The topics of the EU summit show how attitudes towards immigration have hardened quickly.
Hannele Muilu
BRUSSELS Ten years ago, there would have been no talk of refugees being sent to centers across the seas.
Saatikka, that the EU Commission will begin to investigate the placement of asylum seekers who have received a decision to be wrecked in deportation centers.
Now Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni gathered around a large group of EU leaders to listen to the transfer of asylum seekers to Albania to await the decision. The first 16 asylum seekers just arrived.
The topics of the EU summit show how attitudes towards immigration have hardened quickly.
Taking away the right to seek asylum, even for a limited period of time, has also not been in line with European values. Seeking asylum is a fundamental right in UN and EU international agreements.
Prime minister Petteri Orpon (collective), the conkers of the EU meetings said that EU leaders have never been so close to each other on immigration issues.
The fact that many prime ministers are now centre-right, or EPP, like the coalition, probably adds to the sense of spirit.
The EPP, like the coalition, has a liberal group but also right-wing members critical of immigration.
According to Orpo, Finland’s need to prevent instrumentalized immigration at the Russian border received a lot of understanding from others at the meeting. Be that as it may, Finland’s border with Russia is quite empty. Poland’s need for a temporary suspension of asylum-seeking seems much more obvious, as Belarus machines refugees to the border. Thousands of refugees have entered the country and there is unrest at the border.
The policeman read fairy tales to the children and did not drive away
More and more people started to think about immigration around 2015, when refugees arrived in Europe in droves to escape, for example, the war in Syria.
I followed the reception of refugees in Sweden in September 2015. Many volunteers gathered at Stockholm’s train station to guide the arrivals and distribute food under the Refugees Welcome sign. In the photos, the police read story books to refugee children at Malmö station and did not evict anyone on their journeys.
In two months, Sweden changed. We started to fear that the welfare state would fail when there were too many people. An increasing number of citizens wanted to limit the number of arrivals.
There were passport checks between Sweden and Denmark, which are always there.
160,000 asylum seekers came to Sweden in 2015. Sweden had long been a refugee-friendly country. The Swedes now repeat themselves quite often that we were naive.
The number of refugees increased again
A record number of refugees came to the EU in 2015, more than 1.3 million, and it still hasn’t recovered from its revolutionary impact. The largest group ended up in Germany. After that, the number of asylum seekers decreased until it rose again to more than 900,000 in 2022.
At the height of the refugee crisis, the EU made an agreement with Turkey, on the basis of which Turkey will stop migrants trying to reach Europe in its country and will receive billions in compensation.
The EU has later made similar agreements with Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.
In the Italy-Albania agreement, asylum seeking takes place outside the EU. Finland also wants to promote the transfer of asylum processes to third countries.
The again increased number of refugees puts the decision-makers on the back foot. Of course, society has a limit of endurance and it is feared that it will be exceeded. There must be schools, jobs and health care for those who come.
Opposition to immigration shows the growing popularity of far-right parties across Europe. Even if far-right parties are not in power, other parties adopt their ideas and goals.
Although the Prime Minister of Hungary Victor Orbán is not popular with the EU leaders, many are on the same lines regarding immigration. According to Orbán, the only way to reduce illegal immigration is to make asylum decisions outside the EU. According to him, those who have already entered the country will not leave even if the decision is negative.
Germany checks passports at all borders
Crises increase the number of refugees and now we are monitoring whether the war in the Middle East drives people away from their homes. The climate crisis can still result in a refugee crisis of a completely different magnitude.
In Europe, Germany is under the greatest pressure. Germany started internal border controls at all its borders to combat illegal immigration. People without documents cannot enter the country.
Neighboring countries have not necessarily been happy with Germany’s decision. For example, Austria has announced that it will not accept undocumented immigrants translated by Germany.
It seems that asylum seekers are not wanted anywhere. They are not seen as eliminating the labor shortage, but as an expense or a threat.