As tired, poor, huddled masses arrive tempest-tossed on Europe’s teeming shores, the response from the capitals has been one of panic and paralysis.
It is true that migration into Europe has risen since April, when it was considered worthy of an emergency EU summit. In July, the number of people detected at the EU’s borders was 107,500, more than three times the number in July 2014.
And yet there is no coherent EU plan to deal with the refugees. Most countries want to pass them on elsewhere, and no one bar German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems ready to stand up for the strangers on their shores. This could have been a moment for the European Union and its member states to embrace the desperate and destitute. Yet the new arrivals have been greeted with a shrieking political inferno about supposed mass swarms who will seize jobs, squeeze resources and uproot traditions.
The refugee crisis - in pictures
The EU’s rules for processing people where they arrive have crumbled as temporary border controls re-emerge. The so-called Dublin Regulation, which says asylum-seekers must apply in the first EU member state they reach, has only led countries to play against one another.
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Number of Syrian refugees Britain has taken would fit on Tube train
If these images don’t change Europe’s attitude, what will?
In the absence of a common EU policy, some countries are taking matters into their own hands: Slovakia says it will only admit Christian refugees; Hungary has erected a fence, a macabre recall of the Iron Curtain; Macedonia, which hopes to join the EU, has deployed the army to prevent migrants from passing through.
All the while, Britain’s bleating about the crowds in Calais is matched by its dismal pledge to take in just 1,000 Syrians. As for the EU, an “extraordinary” meeting of justice and home affairs ministers has been called – but won’t take place until 14 September. The European Commission’s May plan for an “automatic redistribution” of refugees among all the member states has all but been rejected, with many countries unwilling to accept quotas.
Europe’s leaders are fumbling because of politics. Eurosceptic and anti-immigrant parties are surging in countries such as France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. Riding waves of anger over the economic downturn, they are stirring fears about the impact of mass migration on local jobs and services, as well as national identity.
