Migrant crisis and EU’s dilemma

According to the Western media, long lines formed in recent days at Italy’s northern border crossing with France following Paris’ decision to reinforce border controls over a diplomatic row with Italy about migration policy and the issue of humanitarian rescue ships that frequently knock ports of European front line states. The reports suggest that the Ventimiglia-Menton, a common border crossing point between the two neighbors has often been a flashpoint of the migrant debate, refugees’ camping near the French border, and subsequent entry into France. Recently, after the arrival of several dozens of migrants at the border, French authorities tightened security measures and deployed additional security personnel on the border.

Illegal migration has become a big issue for the entire European Community while the situation in the states on the EU’s eastern borders with Asia and shores along with the Mediterranean Sea had struck havoc, which is worsening every single day. The issue reignited after Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni put a curb on migration and banned humanitarian ships carrying rescued migrants from docking at Italian ports. After Italy’s stern anti-migrant measures several Humanitarian ships knocked French ports for docking and onward unloading migrants on French soil while huge numbers of illegal migrants camped on the French-Italian border to cross into Northwestern Europe.

Italy’s inhumane and stanch anti-migrant posture prompted fears of the possible migrant influx in other regional states and the leaders of neighboring France, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus joined hands with Rome’s Giorgia Meloni in clamping hard on desperate asylum seekers through aligned policies and coordinated actions. According to reports, four Mediterranean EU nations have issued a joint statement and condemned the operation of charity ships busy rescuing distressed migrants. The group accused other EU states of admitting less number of migrants and urged them to share the burden of frontline states to resolve the issue. Apparently, European society has lost its resilience, negating its philosophy of open borders by erecting barriers on roads, reversing the open market by imposing tariffs on trade, opposing pluralism by putting a curb on migration, and contradicting its social freedoms through a ban on headgear. Hence, the world is astonished where would be the end of such moral depletion.