Refugees

Criticisms and Perspectives of the European Union in the light of the Yugoslavian Crisis

Abstract

This article shows the attitude of the European Union towards refugees in the decennium 1990-1999, when the Balkan conflict broke out. It aims at demonstrating that, although it was clear that EU structures and legal framework were insufficient to deal with such a huge number of refugees, no satisfactory solution was found or proposed and negligence was the only reason behind ineffective international protection for people fleeing from the region. Part one spells out the legal framework, the definition of refugee and the progresses of the last 50 years in matter of international protection. Part two deals with the unclear statistics on refugees of these years, proposes an interpretation and shows some significant anomalies and part three describes the best mechanism (still too weak and adopted too late) provided by the EU in matter of refugees to face the massive income of refugees.