Europe finally faces up to migrant crisis: Germany looks set to vote in anti-migrant chancellor, France blames soft UK for Channel crossings, Ireland faces homeless crisis… while hard-right Meloni HAS tackled the problem
European governments have begun to face up to the challenges of the migrant crisis, making strong moves to provide a fair system that cuts casualties and protects legal routes of entry.
European governments have begun to face up to the challenges of the migrant crisis, making strong moves to provide a fair system that cuts casualties and protects legal routes of entry.
Nations on the continent have faced the brunt of uncontrolled migration in recent years, and are now navigating how to assimilate huge numbers of refugees from war-torn countries, illegal crossings facilitated by Russia, and legal migrants held up by a broken system.
Germany, jaded by Angela Merkels relaxed rules and lack of resolution under Olaf Scholz, is expected to vote in comeback candidate Friedrich Merz as Chancellor, campaigning with a hard stance on migration and Russia in a pivot for his party.
France, meanwhile, has urged Britain to stop being in denial about the scale of the challenge and is calling for reforms to the system. British and French officials remain locked in discussions to agree a new policy that deters illegal crossings facilitated by smuggling gangs.
Ireland faces pressure from protesters to restrict movement across through its borders, with immigration having become a frontline issue in the upcoming election. Ending a policy of housing migrants in hotels has pushed hundreds of single male asylum seekers into sleeping rough on city streets, prompting an urgent policy rethink.
And Italy, under the leadership of hard-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, has already taken drastic steps to address the flow of migration with camps for asylum seekers awaiting a decision set up in Albania. But challenges remain for leaders to act quickly and deliver a viable solution both fair and proportionate to the task.
Police at the German-Polish border control traffic as enhanced border checks are introduced on September 16
An Italian Coast Guard vessel carrying migrants rescued at sea passes between tourist boats, on Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, September 18, 2023
The migration question remains a key voting issue going into elections across the continent. In 2022, the most recent year with available data, 7.03 million people immigrated to the EU as 2.73 million left - a difference of 4.3 million.
The end of Covid saw the number of residence permits handed out climb from 3 million in 2019 to 3.6 million in 2023, and global conflicts have put pressure on safe nations to house refugees displaced by war.
While migration is essential to filling in-demand jobs, like agriculture across much of Europe, and brings the benefits of growth, reduced debt and shared ideas, large-scale and uncontrolled migration also presents challenges.
Net migration accounts for 89 per cent of the 1.34 million increase in Englands housing deficit over the last 10 years, and rental markets have likewise been affected.
The British public also raises concerns about screening, ensuring thorough health and crime background checks for all migrants and the introduction of an age cap, as found elsewhere.
Europeans are putting pressure on their governments to deliver responsible systems that respond to demand for jobs in key sectors while ensuring migration keeps to levels that do not overwhelm public services.
As Keir Starmer looks to resolve Britains small boats crisis and smash the gangs with his border security command, other European leaders are trialing new measures and urging deep reform to tackle the problem.
France
France has looked to tackle migration with enhanced border checks, in place from this month, in a move mirroring Germany.
French authorities informed the European Commission last month that its borders with six of its neighbouring Schengen members - namely Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland - would be reinforced with increased checks from November 1 for at least six months.
The controls will be applied to travellers entering France via land, sea and air routes from all six nations and are set to expire on April 1, 2025, but authorities have said they could be extended further.
A French government statement declared the checks were introduced due to serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities... criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals.
It is the first time France has introduced such controls since the Covid-19 pandemic and could see migrants and unauthorised travellers turned back at the border and those suspected of criminal activity detained.
France has been rocked by a number of recent attacks and threats around the Paris Olympics, sparking discourse around vetting. The government also has the task of managing illegal migration over the Channel - and has urged Britain to be more tough on crossings to deter smuggling gangs operating in France.
The Mayor of Calais today labelled British calls for French border police to be tougher on illegal migration as pure hypocrisy and pushed to scrap a deal between the two countries aimed at cracking down on Channel crossings.
Natacha Bouchart asked why France should shell out millions of euros to prevent the crossings of small boats over the Channel only for migrants to be allowed to work illegally with little chance of being deported when they land on British shores.
When the migrants arrive in Britain they work easily without documents. The British government must stop being in denial. In reality, they accept migrants passing through Calais so they have to change the system. The UK should be stopping people, not us.
We think the French government and Europe arent being tough enough on this toward the British government, she told BBC Radio 4.
Rishi Sunaks government offered £500 million to France over three years to help curb small boat crossings. The money was intended to go towards new officers and a new detention centre to be operation by 2026.
Speaking at the time, President Macron praised the cooperation and said joint efforts had stopped 30,000 such crossings and made 500 arrests in the past year.
Under the existing Le Touquet Agreement (2003), British officers are also able to operate in French territory to vet legal passengers arriving in Britain by Ferry.
But local officials in northern France have called for the treaty to be scrapped, citing the unbearable level of migration and Britains perceived inaction, Radio 4 reports.
Migrants board a smugglers boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France
Police stand at a customs checkpoint at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, in the northern outskirts of Paris, on October 18, 2024
Germany
Germany is expected to go to the polls on February 23 after the collapse of the coalition government on November 6.
Immigration has become a key issue to voters, with Germany today the third largest refugee-hosting country after granting temporary protection to 1.2 million Ukrainians displaced by the war.
Germany receives the most asylum applications in the EU - nearly a third of all total claims to the 27 member states.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkels decision to admit over a million refugees fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 has proven controversial - with even Merkel herself admitting that while she still supported her decision, for some time we didnt have enough control at Germanys border.
High profile reports of attacks by migrants with criminal backgrounds fuelled rhetoric and saw Chancellor Olaf Scholz push to arrange new migration deals abroad.
In August, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.
The alleged attacker, a 26-year-old Syrian man with suspected links to the Islamic State group, was slated for deportation but evaded attempts by authorities to remove him.
Chancellor Scholzs coalition also sought to recoup support with stricter measures in place along Germanys vast borders.
Germany announced strict controls in September, intended to remain in place for an initial period of six months.
Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced.
But these will now be expanded to Germanys borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
Germany subsequently presented rigorous rules on asylum that would see more people turned away at its frontiers.
The proposals include detaining asylum seekers while authorities determine whether Germany is responsible for processing their case with the help of Europes shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, amongst other tools, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told a news conference.
We want people whose asylum procedure is the responsibility of another EU country to be sent back there, Faeser said.
The November collapse of the German government invites the possibility of change, with centre-right Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union expected to perform well after campaigning on a stronger stance on migration.
His return to frontline politics reflects a shift in popular attitudes, after he was displaced by Merkel some 20 years ago. Merz stepped out of politics in 2009 to become a lawyer, but now finds himself more popular than his SPD rival, Olaf Scholz.
Controlling the narrative on migration will be a challenge for the right amid rising support for far-right options, however.
In September, far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) celebrated an historic success, with the party winning almost a third of the vote in the eastern state of Thuringia.
AfD took between 30.5% and 33.5% of the vote in the former East German state of Thuringia, with the conservative CDU coming in second place with 24.5% of the vote. AfD also performed well in Saxony.
Leader Bjoern Hoecke is one of Germanys most controversial far-right politicians and was fined twice this year for deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan.
People protest against the rising cost of living in a demonstration organized by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) political part
Austria
Germans will be looking nervously at Austria after its hard-right and Russophile Freedom Party won the countrys national elections on an anti-immigration campaign in September
Its Fortress Austria programme through the election called for the remigration of uninvited foreigners, for achieving a more homogeneous nation.
They detailed a plan to introduce tougher border checks and suspend the right to asylum via an emergency law.
Austria has taken in tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and provided millions of euros in humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.
It has also signed a framework agreement worth 600 million euros for the construction of several hospitals in Ukraine.
The partys leader, Herbert Kickl, is seen by critics as being soft on Vladimir Putin, and has repeatedly called for an end to Austrian support for Ukraine, and an end to sanctions on Russia.
His victory marks the first time a hard-right party has won a parliamentary vote in Austria since the fall of the Third Reich.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, of the liberal-conservative Austrian Peoples Party, had also looked to draw support away from the hard-right, earlier this year hailing Rwanda-style deals as the way to fix the EUs immigration system.
Nehammer said during a meeting with then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in May that having safe asylum proceedings in safe third countries could save human lives by eradicating smuggling routes, and it is something we need to put on the EUs agenda as well.
Nehammer said before the meeting today that asylum procedures in safe third countries outside Europe are a necessity.
One thing is clear to me: Europe needs a completely new asylum system, he posted on social media.
Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl speaking in Vienna following his partys election victory
Ireland
Irelands economy has attracted immigrants since the 1990s when eye-popping growth earned it the Celtic Tiger moniker.
After recession and economic slowdown from 2008, immigration surged again following the coronavirus pandemic, plugging job vacancies in booming tech, construction, and hospitality sectors, as well as healthcare.
Some 20 percent of Irelands 5.4-million population is now foreign-born. Official data showed a population increase fuelled by migration of around 100,000 in the year to April 2024 - the largest since 2007.
But rapid demographic growth has heaped pressure on housing, services and infrastructure strained by lack of investment, fanning anti-migrant sentiment and hitting still largely favourable attitudes to immigration.
Around 110,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since Russias full-scale invasion in 2022, one of the highest numbers per head of population in the EU.
Meanwhile asylum applications have surged to record levels since 2022, with this years figures driven by a fourfold increase in people arriving from Nigeria.
The large inflow and the housing crisis has prompted the government to stop providing accommodation to all asylum seekers last year.
That forced hundreds of single male applicants to sleep rough in tents, sparking hostile reactions from some anti-migrant locals.
Ireland has also seen a spike in arson attacks on buildings rumoured or earmarked to provide reception centres for asylum seekers.
Last year the largest riot seen in Dublin for decades was triggered by a knife attack on children by an Irish national of immigrant origin.
Leading into the election on November 29, voices taking a harder stance on migration have found an audience for the first time.
Ireland is one of the few European Union members without any large established far-right party. But for the first time, immigration has become a frontline election issue.
Malachy Steenson, part of an emerging group of ultra-nationalist politicians who performed well at local elections this year, told the AFP news agency plainly: We need to close the borders and stop any more migrants coming in.
Elected to Dublin City Council in June, he is running as an independent in the inner-city Dublin Central constituency that is now one of Irelands most ethnically diverse.
Most mainstream parties have spent much of the campaign bickering over solutions to Irelands acute housing shortage.
Immigration is on everyones minds, said Caroline Alwright, a fruit and vegetable stall-owner on Moore Street, a historic city-centre market which has become a multicultural meeting place for different nationalities.
A lot of people will vote for independent candidates, they see what is going on in this country, said Alwright, 62, a veteran trader nicknamed by customers the Queen of Moore Street.
Students at Dublin City University have been more supportive of immigration.
We are not full, thats a closed mindset, said Carla Keogh, 19, a teaching student.
If we look into our own past, Irish people left to find help and support in other places, as humans we need to open ourselves up.
Tents being provided to migrants in Ireland are being paid for with taxpayers money, MailOnline revealed earlier this year
Asylum seekers tents on the Grand Canal bank at Warrington Place, Dublin
Italy
Italys government formally opened two new migrant centres in Albania last month where refugees will be sent after being intercepted in the Mediterranean.
The centres reportedly have capacity to accommodate up to 400 illegal migrants as a start, expected to increase to 880 in a few weeks, according to Italian officials speaking off the record.
The two controversial facilities will cost Italy around £560.7 million over five years, will be run by Italy, and are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards will provide external security.
The number of people reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean migration route from North Africa has fallen by 61 per cent in 2024 from 2023s figures.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of October 11, 52,425 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, compared to 138,947 by the same date last year.
Under a five-year deal signed last November by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania.
The controversial agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-EU member country was endorsed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an example of out-of-box thinking in tackling the issue
But human rights groups slammed the move as setting a dangerous precedent.
Meloni and her right-wing allies have long demanded that European countries share more of the migration burden.
She has held up the Albania agreement as an innovative solution to a problem that has vexed the EU for years.
In the 1990s, Italy took in large numbers of Albanians and Rome is now one of the most solid backers of Albanias EU accession hopes.
A challenge will be to ensure Italy can still meet demand in struggling sectors.
While Italy talks tough on migration, Melonis agricultural minister - who last year told Italians to have children or be replaced by migrants - has pushed for more visas for migrant workers to come and toil on farms.
This week it was revealed Labour is plotting a series of Italy-style migrant deals with governments in Kurdistan, Turkey and Vietnam in a bid to tackle the small boats crisis.
This aerial photo shows the site of a recently built Italian-run migrant centre at the port of Shengjin, Albania, on October 11
The Netherlands
The Netherlands will also move to more tightly control its borders as part of a wider crackdown on migration brought forward by the countrys right-wing coalition.
New controls in place from December 9 will last six months after receiving backing from anti-Muslim nationalist Geert Wilders PVV party, the biggest in the coalition.
Measures will reportedly include limiting asylum permits to a maximum of three years, and restricting possibilities for asylum seekers who are allowed to stay to reunite with family members, it was reported.
The tough new border checks to be introduced in the Netherlands were already part of the coalition agreement the parties reached in July, following Wilders resounding election victory almost a year ago.
But it took the parties months to reach a compromise on the way forward, as Wilders insisted on declaring a national asylum crisis that would enable the government to bypass parliament.
Such a move, however, was opposed not only by opposition parties but also by one of the PVVs coalition partners, who all questioned whether it was necessary or even legal.
Wilders, who triumphed in the 2023 Dutch general election to see his far-right PVV party become the largest in the House of Representatives, has also expressed support for Germanys suggested migrant plan, announced in September.
He has struggled to gain support within the Netherlands and stepped back from his bid for prime minister in March, citing a lack of support from potential coalition partners, but has found a receptive audience through his staunch position on immigration.
If Germany can do it, why cant we? As far as Im concerned: the sooner, the better, he wrote.
Both the far-Right PVV and the Right-wing Liberal VDD parties have shown interest in greater border checks in line with those recently announced by Germany.
Migration minister Majolein Faber has already asked military police to begin preparations.
In the meantime, we are talking to Germany about working together, she said on social media.
That week, Faber said she was aiming for the strictest asylum policy ever, citing issues in housing, health and education.
She said her aim was to legally declare an asylum crisis, which will allow me to take measures to combat it.
