16/01/2015
Asylum seekers took a considerable media hit yesterday, not least the
opening of a new camp in Calais, provoking complaints that it would act as "magnet" for migrants, and the
Channel 4 report on people smuggling out of Turkey. The issue then made the front page of the
Daily Mail today.
Surprisingly lightly reported, however, was a story by
Reuters telling us that the Bulgarian government has announced its intention to extend its 20-mile security fence along its border with Turkey by a further 80 miles.
Why it should perhaps have got more attention is because it is so closely linked with the Calais and Turkish events, so as to make part of a continuum which spells a long tale of failure of migration control that has different countries spending fortunes to absolutely no avail.
Getting it absolutely right is Boris Ceshirkov, UNHCR spokesman in Bulgaria, who told Reuters that the fence was "increasingly leading people, including families with small children, to undertake more dangerous crossings and it further puts refugees in the hands of relentless smugglers and traffickers".
In fact, though, that problem goes back to 1999 when the Spanish fenced off the North African enclave of Mellila in an attempt to prevent migration, erecting an intimidating new barrier â two parallel 4m wire fences, topped with razor wire and a tarmac strip running between, patrolled by the Guardia Civil, all of it monitored by 106 video cameras, infra-red sensors, microphones and helicopters.
The success of this, however, was somewhat tempered by the actions of potential migrants, who simply switched routes, many choosing the more hazardous sea passage from the West African coast to the Canaries.
When that route was closed off with more active patrolling, migrants took the overland route to Libya and thence by sea to Italy. To close that route, the Italians brokered a deal with Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, which for a time interrupted the flow, putting the pressure back on Mellila, which responded with a higher, stronger fence.
Again, though, the migrants simply found another route, this one through Turkey and by sea to Greece, until a series of circumstances made the land route more attractive. This led to the Greeks building their own fence, which dramatically reduced the flow through its territory (pictured below).
By then, the "Arab Spring" was in full flow, and we saw the central Mediterranean sea route open up again. But, as that was temporarily brought under control, attention moved to another land route. Once again, it was through Turkey, only this time it went across the border to Bulgaria.
In 2013, the country experienced a significant rise in asylum applications, from 1,387 in 2012 to 7,144, peaking in the second half of the year, whence the Bulgarian government devised a "containment plan", deploying 1,500 additional policemen to patrol the border, and the construction of its 20-mile security fence.
The fence ran mainly through forested, hilly areas where visibility for border patrols was limited, cutting by nearly a half the number of asylum seekers successfully crossing the border, even though attempts to cross from Turkey had doubled. But, with a new surge from Syria in progress, an extension, at a cost of about â¬46 million, is now deemed necessary.
However, the net effect of the fencing so far has not been to arrest the migrant flow, but - rather like the Maginot line in shifting the line of attack - has merely displace it. The immediate response to the Bulgarian fence was to resume boat migration from Libya and, latterly, to use people smugglers working out of Turkey to send old cargo ships packed with migrants, over the sea to Italy.
Thus, the effect of all this activity has been to intensify the migrant flow into Italy, a country with an elongated coastline that is almost impossible to police. And, in defiance of EU law, the response of the Italian government has been to allow the migrants to pass through, mainly into Germany and Sweden and also France, where many have attempted to cross the Channel to England.
Earlier attempts to stem the flow into England involved closing down the refugee camp in Sangatte in 2002, after complaints that it was acting as a "magnet" for migrants. But, after increasingly tense relations with the French authorities, yesterday saw the opening of a "'new Sangatte".
This is the Jules Ferry camp, built on the site of a former children's summer camp. It has on offer beds, showers, food and power points to charge phones for upwards of 2,500 migrants. Spread over 12 acres, it includes three football pitches and a tennis court, financed in part from a £3 million EU grant.
This has immediately invoked complaints that the facilities will again attract new migrants, which look to be completely justified, all the more so when contrasted with the way the French government treats its own asylum seekers.
According to
Amnesty International, around two thirds of the asylum-seekers in France do not have access to reception centres, contrary to their rights under national and EU Law. Consequently, many are homeless and destitute. Furthermore, they are not allowed to work while their applications are being processed, and in the majority of cases they are refused permission to work during the appeal process.
We thus have a situation where people who refused to register as asylum seekers in France, and who hold out in an attempt to reach the UK, are treated better than those who apply formally to the French State for protection, thus incentivising them to risk the additional trip to England, rather than remain in France.
Overall, therefore, we are at the end of the chain in an elaborate and cynical game of pass the parcel. One by one, routes into the EU area are closed off, but the flow is unabated. And, as the refugees come, they are passed on by receiving states, pushed towards the northern states, many of them arriving in the United Kingdom with the complicity of Italy and France, in contravention of EU law.
This chain makes a complete mockery of EU asylum policy, and while Member States drive a wagon train of horses and carts through the law, the Commission sits in Brussels, bleating ineffectually about the need to "move forward with commitment and resolve".
This is a problem that has been building for years and for which there is no easy resolution. In an election year, though, where the problem is now set to get considerably worse, the politicians need to come up with some answers. To date, none have even begun to scratch the surface.
