The current refugee crisis is not an EU problem, but rather "a German problem," according to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban as his nation's borders are swamped with foreigners seeking to travel on to Germany. "People in Europe are full of fear because they see that the European leaders are not able to control the situation," he exclaimed after a meeting with EU President Schultz. He is right, of course, as we detailed here [11]and here [12], but the sheer scale of the tragedy is worst than many could imagine. Orban defended his decision to erect a fence along its southern border with Serbia, saying: "we don’t do this for fun, but because it is necessary," adding rather pointedly that his country was being "overrun" with refugees, most of whom, according to the prime minister, were not Christians.
The disturbing image of a drowned Syrian boy has crystallized the crisis across Europe for most of the rest of the world...
[13]
And this morning's actions...
As refugees flood into Europe from across The Middle East and Africa... (At least 450,000 of Syria’s pre-2011 Christian population of 1.17 million are either internally displaced or living as refugees abroad.)
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As AFP explains, it shows no signs of abating...
As The FT reports, [15]
Europe is facing the most serious refugee crisis since the end of the second world war.
In response, EU leaders are acting in very different ways. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has taken the humanitarian high ground, declaring that her country will receive up to 800,000 asylum applicants this year and confronting the anti-immigrant voices in her country. By contrast, David Cameron seems to be taking a mean approach, strictly limiting the number of refugees Britain will receive.
And Hungary's Prime Minister is now daring to speak out [16] - demanding action from his 'colleagues' in The Union...
"We Hungarians are full of fear, people in Europe are full of fear because they see that the European leaders, among them prime ministers, are not able to control the situation," Orban said on Thursday, after a meeting with European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels.
The prime minister added: "I came here to inform the president that Hungary is doing everything possible to maintain order. We are creating now in the Hungarian parliament a new package of regulations, we set up a physical barrier and all these together will provide a new situation in Hungary and in Europe from September 15. Now we have one week of preparation time."
On Thursday, Hungarian police allowed hundreds of migrants inside Budapest's main railway station, but then the authorities canceled all trains to Western Europe, causing chaos.
Hundreds of people, many of them fleeing conflicts zones in the Middle East with their children, took a waiting train by storm, trying to push kids through open windows, hoping they would be allowed to continue their journey west to Austria, Germany and further afield. But signs in Hungarian said there were no west-bound trains, Reuters reported. It's unclear why the police had suddenly withdrawn, having stopped more than 2,000 migrants from entering for two days.
Hungary is currently building a 3.5 meter-high fence on its southern border with Serbia designed to deter migrants. So far this year, 140,000 have been caught entering the country.
Following talks with the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, Orban noted the current refugee crisis was not an EU problem, but rather "a German problem," as he put it.
According to Orban, none of the migrants want to "stay in Hungary."
"All of them want to go to Germany," the Hungarian prime minister said.
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As we concluded previously, [11]
The refugee issue can and will not be solved by the EU, or inside the EU apparatus, at least not in the way it should. Nor will the debt issue for which Greece was merely an ‘early contestant’. The EU structure does not allow for it. Nor does it allow for meaningful change to that structure. It would be good if people start to realize that, before the unholy Union brings more disgrace and misery and death upon its own citizens and on others.
However this is resolved and wherever the refugees end up living, we, all of us, have the obligation to treat them with decency and human kindness in the meantime. We are not.
Russia appears to get it...
Refugee crisis in Europe reaches “catastrophic” level as result of “irresponsible” approach to provoking regime change, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tells reporters in Moscow.
Which means this is the tip of iceberg compared to what is coming... [17]
The media focus on a truck in Austria where 70 human beings died, and on a handful of children somewhere who were more dead than alive when discovered. These reports take away from the larger issue, that there are dozens such cases which remain unreported, where there are no camera’s present and no human interest angle to be promoted that a news outlet thinks it can score with.
Brussels and Berlin must throw their energy and their efforts at ameliorating the circumstances in the countries the refugees are fleeing. They need to acknowledge the role they have played in the destruction of these countries. But the chances of any such thing happening are slim to none. Therefore countries like Greece and Italy must draw their conclusions and get out, or they too will be sucked down into the anti-humanitarian vortex that the EU has become.
Europe needs to look at the future of this crisis in very different ways than it is doing now. Or it will face far bigger problems than it does now.
Italy’s Corriere della Sera lifted part of the veil when it said last week [18] (Google translation):
The desperation of millions of human beings, manipulated by traffickers and by terrorist groups is also an instrument of disintegration of the countries of origin and of destabilization of the host countries.
It is estimated that sub-Saharan Africa will have 900 million more inhabitants in the next twenty years. Of these, at least 200 million are young people looking for work. The chaos of their countries of origin will push them further north.
That is the future. It will no more go away by itself, and by ignoring it, than the present crisis, which, devastating as it may be, pales in comparison. Europe risks being overrun in the next two decades. And as things stand, it has no plans whatsoever to deal with this, other than the military, and police dogs, barbed wire, tear gas, fences and stun grenades.
This lack of realism on both the political and the humane level will backfire on Europe and turn it into a very unpleasant place to be, both for Europeans and for refugees. Most likely it will turn the entire continent into a warzone.
The only solution available is to rebuild the places in Syria and Libya et al that the refugees originate from, and allow them to live decent lives in their homelands. If Brussels, and Washington, fail to realize this, things will get real ugly. We haven’t seen anything yet.
So far the EU changes have been a disaster... [19]
[20]
And all this to get a gas pipleine across Syria!!!
