THE WALLS THAT DIVIDE
President Trump wants to build a wall. Some European nations already have.
KUBEKHAZA, Hungary – As mayor of this Hungarian village where tens of thousands of migrants marched toward northern Europe, Robert Molnar has some sympathy for his country’s decision to build a fence on the border with Serbia. But Molnar has a message for Americans: Don’t let President Trump build his wall with Mexico.
“We have a serious immigration issue. Europe is not prepared. It is important to protect our sovereignty. I accept that,” Molnar, 47, said in his office in Kubekhaza, a short distance from the point where the boundaries of Hungary, Romania and Serbia meet.
“It serves no purpose other than political theater. It should come down. I would urge Americans to examine whether Trump’s wall will really make them safer or better off,” Molnar said.
He pointed out that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch anti-immigration nationalist who easily won a third term, ordered $1 billion in electrified fencing equipped with cameras and heat sensors to keep out migrants.
Orban referred to refugees as “Muslim invaders” and vowed during the election campaign to protect Hungary from the “rust” of Muslim immigration.
“Orban decided we needed this wall. And that is the only reason we have it,” Molnar said. “If migrants want to come to Kubekhaza, for exam-
ple, all they have to do is simply walk here from (neighboring) Romania, where there is no wall.”
Since the start of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, at least 800 miles of fences have been erected by Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia and others — a swift and concrete reaction as more than 1.8 million people flooded Europe, fleeing war zones from Afghanistan to Syria.
The total length of the European barriers is about 40% of the span of the 2,000-mile wall Trump wants built between the USA and Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants. About 700 miles of U.S. fencing exists.
A visit to Hungary and Slovenia — the two countries with the region’s largest expanse of fences — revealed that those who live and work near these barriers often find they serve little purpose and say they can be psychologically damaging. It’s a verdict with significance for Americans as Trump pushes his signature campaign promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.
Emile Farran, 77, who works on a vineyard in Slovenia’s Istria region, pointed to an opening the length of a football field in the 15-foot-high fence topped with barbed wire intended to secure Slovenia’s border with Croatia.
“There is no need for this thing,” he said. “This is not a place where strangers ever pass. If the government really wants to help people like me, it should think about buying us some new tractors.”
These fences built in Europe differ from the one Trump wants along the Mexican border, said Ema Zuagen, 65, a retired physical therapist having coffee in Sevnica, Slovenia, the hometown of first lady Melania Trump.
“The thing about Trump’s wall is that it would keep out Mexicans and South Americans, who are mostly Catholic,” said Zuagen, who approves of the barriers. “Whereas our walls are keeping out immigrants who are mostly Islamic. There is a big difference.”