring how nonprofits are involved.