European Union: Closing the Borders?

by John Richardson
March 14, 2020 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15719/eu-closing-borders

Translations of this item:

Czech

Even Germany is unwilling to take any of the migrants shuttled by Erdogan to the Greek-Turkish border.
"I thank Greece for being our European 'aspida' [the Greek word for shield]." — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, March 3, 2020.
The "solidarity" with Greece expressed by leading EU representatives seems to have come from having no alternatives other than relying on Greece to struggle with the situation.
Even if the EU manages to resolve its issues with Erdogan, which is doubtful and bound to be only temporary, Europe's fundamental problem will remain: As long as migrants think that a better future awaits them in Europe, the welfare states, which have shown themselves extremely accommodating in receiving migrants and granting them all sorts of social rights, can continue expecting migrants to try breaching Europe's borders.

Since February 27, Turkish officials have sent busloads of migrants -- predominantly young men from Afghanistan and Iran, according to several reports -- to Turkey's border with Greece. Pictured: Masked migrants throw rocks at Greek border guards along the fence at Pazarkulke border crossing in Edirne, Turkey, on March 7, 2020. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

On February 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made good on his many threats to send millions of migrants and refugees to Europe, despite a 2016 deal between Europe and Turkey to hold them. Apparently seeking to make Europe experience the full force of his intentions, Turkish officials sent busloads of migrants -- predominantly young men from Afghanistan and Iran, according to several reports -- to Turkey's border with Greece.

"We prepared a plan with our colleagues and we are committed to arranging free buses for the refugees in Bolu towards the border town of Edirne," said Tanju Özcan, the mayor of Bolu, a town in northern Turkey, 550 kilometers from the border with Greece. "Refugees willing to go to Edirne can apply to the Bolu municipality and its branches. We are ready to assure the transport whatever the number [of refugees]."

In November, Erdogan had also threatened to release ISIS prisoners into Europe. Whether the migrants Erdogan sent to the border with Greece at the end of February currently include terrorists is not known. Migrating terrorists, research has shown, are a serious issue that seems to receive only scant attention in Europe.

In contrast to the migrant crisis of 2015, which saw more than a million migrants and refugees cross into Europe through Greece -- as well as other frontline European nations -- the current Greek government, which came into power in July 2019, has made it clear that its borders are closed.

"Welcome in Greece are only those we choose. Those who are not welcome will be returned. We will permanently shut the door to illegal human traffickers, to those who want to enter even though they are not entitled to asylum," said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in November.

Even Germany is unwilling to take any of the migrants shuttled by Erdogan to the Greek-Turkish border. "I understand that Turkey is facing a very big challenge regarding Idlib," German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated.

"Still, for me it's unacceptable that he – President Erdogan and his government – is not expressing this dissatisfaction in a dialogue with us as the European Union, but rather on the back of the refugees. For me, that's not the way to go forward."

"We must not allow refugees to be turned into pawns for geopolitical interests," announced German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. "No matter who tries, they must reckon with our resistance."

"Don't go to the border. The border is not open. If someone tells you that you can go because the border is open... that is not true" the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, reportedly said. He also noted that the European Union "will take all measures, in accordance with EU rules and International law, to make full respect of the integrity of its borders".

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, actually thanked Greece for being Europe's "shield":

"This border is not only a Greek border but it is also a European border. And I stand here today as a European at your side," she told the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

"Turkey is not an enemy and people are not just means to reach a goal. We would all do well to remember both in the days to come. I thank Greece for being our European 'aspida' [the Greek word for shield]."

"As we have shown yesterday," the European Commission's vice-president for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, told reporters, "when Europe is tested, we are able to prove that we can hold the line and that our unity will prevail."

On the face of it, the EU response appears to be a dramatic departure from the kind of talk that EU representatives normally present to the world on the topic of migration. As recently as on the UN's International Migrants Day -- which takes place every year on December 18 -- the European Commission released a statement according to which:

"On International Migrants Day, we stand strong in our unequivocal commitment to respect and protect the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants [bold in original] as well as to ensure that migration takes place in a safe, orderly and well-managed way... Openness and solidarity are core values of the European Union".

Is it possible that even the highest functioning bureaucrats of the European Union have realized that Europe -- or at the very least Greece -- has reached its limit?

Probably not. As the chaotic situation on the border between Turkey and Greece indicates, the EU does not have anything resembling a coherent migration policy in place. This situation persists despite the fact that it has been five years since Europe experienced its worst migration scenario in modern times, and even though Erdogan has been threatening Europe with opening his borders for years. Rather, the "solidarity" with Greece expressed by leading EU representatives seems to have come from having no alternatives other than relying on Greece to struggle with the situation. Greece has asked the EU to send aid from Frontex - the European Border and Coast Guard Agency -- to launch a rapid border intervention at its sea borders in the Aegean. Frontex has agreed and will ask the EU member states to provide personnel and equipment.

The only "policy" in place appears to be the one enshrined in the Dublin Regulation. According to it, the responsibility usually falls on the first EU member state in which asylum seekers set foot. The regulation, in the words of the former Greek Foreign Minister Georgios Katrougalos, "...brings all the weight of the crisis to the frontline countries of the European Union".

EU member states are currently debating how to stop Erdogan from increasing the pressure on the Greek border and generating a migrant crisis comparable in size to the one in 2015. Whatever the EU decides on this matter, it will only amount to crisis management. Even if the EU manages to resolve its issues with Erdogan, which is doubtful and bound to be only temporary, Europe's fundamental problem will remain:

As long as migrants think that a better future awaits them in Europe, the welfare states, which have shown themselves extremely accommodating in receiving migrants and granting them all sorts of social rights, can continue expecting migrants to try breaching Europe's borders. International initiatives such as the UN's International Migrants Day and the UN Global Migration compact, which praise migration as necessary and beneficial, certainly do nothing to dissuade migrants from trying. Expect the current migrant crisis to repeat itself many times over in the years to come.

John Richardson is a researcher based in the United States.

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Related Topics: Coronavirus, Europe's Migrant Crisis, Turkey

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Comment on this item

35 Reader Comments

Joan Ribi • Mar 19, 2020 at 09:03

One way to stop illegal migrants is to charge their governments with criminal action for not charging the criminals organising the illegal migration through every means possible including sanctions.

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John Braeman • Mar 16, 2020 at 00:34

At least there is good news coming from Iran.

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BernieGoetz • Mar 15, 2020 at 13:37

More can be done than closing the borders. Countries like Sweden should expel the majority of new migrants over several years.

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Timothy D. • Mar 15, 2020 at 11:08

Comparable in size to the one in 2015?

EU illegal immigration is still out of control, only a fool doesn't realize this. In 2019 there were ~721,000 asylum applications. That's comparable to 2008, 2009 and 2010 combined.

The crisis never stopped.

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Don Gaetano • Mar 15, 2020 at 06:21

Thanks for this Ms Bergman. My thinking is we need to consider this group not as migrants (a term that disguises what is really happening), but rather Invaders.
This group of men pictured, with not a gray hair in sight, masked and running around energetically throwing rocks at the border guards, is not my mental picture of poor needy migrants wanting a better life in Europe.

Rather what I'm looking at is an invading army out of uniform waiting for the chance to establish a foothold in a foreign land for eventual takeover. I think Sweden showcases this thinking. Now crimes there have even reached the children and young people, bullying, theft, assaults, domination crimes, not to mention sexual assaults... sometimes filmed with laughing perpetrators and posted for all to see.
We must face up to the facts to bring all this to an end or I think it will be our end, and the suffering to follow of the women, girls and young men and boys will be unimaginable. As for adult males I imagine most will be gone in our societies that get taken over, gone meaning eliminated.
Sorry for the bleak scenario. I know Gatestone is trying and appreciate the efforts. Thanks again and for the 'Sweden's Victimized Children' article as well. Those Swedish kids in vicinities where migrants or Swedish born children of migrants are committing these crimes, have found themselves in a living hell.
Swedish authorities are not coming to their aid - imagine - their despair.

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Ray Veysey • Mar 15, 2020 at 05:35

NATO must immediately suspend Turkey, and send forces to help Greece. Turkey has by any description attacked the EU and must be restricted. The evidence now that Turkey is arming the migrants makes this even more urgent.

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Constantine

Ray Veysey • Mar 19, 2020 at 18:30

The Turkish authorities are actually helping the migrants, or... where on earth did those migrants find the tear gases and wires to break the Greek fence? Turkey entered the NATO in order to not join the Soviet sphere. Nothing else. No values, no principles, no participation on the WW2, no similarities. It's just the Turkish soil that mattered, not their people, nor their attributes or character.

I am not afraid of the Turks. I am afraid of western civilized countries being coward to the Turks.

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Hamish MacDonald • Mar 15, 2020 at 04:46

The disappointing comment by Ursula Von de Leyen is to be expected. She is in the middle of a quagmire, and every German knows it.
It will take more than Greek rejection of Erdogan's despicable attitude. It is about time someone with intestinal fortitude told the story how it really is, why there are refugees to begin with, and what caused this, and continues to cause it, while nothing is done about it in Turkey, which has loads of them. Erdogan foists the problems that belong to Turkey on everyone else.
He is not to be trusted. The Turks would do everyone a favour if they found a way to remove him from office. Pity that; the Turks only find ways to do other things, like the Armenian genocide, and pretend they are not guilty.

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David • Mar 14, 2020 at 17:54

It is time this migrant scam was stopped for good. Many of these "migrants" are from Sudan, Pakistan, etc, and are just economic migrants. If you don't pay tax why should the long-suffering European taxpayers pick up the tab for these foreigners. It is policy insanity.

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Hamish MacDonald

David • Mar 15, 2020 at 05:02

Indeed.
The birthrate for Europeans will suffer even more.
Less of Europeans and more of the others...
Not positive thinking at all.

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Henry • Mar 14, 2020 at 15:35

Well, I do believe that European welfare state enjoy migrants to the taxpayers expense and taxpayers silently accept their lot. Why not to let them enjoy even more? I guess Poland and Hungary are pretty open to welcoming the European refugees from the above welfare state. The show goes on!

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Anthony Oberdorfer • Mar 14, 2020 at 13:47

Of all the ghastly politicians Europe has suffered from in recent years Angela Merkel is surely the very worst for now disclaiming responsibility for creating the crisis five years ago ("Wir schaffen das!") that has led to the current situation. To paraphrase the fanatic Greta, "how dare she!"

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Bisley • Mar 14, 2020 at 10:45

The EU isn't going to do anything of substance to halt illegal immigration, but they will pretend to be doing something to try to prevent Greece from openly defying their laws and policies, and producing a confrontation. They don't want to be put in a position where they either have to adjust their law and policy to the wishes of member states, drive them to leave the EU, or expel them. The whole reason for the existence of the EU is to gradually usurp the powers of member governments and become the government of Europe, and they have to keep the union together, and submissive to their control, to do it.

The Greeks, or any other national government, could easily throttle illegal immigration by changing their laws, and then enforcing them (in direct opposition to EU law and policy). As the author says, "As long as migrants think that a better future awaits them in Europe, the welfare states, which have shown themselves extremely accommodating in receiving migrants and granting them all sorts of social rights, can continue expecting migrants to try breaching Europe's borders".

The cure for the problem is to eliminate the benefits and advantages that draw these people to come to Europe. Anyone found to be in a country illegally should not be eligible to claim asylum, or any other status that could allow them to remain -- they should be positively identified, barred from returning under any circumstances, and summarily deported. All publicly-financed services and benefits (food, housing, medical treatment, etc.) should be restricted to citizens only. This sort of policy would stop nearly all illegal immigration, and drive out those who have already come to live at the expense of their host country. The only thing required to stop illegal immigration is a government with the will to defy the EU and do it.

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Frank

Bisley • Mar 22, 2020 at 06:15

Maybe an armed citizenry is a better choice than a "government" solution.

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Bisley

Frank • Mar 22, 2020 at 15:32

A generally armed public is a good thing, helps set a limit as to how much governments believe they can get by with, and is a necessary last resort, but this case hasn't yet got to the point where that would be the solution. If the Greeks (or any other European people) wanted to put an end to this invasion, they have it in their power to overthrow their socialist government and put people in place who will do it (and probably without too much violence). The problem here is that the governments, news industry, education systems, etc. have indoctrinated and propagandized Europeans for decades to accept what's being done to them. This is what will have to be broken in order to change the policy.

People can force governments that refuse to comply with their wishes from power, but first there must be enough people who both see it as a problem and have the will to contest the ruling political establishment. It will take a change of the public's attitude -- when enough people say (and are ready to do what it takes to make it happen), "we're not going to let these bastards destroy our county, and we're going to replace them and reverse their policies", that will do it. The ruling class will lie to the public and do whatever they like until the public has the will to stop them.

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Aridaman • Mar 14, 2020 at 08:37

A Different EU. At long last, the European Union is showing that it is not made of jelly.

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V.Varnado

Aridaman • Mar 15, 2020 at 05:48

I hope and pray the good Greek patriots can see thru this latest EU appeasement. They should never lose sight of the fact that the EU is a soulless entity. Long live Judeo-Christian European civilization. When in Rome do as the Romans do... The nation-state, what other framework under heaven is there with proven compatibility with government conceived in human freedom originating in the Transcendant will of God.
vvarnado

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Constantine • Mar 14, 2020 at 08:01

After Frontex has sent a few forces to patrol the Greek-Turkish border, the Turks send women and children to the border. No adult males. This is a sign why Turkey is nothing else than uncivilized cowards.
Close all borders with countries and regions that are outside the EU! More European forces have to be sent on Greek-Turkish border, Bulgarian-Turkish border, Cyprus and allover the Aegean Greek islands and seas, from Samothraki to Kastelorizo, all over the Mediterranean Italy and Spain.
Send no help to these who blackmail Europe and you will see it works, although the only thing they do is blackmailing and threatening.
Don't waste your time hearing them saying the Europeans are Nazis. If the Europeans were Nazis, then what on earth do all these people want to do in Europe?

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Mary Alafouzo

Constantine • Mar 17, 2020 at 11:15

Yes, Constantine. If we are Nazis and racists why do all these people want to come to Europe. I was born in an Arab country and grew up there, but neither I nor my European coreligionists could obtain the nationality of the country because we were not ethnic Arabs or born in their religion. When I said that to a BEA hostess she was horrified, "And they call us racists?" she said!!!

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Mary A,

Mary Alafouzo • Mar 21, 2020 at 08:48

I forgot to add that not only I but both my parents and one set of my grandparents were born in that country but none of us was allowed the nationality of the country.

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Graham Richards • Mar 14, 2020 at 07:41

I hope that arrogant bunch of dictators in Brussels are really happy now! Merkel's war cry "we can do this". Now she's really done it. Another million or so headed into the already wobbly Euro zone, the looming loss of £39 billion due to Brexit & their total incompetence handling the British - a pretty unforgiving Conservative Boris Johnson, economic storm clouds, Trump not giving economic favours, Trump shutting them out for probably 3 months or more. Coronavirus. Better they give their money printing machine a good service & repair.
I don't think the Greeks are as friendly as they used to be. Maybe the Greek government will lay on many, many trains to ship the problem all the way to Berlin!!

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Bazz • Mar 14, 2020 at 07:41

Don't the Europeans recognise that these migrants are reinforcements for the army already encamped in Europe ?

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Serge114 • Mar 14, 2020 at 07:24

I have a solution. Why doesn't the EU allocate the money that was earmarked for Turkey & give it to Greece & Bulgaria to build a wall 40 feet high, with minefields!!!

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Raj • Mar 14, 2020 at 07:24

Europe cannot be held responsible for the corrupt ineptitude of the despotic governments of the middle east. These states that blame the West for all of their problems should take a look at themselves in the mirror and see that the real solution to their skewed worldview lies in their own distorted prejudices.

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AL • Mar 14, 2020 at 07:05

Even war refugees are often just men. The women, children, parents, stay on in their house/apartment in their country of origin. They send one able bodied male to Europe to get a foot hold. European welfare handouts are often perceived as a kings ransom in most developing countries. Once the migrant male has established himself he sends for his immediate family (spouse, children; the more children he can claim are his, the more social welfare he receives). The parents, or an uncle, stay in the family home back in the country of origin; hence many "refugees" take holidays back to the country from which they "fled". Europeans are, in their good intentioned spirit, rather foolish.

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Ian Glover

AL • Mar 15, 2020 at 13:59

Using the words "rather foolish" grossly understates the significance of this issue.

The European political class knew exactly what they were doing by flooding their states with invaders from Africa and the Middle East. The European natives were influenced by political correctness and legislative coercion to facilitate, and then accept the end of their Western civilisation. The word "suicidal" is far more appropriate.

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jak40 • Mar 14, 2020 at 06:40

Shooting "immediately" live ammunition on a couple of borders-breakers is legal and justified... so nobody would try again such breaking of laws. They wouldn't do it to their own country.... and others who didn't fall yet in Universal Citizenship Dementia.

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Clive Delmonte • Mar 14, 2020 at 05:50

Within the EU, and, prior to that the EEC, allowed freedom of movement of labour. However, this was never intended to mean that whole populations could migrate to the EU, nor that whole populations had any right to immigrate into the EU. These migrants should sort their problems in their countries of birth (like we did).

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Robert Koomans • Mar 14, 2020 at 05:37

The EU better start getting harsh on wannabe illegal Immigrants, and deny them entry, and advertise it so. Also, the new Immigrants should have funds for at least 4 months living, and NO Social Security must be allowed, and notified so. The only reason so many want to come is simply FREE MONEY for nothing! No public housing allowed for immigrants either... Immigrants must prepay their own rental accommodation. The Citizens have first rights as they worked for it and paid taxes. It may be necessary to mount brave guards at the borders with orders to open fire with miniguns, if they try to breach the borders... yes, highest firepower, or succumb to terrorists.

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Andrew Boughton • Mar 14, 2020 at 05:29

Great piece from Judith, as always. If only our friends in the US had not precipitated and then perpetuated these crises at their source, we could take these justified admonitions directed at EU leaders more seriously. Merkel especially has so much suffering and blood on her hands.

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V.Varnado

Andrew Boughton • Mar 15, 2020 at 06:23

Europe's "friends in the US", who unleashed this humanitarian crisis against the people of Europe are busy accomplishing the same subversion against the US. They are not "We the people", they are wholly of a piece with the EU's anti-human totalitarian agenda, the blood on Merkel's hands... which only Judeo-Christian civilization stands in the way of. I say this as a Black American Christian, formerly as brainwashed as any leftist demanding open-borders USA. GOD bless the Nation State, and "We the People", wherever we are found defending her.
vvarnado

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Andrew Boughton

V.Varnado • Mar 15, 2020 at 12:00

Yes, it's odd how people who criticize the idea of the nation, culture or cultural identity, equating it not with so very much that is good but with fascism, no less, worship something as strange, as unnatural, as Frankenstinian and egomaniacal as a pan-national super-state, which is precisely what the EU has become. Do they think the leaders of a super-state are somehow less prone to the corruption of power than the leaders of a small state? Those few very senior EU leaders who come from the tiniest countries are the very ones most enthralled with their new-found internationalist power. They've gone completely mad. Soon they'll geninely want regulations on that cliche about leftist authoritarianism, how everyone must tie their shoe laces, and with the Coronavirus, wipe their noses.

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Ian Glover

Andrew Boughton • Mar 15, 2020 at 14:06

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This has always been so, and always will be so as long as the electoral systems is implemented by state controlled mass media.

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Andrew Boughton

Ian Glover • Mar 15, 2020 at 21:43

Second you on that, Ian.

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V.Varnado

Andrew Boughton • Mar 16, 2020 at 10:27

Pan-national, super-state government has achieved mainstream status on this side of the pond, millenials 'feelin the Bern'... The seductive charm & sanctimony of welfare-state authoritarians, endlessly promising vote for me and I'll set you free... a utopian remedy for every social injustice, (whether real or imagined doesn't matter, trust do-gooders to always know what's best.) A chicken in every pot, is now a proven recipe for the frog discovering too late that the water has begun to boil...

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