“Europe hasn't got open borders, only the Schengen area has…”
So that’s just all of western mainland Europe (including some non-EU nations), Iceland and Greece; the Baltic States and eastern European nations that border Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. With Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Croatia (plus any new EU members) bound to join. Not too big an area, then.
“Sounds pretty much like what my parents wanted for their children;…”
Quite so. Mine too. The difference is that our parents did not up sticks and foist themselves, uninvited, on another nation. They stayed here and worked hard to make a success of themselves for their children here.
As I said in a question earlier this week, the Schengen Agreement was the second most disastrous policy foisted on the people of Europe (a close second only to the single currency) in recent times. It was obvious to anybody with half a brain that if you allow uncontrolled movement for those people entitled to be in Europe you would do the same for those not entitled to be here. The eastern borders of France and Spain are now effectively with Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Although its EU neighbours are not Schengen members those arriving in Greece have little trouble making their way to Hungary and then all points west. Even the most ardent of the Euromaniacs are now beginning to doubt the wisdom of the Schengen Agreement and some are calling for its suspension.
The notion that Europe should simply open its borders to all and sundry who don’t like it where they are is lunacy. Life isn’t fair and some places are more pleasant and prosperous than others. Many of those “fleeing” to Europe are from places where there is little or no trouble. Places such as Bangladesh where my local curry house owner goes for six weeks each year. He calls it “home” even though he was born here.
There are rumblings in the EU that the “solution” to this problem is for all EU nations to take their “fair share” of migrants. Yesterday Morgan Johansson, the Swedish Migration Minister warned that the UK will eventually be forced to take a share of the new arrivals: “Everyone that is part of the EU should do their share, and that goes for everyone. Sooner or later there will be a mechanism that makes it compulsory for all countries to do their share because that’s the way Europe works”. Absolute rubbish. There is nothing in any EU Treaty that says member states must absorb a “share” of illegal migration and in any case it is not the way this particular issue will work. Migrants arriving in the EU do not want to be “shared out” to Romania, Slovakia or Poland. They want to go to Germany, Sweden France and the UK. If they finish up in Poland they will not remain there. Courtesy of Schengen they will be free to roam to all of the EU bar the UK and Ireland and if granted an EU passport they will be free to come here as well.
The EU needs to get a grip by abandoning Schengen and policing its external borders. Genuine asylum seekers must be identified quickly (though there is a case, I would suggest, for refusing to take any new asylum cases at all) and this must be done, as UN and EU rules dictate, in the country of arrival. Nothing else will do.