EU criticised over Syrian refugees policy

Mersin, Turkey - Abu Ziad, 21, is a Syrian refugee who fled from his hometown in Homs to Beirut in 2012. Wrenched from a once promising future, he made his way to Turkey two years later to search carefully for a smuggler. In September 2014, he found one he thought he could trust.

"He called himself Abu Nasser," said Abu Ziad (not his real name), while walking along the coast of the southern Turkish city of Mersin. "I was told he had a good reputation."

Abu Nasser promised to hide Abu Ziad on a cargo ship and transport him to the shores of Greece but on the night of his departure, he was crammed into a van and taken to the Turkish port town of Marmara. When Abu Ziad exited the vehicle, he saw over 75 people waiting to crawl on top of three inflated rafts.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Syrian civil war has uprooted over one-third of the population with 3.8 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries.

The crisis has threatened to destabilise the region and forced Syrians to turn to Europe for protection. And though they are practically ensured of receiving asylum once they arrive, European governments have restricted legal passage to those fleeing from war.

With nowhere else to turn, many have relied on smugglers, who have formed a lucrative business exploiting the mass exodus and misfortune of refugees.

Michael Diedring, the secretary-general of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles, a pan-European alliance advancing the rights of refugees, says that if the European Union wants to stop international smuggling, they must offer legal access to those escaping persecution.

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