Opening national borders has been an abject failure
AS THE immigration crisis deepens, a mood of anarchy is descending across Europe. Our once well- ordered civilisation is sliding towards chaos in the face of the unprecedented, colossal influx of foreign arrivals. The signs of dislocation are all around us.
Only yesterday the Eurostar service from Paris to London suffered massive delays because of a major security alert sparked by migrants climbing on to tracks and trains. Meanwhile in the Hungarian capital of Budapest thousands of migrants thronged outside the main railway station after police sealed off the terminal to prevent them travelling to Germany and Austria.
Such turbulent scenes are being repeated across the continent. The numbers involved are staggering. In July alone it is estimated that 107,500 migrants entered Europe.
In response to this catastrophe European Union politicians have adopted their usual mixture of handwringing inaction, self- righteous bombast and ideological posturing. Devoid of any urgency or realistic solutions they tell us that they will be holding a summit on the crisis – in a fortnight.
At the same time they see the disaster as another opportunity to further their agenda of political integration and the abolition of national identities.
Typical of this approach was the remark from the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi this week that there “will have to be a single European asylum policy”, which would no doubt be about as a successful as a single European currency.
IN PURSUIT of unification the EU leaders have also indulged in the blame game, whingeing that certain countries, especially Britain, have failed to take their “fair share” of asylum seekers.
Germany, the driving force behind European federal unity, is particularly keen on this kind of finger- pointing. Filled with a belief in its own moral superiority, the country likes to boast that it plans to take in more than 800,000 refugees this year, a figure which it claims puts the British Government to shame.
This kind of condemnation is absurdly misplaced. Thanks partly to the EU our borders are almost as open as Germany’s. Last year the UK accepted more than 630,000 migrants, by far the highest total in our history.
Instead of mounting ridiculous attacks on Britain, Germany and other European leaders should recognise that the EU is to blame for this shambles. The march towards a federal superstate was meant to usher in a new era of prosperity and solidarity.
Instead it has brought only division, fear, wreckage and despair. What we are now facing is suicidal destruction masquerading as compassion. The European Union is the chief architect of the present migrant crisis. With wilful contempt for the people of Europe, Brussels promoted the idea that nationhood is a danger and patriotism a vice, while the removal of frontiers has been seen as a central task on the way to the creation of the superstate.
In practice the absence of border controls has encouraged the vast hordes to descend on Europe’s shoreline, sure in the knowledge that once they reach EU territory they can travel anywhere in the union.
The recognition that they could then claim lavish welfare benefits in such places as Britain, Germany and Sweden has been a further incentive for mass migration. Contrary to the pernicious myth peddled by the pro- immigration lobby, not all new arrivals come to Europe to work.
Furthermore the EU’s obsession with free movement has totally emasculated the forces that should be protecting European societies, such as the police and army. Once they were our guardians. Now they act as ferry services and tour guides for the migrants.
With its usual grandiosity, the EU has also encouraged the theory that we are the world’s social worker, bearing responsibility for the planet’s suffering masses. But this is nonsense.
WE HAVE no obligation to everyone who wants to come to live in Europe. How many does the EU think we should allow to settle here? All 120 million of the world’s displaced people? All two billion of those who, according to the United Nations, are living under oppression?
We are always told by the ideologues about the joys of mass immigration, how much it boosts our economy and enriches our society. But if migrants are so wonderful why don’t they stay and improve their own countries? Imagine what would have happened in 1940 if the British people and military had refused to fight Nazism, instead fleeing across the Atlantic.
The EU’s approach is a recipe for ruination. The reason so many people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia are coming here is because their countries are hellholes, riddled with corruption, superstition, conflict, tribalism, poverty and extremism. Through mass immigration our rulers are importing the same problems into Europe on a huge scale.
The EU has been one of the most woeful experiments in human history. Its enthusiasm for the abolition of national borders has been as miserable a failure as its abolition of national currencies. Its vision of unity is as bankrupt as the coffers of its member states.
The only way that Britain can avoid further damage is by leaving this monstrous institution. We are currently in the equivalent of an abusive relationship. A vote to quit in the forthcoming referendum will be the one route back to sanity and survival.
‘ EU is chief architect of the migrant crisis’