Refuge crisis a price paid for diplomatic failures in Mideast （Zhao Yongsheng）

Thousands and thousands of refugees from Middle-East, mainly from Syria, are heading to Europe, and obviously the refugee crisis has become one of the major problems, even challenges for this region. In my opinion, this crisis is a "debt" that Europeans must pay.

It is a debt because Europeans are responsible, at least partly responsible, for this refugee crisis. The problems have been going on for several years following chaos in North Africa and Middle East.

These problems were originally national, regional or continental, but were worsened by the intervention of Western countries and have been globalized.

Europe is the first choice of Syrian refugees. Probably implicitly encouraged by the new EU policies after multiple tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea during the first half of this year, refugees from the Middle East are arriving in Europe en masse.

But this crisis poses tough questions not only for those countries that have historically accepted the most refugees such as Germany, Sweden and France, but also for Europe as a whole.

International law and European values, as well as a proximity to the Middle East, mean Europeans cannot refuse refugees; and Europe needs these new migrants, most of whom are young and not badly educated. But at the same time, coping with the influx of refugees will stretch the budgets of an already burdened Europe for the integration process.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already announced a 6 billion euro budget to cope with 31,443 refugees, and French President Francois Hollande has announced a similar amount to be spent on 24,031 refugees over the next two years. But under the new quotas, each country will see around 10,000 refugees more than these figures.

Integration can succeed only when its process and rhythm can be controlled. The attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris is a typical example of failed integration, and obviously the ongoing flood of refugees could easily turn into an unmanageable problem if more strict measures are not taken.

The European economy is still bad and many countries are still in stagnation. Germany continues strong growth, but France's unemployment rate remains rather high and the average level of the EU is still over 10 percent. While nationals are still struggling with poverty and unemployment, governments may face criticism for overly generous refugee policies.

One IS source claimed to Buzzfeed that the terrorist group is attempting to smuggle "4000 extremists" into Europe among the refugees.

We can assume this is boasting designed to intimidate, but even a small number of extremists could cause real damage if embraced unthinkingly by Europe's bosom.

In fact, the current complex refugee situation has more than one cause - direct and indirect reasons, internal and external reasons.

However, its fundamental reason is the failure of Western countries' diplomatic policies in the Middle East and North Africa.

It's true that the politics in those countries needed reform, or, in the case of long-embedded dictatorships, regime change.

But empirically speaking, the evolution of a political system can succeed only with endogenous means; rarely have exogenous efforts or external interventions led to success.

We can cite the examples of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the targets of military intervention by the US and its Western allies under the banner of human rights and democracy; France backed by the US played a "vanguard" role in the military operation against the Gaddafi regime.

It is exactly under all these conditions that the IS emerged in Iraq, Libya and Syria and ironically poses a threat to the EU and the US.

This refugee crisis reminds us of the necessity for Western countries to learn this lesson: never try to intervene too much in local or national conflicts without preparing a priori a solid and effective solution for post-military intervention. This time there is a price to be paid for the bad diplomatic policies of Europeans vis-à-vis Middle East and North Africa.

The author is a Paris-based economist and professor, vice-president of the Paris-based China-France Association of Lawyers and Economists. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn