Eight Years of Deeply Flawed European Policy on Illegal Migration

The Swedish government has announced that it will call in the military to assist the police in stopping an unprecedented wave of violence on the streets of the country. In September, a record was again broken: twelve people were killed on the streets of Sweden – one by an explosive device, and eleven were shot. The police can no longer cope alone with street gangs that are infiltrated and hidden in migrant no-go zones. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (right-center – Moderate Party) attributes the blame to the previous ‘irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration’ and announces legal changes that will allow forced deportations of illegal migrants who have not committed a crime, the expansion of juvenile detention facilities, and enhanced measures for language and cultural integration.

About ten days before this dramatic turn in Swedish policy on illegal migration, two powerful women in European politics, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, visited the Italian island of Lampedusa – which is literally under siege by illegal migrants from Africa and their largest ‘distribution center’ to Western and Northern Europe. They appeared equally helpless in the face of the problem of uncontrolled influx of migrants: both the far-right Meloni, who won the elections promising a complete turnaround in migration policy, and the politically colorless von der Leyen, who owes her European political rise to her complete loyalty to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and even to her open-door policy.

Tunisian Blackmail of the EU

At the same time, there is political and media awareness of the permeability of the Croatian border for illegal migrants from the so-called Balkan route, who, organized by human traffickers, come unhindered to the Croatian border, cross it illegally without obstruction, and proceed along established paths and procedures further towards Western and Northern Europe. If given such instructions, some will decide to stay. But already as transit migrant destinations – Gorski Kotar, Lika, Kordun, and Banovina or the Danube region in Eastern Croatia – they are becoming increasingly unsafe for the life of the local population. Not to mention Lampedusa.

At the same time, Tunisian President Kais Saied (who came to power via a coup) is blackmailing the EU by threatening to withdraw from the so-called strategic partnership agreement on illegal migration. The Union concluded this agreement with him last summer, counting on him to work on disciplining the gangs that bring migrants to Europe in exchange for money. However, Saied refused to accept the tranche for September of 127 million euros, claiming it is too little for the collapsed Tunisian finances, and since then, the migrant pressure on Europe from that country has further increased.

It is clear that European policy on illegal migration is at a turning point, after eight years of deeply flawed strategy. Instead of cheap labor, which was the underlying theme of Merkel’s open-door policy, the most developed EU countries have seen an increase in all forms of violence on the streets, including mass sexual violence and murders, new no-go migrant zones, emptied social welfare coffers, which brings the system to the brink of collapse, new millions of unintegrated residents, new parallel societies organized according to Sharia law, a drastic increase in insecurity on the streets with the prospect of engaging the military to maintain internal security. Starting with Sweden, which, along with Germany, was the most desirable migrant destination.

Five Necessary Steps

With such a policy, the most developed countries in Europe have handed their security over to non-European dictators like the Turkish neo-sultan with an Islamist agenda Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or the Tunisian dictator Saied, who is in direct contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Operationally, however, European security is in the hands of networked gangs that organize the transport of migrants to Europe.

Human trafficking today is the most lucrative business, which is destroying Europe and further impoverishing and destroying both the economy and society in the countries from which migrants come. If this destruction is to be stopped, the turnaround must be complete and swift. First, the Marrakesh Agreement, which equates the rights of illegal and legal migrants and guarantees family reunification, must be annulled.

Second, European borders must be made impermeable to all illegal migrants and deportations of those whose asylum applications have been rejected must be facilitated. Third, states that assist in bringing illegal migrants to Europe must be sanctioned. Fourth, lessons must be learned from this suicidal political episode and its main promoters must be punished at the polls (both national and European). And fifth, this must be done before the misguided migration policy brings true extreme right to power in Europe.