Europe Prepares Crackdown On Illegal Immigrants

As Trump Concedes, Europe Prepares Crackdown On Illegal Immigrants

Zero Hedge,

20 June, 2018

Just as Trump is set to concede in his crackdown on immigrant parents separated from children at the border by signing a "pre-emptive" executive order at any moment keeping illegal immigrant families together, Europe is about to crackdown on the migrant wave unleashed by Angela Merkel (and her various unknown progressive advisors, which some have speculated includes George Soros' Open Society) in 2015 with Germany's "Open Door" policy, and on Sunday countries including France, Germany, Italy, Austria and other EU states will meet to try to end a deadlock on migration policy which has brought to a head bitter political divisions in the bloc, and has resulted in Brexit in the UK, a wave of nationalist governments in Central and Eastern Europe, and the first openly populist government in Italy in decades.

Actually, scratch that: according to Reuters we already know what will be decided - a full-blown crackdown on migration, just in time to save Angela Merkel's job who was recently handed a 2 week ultimatum to resolve Germany immigration troubles by her coalition partner, the CSU.

• EU LEADERS TO AGREE ON SUNDAY IT IS "CRUCIAL TO FURTHER REDUCE ILLEGAL MIGRATION TO EUROPE AS WELL AS SECONDARY MOVEMENTS" INSIDE EU - DRAFT STATEMENT

The official purpose of Sunday's meeting, Reuters writes, is to explore how to prevent migrants from moving around the European Union after claiming asylum in one of the Mediterranean states of arrival, although those states now exclude Italy, which following the League/5-Star government has made it clear it will no longer accept immigrants.

Such secondary movements are illegal under EU law but have been widespread since immigration to Europe peaked in 2015, when more than a million refugees and migrants arrived from the Middle East and Africa. More importantly, the bloc has since been bitterly at odds over how to share out the responsibility of taking care of them.

As a result, Sunday’s meeting will seek to avert a possible clash on the issue at a June 28-29 EU summit, where leaders will try to agree a joint migration policy.

Some states, such as Austria, are already bracing for the worse, and in advance of failing to reach common ground, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he would push on Sunday for rapid action on migration, and suggested Austria might go it alone on creating asylum centres outside the European Union if the deadlock continued for months.

Of course, if there is indeed no deal by June 29, Merkel's government could no longer exist come July 1: Horst Seehofer, CSU leader and Germany’s interior minister, is one of the most outspoken voices behind the migration initiative; the German wants to turn away migrants who have already registered in other EU states, even as Merkel opposes any unilateral move to reverse her 2015 open-door policy and undermine her authority

That, however, is no longer an option:

"We can no longer look on as this refugee tourism across Europe happens," Bavaria’s CSU interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

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Ironically, Europe's crackdown against illegal immigrants comes at a time of international outcry over the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the Mexican border.

The reason why is clear: just like in the US, immigration is increasingly shaping politics in most European countries, even the rich one. The fact that asylum applications to OECD countries fell 25% in 2017 from a record 1.64 million a year earlier and applications to EU member states nearly halved, has not helped, especially since the bulk of Europe's refugees recipients are also its poorest states.

Ironically, it is in ground zero of Europe's progressive, liberal elite, as well as EU’s wealthiest economy, that migration is threatening to wreck German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s relationship with her CDU’s Bavarian sister party, part of her coalition.

The virtue signalling literally reached the very top earlier today, when Pope Francis told Reuters in an interview that populists were “creating psychosis” on the issue of immigration, while aging societies like Europe faced “a great demographic winter” and needed more immigrants. Without immigration, Europe “will become empty”, he said, ignoring the fact that the bulk of terrorist attacks and rising crimes have been attributed largely to said migrants.

The European Union is also bitterly divided. It has struggled to reform its internal asylum rules, which broke down in 2015, and has instead tried to tighten its borders and prevent new arrivals. To that end, it has given aid and money to countries including Turkey, Jordan, Libya and Niger.

Meanwhile, Europe's hypocrisy has been on full display as eastern EU states led by Poland and Hungary were forced, but now refuse to host new arrivals to ease the burden on coastal Italy and Greece while sparing the rich countries like Germany, where most migrants want to go.

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The EU summit’s draft joint statement, seen by Reuters, called for more work to combat secondary movements. It also proposed looking into creating “regional disembarkation platforms” outside of the EU where asylum requests would be assessed before claimants get to Europe.

In typical fashion, the always outspoken Hungarian regime meanwhile approved a package of bills that criminalizes some help given to illegal immigrants, defying the EU and human rights groups who have called the measure arbitrary and vague.

And speaking of minors at the border, Denmark and Norway said they were working on creating a centre in Kabul where unaccompanied Afghan minors who have been denied asylum can be sent back, even though the U.N.'s Children’s Fund UNICEF said minors should not be returned to Afghanistan as security had worsened there.

Shockingly, there has been no mass media outrage - or even mention - of the Scandinavian countries' decision.