EU leaders’ attitude towards immigration is increasingly hysterical – and economically nonsensical
Last week’s tragic events in Ceuta – where at least 88 people died trying to reach the Spanish exclave in North Africa – brutally underscored the lengths to which some will go to get to Europe. They also highlighted just how divorced from reality Europe’s approach to migration has become.
Italy reintroduced border controls for travellers arriving from Spain and declared a one-month “suspension” of the Schengen free-movement area. Denmark and Finland similarly suggested that Spain should be expelled from Schengen altogether. And 22 EU leaders, spearheaded by Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, signed an open letter underlining their “readiness to take any necessary measures” to thwart onward migration to mainland Europe.
None of these leaders seemed to know – or care – that Ceuta is effectively already outside the Schengen area: passport and visa checks were, and still are, carried out for all people departing the territory. Calling for Schengen’s suspension, in other words, made about as much sense as demanding that Ceuta be physically moved to South Africa.
Moreover, Ceuta’s tiny size – at just under twenty square kilometres, it is roughly one-eighth the size of Brussels – and the EU’s close ties to Morocco (which borders the exclave) meant that the vast majority of the 80,000 or so people who swam, climbed, or crawled into the territory were highly likely to be sent back. Indeed, less than 48 hours later, most of them had.
