The summer of 2015 will have been one of emergencies and dramas for Europe. It was not only the financial crisis and the Greek case that took the stage, but some of the Member States and the whole community were concerned the humanitarian emergency linked to immigration. Do you know anything in particularItaly, which, when there are still four months to go until the end of the year, is already traveling over 100 landings (there were 171 in 2014): despite the legal difficulties and the tragic aspects associated with deaths at sea and the human drama of migrants, the forces of However, the order managed to identify almost 20 people and to repatriate almost 31 of them as of 9 July.
Few, according to some, many, if one considers the impossibility of giving a second chance to people who in most cases are not simple irregular migrants (migrants who enter a foreign country illegally) but refugees or displaced persons, or people who have fled or been expelled from their own country due to political, religious, racial discrimination or, in the case of refugees, from real wars and persecutions. According to data from the Viminale updated to 7 August, the most declared nationality at the time of landing is Eritrean, a former Italian colony which this year alone has forced over 26 people to flee. Then there are Nigerians, Somalis, Syrians, and other migrants from African countries, with the exception of the more than 4 arriving from Bangladesh, through who knows what vicissitudes. On the other hand, the ranking of repatriations is led by the Albanians, with 3.250, followed by the Tunisians and the Moroccans.
However, the case of Italy was not the only one in a summer that tormented other European countries, starting with the nearby France. Few will forget the images that arrived in June from Ventimiglia, on the border between Italy and François Hollande's country: according to some, the transalpine police prevented – even with the use of force – the transit of some migrants (actually a few hundred, but the episode was symbolically significant). This is because European regulations provide that, with regard to political asylum seekers, each country keeps its "guests", thus leaving the hot potato to geographically (and legally?) more exposed states such as Italy and Greece.
The interior ministers of the 28 countries met in mid-June to agree on the new ones Union guidelines on immigration, which provided for the redistribution of asylum seekers in the various countries of the Union through a quota system. The proposal had been made by the European Commission and in particular envisaged the relocation of 40 migrants who had arrived in Italy and Greece to the various countries of the Union: an agreement, however, never found, due to the intransigence of France and Germany. However, some migrants arrived in France anyway and then tried to reach Great Britain: some of them tried crossing dramatically on foot the Channel Tunnel, which connects Calais to Dover and where dozens of people have died since June. Just a few hours ago the two governments reached a collaboration agreement to jointly intensify checks in Calais and repatriate irregular migrants.
Another epicenter of the emergency was the Greece. If the economic and political crisis that has overwhelmed it wasn't enough, the Greek country has also had to shoulder the weight of immigration. And practically in silence, at least until the case of theprison island of Kos: the images of thousands of immigrants crowded into a soccer field under a scorching sun (in the hottest July in recent history…) have gone around the world, even inspiring a scathing investigation by the New York Times. And now the neighbor too Macedonia declare a state of emergency.
Then there are those who, favored by the fact that they are not surrounded by the sea, have incredibly even thought of erecting a wall to defend their borders: it is the Hungary of controversial premier Viktor Orban, which in July got the Magyar Parliament to approve new measures to combat a phenomenon that actually affects Budapest and its surroundings much more - proportionally - than any other European country. In the first three months of 2015, Hungary received 32.810 asylum applications (70% from Kosovars), against 2.735 the previous year: behind only Germany and more than double the Italian ones. In proportion to its inhabitants, Hungary therefore has the highest number of asylum seekers in Europe. But apparently, it won't be there that many of them will find a second chance. But building new walls is certainly not the way to solve the emergency.
The question, on a continental level, is therefore increasingly open and calls for a political response that has not yet existed. And also new resources.
According to data from the “Migrant files” investigation, in the last 15 years, European countries have spent around 11,3 billion euros to expel irregular migrants and 1,6 billion to strengthen border controls. Each expulsion costs an average of four thousand euros, and half of the cost is used to cover the transport. The European Union's border agency (Frontex) has used around one billion euros and the Mediterranean countries at least 70 million to buy boats, night vision goggles, drones and other means to try to control the borders. Since 2011, Italian taxpayers paid the Libyan authorities over 17 million euros for the purchase of ships and night vision instruments and to train men. The Spanish have spent 10 million euros on the maintenance of the gates around their enclaves in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. For their part, and this is the saddest and most demeaning fact, migrants paid over 15,7 billion euros to traffickers to try to reach Europe. Between the money spent by European countries and that paid by those who want to reach the continent, 27 billion euros have been used in 15 years. But the drama remains before everyone's eyes.
