Leo McKinstry
new depths with this pathetic Mediterranean shuttle initiative. The same is true of the EU’s Frontex agency, which is behaving more like a tour operator than a proper border force. The entire saga reeks of spectacular folly mixed with epic cowardice. In a sane world, where the European political class actually wanted to defend our society, the naval fleet would simply pick up the migrants and return them to Africa, a trip that is a lot shorter than the voyage to Italy.
Then the useless boats would be systematically destroyed as a deterrent to the people smugglers. It would be a straightforward process demonstrating that Europe is serious about guarding its territory. But in the madhouse that is now run by the EU’s politicians, such logic does not apply. Our nominal defenders have become agents of our destruction by actively colluding with mass illegal immigration.
The creation of this transMediterranean ferry service will only encourage even more people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to reach Europe. Already the numbers are utterly out of control. This year more than 105,000 migrants from Africa are estimated to have made the crossing to Italy, while in 2015 the figure was 160,000.
In total more than a million migrants arrived in Europe last year via the Mediterranean and the Aegean. As the Jungle camp in Calais shows, all too many are keen to get to Britain.
In defence of their soft-touch approach in Italy, politicians and pressure groups resort to sentimentality, endlessly parading images and stories about the supposed desperation of the migrants. This is the same form of emotional blackmail that was used during the refugee crisis in Europe last year when a picture of a drowned child on a beach was cynically exploited to stifle opposition to the reckless decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open the floodgates. Their propaganda is a colossal exercise in deceit. Most of the migrants are not desperate refugees fleeing persecution but are young men after a better lifestyle. If they are as skilled and hard-working as their advocates pretend why do they not use their talents to improve their own countries?
THE truth is there is nothing humane about this fashionable fetish for immigration into Europe. It imposes huge burdens on our infrastructure, undermines social cohesion, breeds criminality and fuels terrorism. It is no coincidence that since the refugee problem exploded Europe has been plagued by violent sexual assaults and Islamist atrocities. A climate of domestic fear is the ultimate consequence of the Italian navy’s foreign ferry service.
EU politicians have adopted this policy over Libya partly because they think with their usual self-delusion that it displays their moral virtue and partly because it helps to undermine the traditional order of Europe.
In their eyes multiculturalism and mass immigration are key instruments to smash the old idea of nationhood. It is no coincidence that “United in Diversity” is one of the EU’s most prominent slogans. But as the social fabric is torn apart by uncontrolled immigration the people of Europe are paying a terrible price for this disastrous ideology.
‘This was no heroic rescue mission’