EU to tighten borders to keep unwanted migrants away

On Feb 10, 2023

European Union leaders have said they would tighten their borders to keep away unwanted immigrants.

The leaders disclosed this on Thursday stating that Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Denmark were among the 27 national leaders meeting in EU hub Brussels to express concern about increasing irregular arrivals, with some 330,000 border crossings recorded last year.

“European countries are experiencing a big increase in the number of people who are coming from outside Europe on an irregular basis,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

“It’s important that we, as Europeans decide who enters our countries, not the human traffickers… Those who gain refugee status have the right to remain but others don’t, and they should be returned.”

Immigration has been a highly politically sensitive topic in the EU since 2015 when more than a million people – mostly fleeing the war in Syria – crossed the Mediterranean into Europe, and member states fought bitterly over how to provide for them.

Unable to agree, the bloc of 450 million people has turned to tightening its borders to prevent people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia from arriving, despite criticisms that such policy was inhuman and neglected labour market gaps.

From Spain and Greece to Latvia and Poland, there were more than 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) of border walls and fences in the EU in 2022, compared to just over 300 kilometres (185 miles) in 2014, according to a report by the European Parliament.

Still, with global mobility restarting since the COVID-19 pandemic, irregular arrivals into the EU rose last year to their highest level since 2016, reviving harsher anti-immigration rhetoric.

MTO/Reuters

European Union