Hard EU line on migration rose from the ashes of compassion
Alan Kurdi drowned alongside his mother and brother when a rubber dinghy headed for Greece sank off the coast of Turkiye in September 2015.
A decade later, thousands of people escaping hardship, conflict and climate disasters still risk their lives on similarly perilous boat journeys to Europe.
But the reception they might get has changed. Ten years ago, the European Union vowed to prevent further loss of life at sea. Now, keeping migrants out is the key goal, as governments play to right-leaning voters.
Rights groups and experts say the future for these people is becoming even more precarious as the EU looks set to harden restrictions on migration.
"For people arriving in Europe, it will become more difficult to access an asylum procedure in the first place and for that procedure to actually assess their claim fairly," Josephine Liebl, head of advocacy at the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an alliance of non-governmental organisations, said.
The arrival of an unprecedented one million refugees in 2015 sparked a crisis in the EU, which over the last decade has attempted to reform its asylum system to ease the burden on frontline states such as Greece and Italy. At the same time, anti-immigrant feeling has gained momentum, encouraged by the rise of the far right.
The bloc has also sought to push the problem beyond its borders, making deals with third countries and reinforcing its physical and legal entry points.
Even before Kurdi died, a shipwreck that claimed the lives of over 600 people in April 2015 had driven migration to the top of the EU's policy agenda.
Then, the bloc's main aims were not far off what they are today: fighting people traffickers, preventing illegal migration and reinforcing solidarity in the bloc.
But the EU also pledged emergency aid to frontline states receiving the most refugees and tripled its funding of naval missions to strengthen rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
In 2020, when the EU reaffirmed its support to border countries, it emphasised bolstering border guard capabilities — not humanitarian aid.
Berna Turam, a researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, said there was "a golden age of solidarity" pre-2019, when compassion outweighed anti-immigrant, populist forces.
"The mood changed because of EU policies criminalising people at the borders."
In 2016, the EU pledged €3 billion to support Syrians. Then it also poured money into strengthening surveillance tech and support for border agency Frontex.
Under a deal that year, Turkiye agreed to take back migrants and refugees who cross irregularly into Greece from its shores.
The islands effectively became a holding pen for migrants, barred from advancing their EU asylum claims and restricted to a camp life lived in limbo.
"Because these people got confined it suggested they were criminals," said Turam.
As the EU continued to enlist the help of non-EU countries, plying North African nations with kit and training to keep migrants out, fear spread — and with it, support for political parties that talked tougher on migration.
Across Europe, voters have steadily shifted right.
Far-right and populist parties have made gains in Italy, Finland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany and Austria, as well as in the European Parliament.
"It is normal for people to believe that the far right is doing well because of people's immigration positions, but the far-right vote is about economic insecurity and austerity," said Claire Kumar, who researches public attitudes towards migration at think tank ODI Europe.
ODI's analysis of the European Social Survey, carried out every two years to measure beliefs across Europe, found attitudes towards migration as a whole were more negative after the 2008 financial crisis than after the 2015 migration crisis.
Lawmakers are already proposing harsher policies and considering how to send people back, said Martha Roussou of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid organisation.
"Things will change for the worse," said Roussou.
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She said that while Malaysian children are generally tech-savvy, with competency in navigating apps, social media platforms, and games, this does not necessarily translate to being able to engage digital spaces safely. 'Compared to children in some developed countries like those in Scandinavia or parts of Western Europe, Malaysian kids often have less structured digital education. 'This means they might be more exposed to online risks such as cyberbullying, privacy breaches, or harmful content. A Unicef study even found that while Malaysian youth are confident online, many don't fully understand how to protect themselves from threats. 'The good news is that digital literacy programmes are growing in schools, and awareness among parents and educators is increasing. From age six onwards, parents should set clear, consistent limits on both screen time and content, said Raihan Munira. — Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash 'But there's still a gap to close when it comes to teaching children not just how to use technology, but how to use it responsibly and safely,' she said. As Allistair Adam pointed out, 'studies from states such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Kedah show that most preschoolers are already using smartphones and other digital devices regularly'. One of the studies, 'Screen Media Dependency And Its Associated Factors Among Preschool Children In Kuala Lumpur' published in the Malaysian Journal Of Medicine And Health Sciences in May 2023, found that over 65% of preschoolers in Kuala Lumpur show signs of dependence on their devices. Another study, 'Determinants of Excessive Screen Time Among Children Under Five Years Old in Selangor, Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Study' published in the International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health in March 2022, found that over 90% of preschoolers in Selangor exceed recommended screen time limits, underscoring a lack in digital maturity among Malaysian children when compared to their peers in countries with structured digital literacy programmes. 'This gap between access and readiness increases their vulnerability to digital dependency, cyberbullying, and misinformation. 'It highlights the need for nationwide digital literacy initiatives and child-focused online safety policies,' he said. Greater guidance Srividhya further called for concrete guidelines from the government that are 'clear, practical, and grounded in the realities of Malaysian families, not just borrowed from other jurisdictions or imposed in a top-down way'. 'There's too much uncertainty. Parents, schools, and even platforms are often left to interpret things for themselves, which leads to inconsistent decisions and, ultimately, children falling through the cracks.' She said that the country does not necessarily need new blanket laws, but rather a framework that provides guidance in the form of minimum standards that also offers some flexibility. This could come in the form of general suggestions for platforms based on age, and the specific kinds of digital competencies children need to access them, along with the responsibilities held by parents, educators, and platforms, she added. 'It's not just about when a child can go online – it's about how they should be supported when they do. 'Right now, our response to children's digital access tends to be reactive. A case goes viral, there's public outcry, and we start talking about bans or surveillance. 'But these approaches don't address the core issue: most children are getting online anyway – often unsupervised and unprepared. 'Without national guidelines that put child rights and child realities at the centre, we're just leaving families to figure it out on their own,' Srividhya said. For Allistair Adam, it comes down to ensuring that a child is emotionally prepared to engage with the digital world. 'For parents, assessing readiness involves observing whether the child can regulate their emotions, follow rules, manage screen time without being attached, recognise unsafe or inappropriate content, and communicate openly with their parents on their digital use. 'Children should also be able to balance screen time with other important daily activities such as schoolwork, play and family time. 'Policymakers, on the other hand, can support this by ensuring access to early digital literacy education, promoting age-appropriate platform design, and developing national guidelines that safeguard children's digital well-being. 'In the end, readiness is not just whether a child has the skills to manage screen time but whether they have received the right modelling, guidance, and support to use digital tools wisely – that should be the best indicator,' he said.
