By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 14 Apr 2016 • 9:55
EU PLAN: A shambles, illustrating that whenever there’s a crisis it always turns into a disaster.
A controversial EU deal to return tens of thousands of migrants from Greece to Turkey is in chaos amid a last-minute increase in asylum claims, reducing the number of those eligible for deportation, new migrants arriving in Greece faster than they can be sent back, and shortages of officials to carry out deportations!
An EU plan turns out to be a shambles. No! Who’d have thought it? The EU is about to illustrate, again, that whenever there’s a crisis it always turns it into a disaster. This half-baked fiasco is like declaring war and then realising you don’t have an army.
Where was the planning for the necessary infrastructure, the personnel for keeping order and processing these migrants?
Schengen relied on the EU’s external borders being secure and sufficiently controlled. They were neither, a fact that became glaringly obvious ages ago when the first illegal migrants began making for weak spots such as Ceuta and Lampedusa.
The strategy, then, should have been to detain people at their entry point and quickly ascertain their right to asylum leading to either temporary leave to remain in a camp or deportation. That didn’t happen and word soon got out that Europe had weak, porous borders.
Greece’s borders were soon seen as the weakest, and when migrants started arriving on the islands they should have been held there. This is now happening, albeit slowly, so interest will inevitably return to Lampedusa. The strategy now should be that any people-trafficking ships intercepted from Libya will be returned there, but I hold my breath!
Hot on the heels of this ongoing refugee crisis and the recent terrorist carnage, we now have the leaked Panama Papers detailing how tax-evading world leaders, celebrities and assorted tyrants have been squirrelling away massive fortunes over the years. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, when is all this greed and corruption going to end?
Finally, on a different note, many thanks to all of you who purchased my latest, just-published psychological crime thriller, No Way Back, following my piece about it here recently. Thanks also for helping my other novels sell so fantastically well, too. Keep those great comments coming to my website about my novels, all profits of which go to the Cudeca charity!
Nora Johnson’s thrillers ‘No Way Back’, ‘Landscape of Lies’, ‘Retribution’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.nora-johnson.com) available from Amazon in paperback/eBook (€0.89;£0.79) and iBookstore.
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Right â and according to today’s news the EU has relocated just 208 refugeesâ 2.3% – out of the 6000 people from Greece it promised to relocate following the deal with Turkey.
Committee syndrome, as usual. Lots of talk and no action. Getting down to business from day one would have had every fleeing Syrian housed, educated, medically-treated and safe. Instead, Greek islands are overflowing with them, they get shot and beaten in Macedonia and Turkey, and still, the countries who have everything in place waiting for their arrival aren’t getting any. For practical reasons, they can’t be held at the point of arrival; Ceuta’s and Melilla’s CETIs are full. And I think they head to Europe because it’s nearest and safe – it’s a long walk to Oz, Canada or the USA! I think it’s safe to say anyone from Syria or Iraq and most from Somalia and Afghanistan have a genuine asylum claim (note: there’s no such thing as a ‘fake’ asylum-seeker. You or I could apply if we wanted to. We’d be turned down, but we have the legal right to try). So, it’s pretty patent that if they’re from these countries, they should be given a secure place to stay in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Those coming from countries not affected by war or extreme poverty, if Europe wants to limit their numbers, it should work with authorities in source countries to launch campaigns. They had one such TV campaign in Sénégal, with Youssou N’Dour, pointing out the young men would be more use to their countries long-term if they stayed, and that they risked death if they didn’t. Clearly that’s not true of Syria, but it is in much of Africa, conflict zones aside.
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