Refugee children from Syria Oxfam International/Flickr

Europe's Refugee Opportunity

The ongoing exodus from Syria and other war-torn countries was long in the making, easy to foresee, and eminently manageable. And now, with fear-mongering nativists peddling a vision that would divide and destroy the EU, a comprehensive strategy to end the panic and stop the unnecessary human suffering cannot wait.

ROME – Europe’s so-called refugee crisis should never have become an emergency. Accommodating one million asylum-seekers should not be a huge challenge for the European Union – an area with 500 million citizens that welcomes more than three million immigrants every year. Unfortunately, the lack of a coordinated response is transforming a manageable problem into an acute political crisis – one that, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rightly warned, could destroy the EU.

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