Two recent stories dramatically illustrate Europe’s
looming immigration problem. One concerns a gang estimated to have
smuggled 100,000 illegal immigrants, mainly Turkish Kurds, into Great
Britain. These economic migrants paid between £3,000 and £5,000 to be
transported via an elaborate and dangerous route. The
Independent explains: “Their journeys lasted several weeks and
involved safe houses, lorries with secret compartments and, in some
cases, clandestine flights to airfields in the South-east.”
A
senior British police source commented that “It’s a tortuous
journey, full of discomfort and danger, but they are determined to get
here, given the particular attraction of London’s established Turkish
community.” Turks are hardly alone in wanting access to Europe; the
second story concerns human waves of impoverished sub-Saharan Africans
storming and breaching fences to enter two tiny Spanish enclaves on
the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla.
Until recently, these Iberian vestiges of the Crusades appeared to be
curious remnants of a bygone age. Now, however, they are (along with
the
Canary Islands,
Lampedusa, and
Mayotte) among the European Union’s most isolated and vulnerable
entry points, stepping stones feeding illegal immigrants to the whole
of the European Union. Melilla is a town of 60,000 with a six-mile
[ten-kilometer] border with Morocco, protected by Spanish Legion and
Moroccan civil guard units, high fences bristling with razors, and the
latest anti-personnel technology (sensor pads, movement detectors,
spotlights, infrared cameras). The typical African migrant travels
across the Sahara desert to reach the Mediterranean coast, where he
idles nearby until the right moment for a run to Spanish territory.
“We were just tired of living in the forest,” explained a young man
from
Guinea-Bissau. “There was nothing to eat, there was nothing to
drink.”
In mid-September, the Africans began assaulting the
frontier en masse. Deploying crude ladders made of branches, they used
their weight to bring the fences down in places. As
one of them put it, “We go in a group and all jump at once. We
know that some will get through, that others will be injured and
others may die, but we have to get through, whatever the cost.” The
tactic works. When over 1,000 persons tried to enter Melilla at a
single go in September, an estimated 300 succeeded. In early October,
650 persons ran for the fence and 350 are said to have made it. “There
were just too many of us” to be stopped, observed one
Malian. An estimated
30,000 more Africans await their turn. The confrontation can
resemble a pitched battle. The Africans throw rocks at the security
forces, which respond with bayonets, shotguns, and rubber bullets. The
assaults left about a dozen Africans dead, some trampled in the rush
to Spanish territory, others shot by Moroccan police. Madrid
eventually prevailed on Rabat to crack down on the remaining
Africans-in-waiting, which obliged by
flying some 2,000 of them to their countries of origin and exiling
another 1,000 to Morocco’s southern desert, far from the Spanish
enclaves. The removal was done with some brutality,
dumping the Africans and leaving them to fend off the harsh
elements almost without help. But the unwelcome signal was received.
“I will go back now,” said another
Malian, in tears. “I will not try to come back. I am exhausted.”
Modern communications and transportation
increasingly inspire Turks, Africans, and others (such as Mexicans) to
leave their native lands, taking extreme risks if necessary, to reach
the West’s near-paradise. In response, Europeans are baring their
teeth, brushing aside multicultural pieties such as
Kofi Annan’s statement that “What is important is that we don’t
make a futile attempt to prevent people from crossing borders. It will
not work.” But preventing people from crossing borders is very much on
the agenda; it is probably only a matter of time until other Western
states follow Spain and
Australia and resort to military force. Giant smuggling rings and
human waves cascading over fortified positions represent the starkest
manifestations of profound and growing dilemmas: how islands of peace
and plenty survive in an ocean of war and deprivation, how a
diminishing European population retains its historic culture, and how
states from Turkey to Mali to Mexico solve their problems rather than
export them.
