Still grappling with the civilizational transformations of the migrant crisis sparked over a decade ago by conflict in the Middle East, the European Union is facing the prospect of another large wave, with little more in the way of protection for its external borders. In 2015, more than a million migrants poured into Europe as German Chancellor Angela Merkel unilaterally opened the gates of the bloc to mass migration from Africa and the Middle East, most notably from the Syrian Civil War, which in part was exacerbated by U.S. involvement, with the Obama administration funding rebel groups against the now-defunct regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The influx of the largest number of alleged asylum seekers since the Second World War upended European society and politics radically, sparking crime waves in once peaceful nations like Sweden, ingraining Islamist terrorist movements across the continent, straining national budgets, and entrenching sectarian politics. Characteristic of the bureaucracy-obsessed European Union, it took a decade for the bloc to reach a form of migration agreement, dubbed the Migration and Asylum Pact, which is still only set to come into force by June. Even this agreement was struck over the objection of conservative nations such as Hungary and Poland, given that its primary aim is to share the burden of migration equally throughout the EU, meaning that countries which fail to police their borders can send illegals to countries that do, upon threat of financial penalties from Brussels.
Meanwhile, debate in the EU Parliament continues on the subject of so-called offshore “return hubs”, which would see illegals immediately removed to detention centres outside of the European Union rather than being allowed to remain within EU borders while their asylum claims are processed. Conservatives such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have argued that such sites are necessary to deter further illegal migration and to make deportation systems effective, given that only around one in five illegals are actually sent back to their homelands per year. (Read More)
