Original title: There will be another wave of refugee anxiety in Europe? 5 million Afghans fear to go north to Turkey, Greece to build a wall at the speed of light
On Thursday, the explosion at Kabul Airport once again turned the world‘s attention to Afghanistan, the most turbulent and dangerous country on the planet right now. With only four days left before the deadline set by the Biden administration for the complete withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan, there are still more than a thousand Americans who have not yet been able to withdraw from Afghanistan, and tens of millions of Afghan people. , It is destined to usher in a precarious, dangerous, and even unknown future.
At the same time, on the European continent, worries about “U.S. withdrawal and European payment” are growing.The war and regime change in Afghanistan will inevitably trigger an unprecedented wave of Afghan immigration. There may be hundreds of thousands or even millions of refugees and immigrants leaving this war-torn country all the way north.This has once again evoked the painful memories of many European people and politicians at the peak of the refugee tide in the Middle East a few years ago!
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer recently expressed concern about the influx of Afghan refugees into Europe. He predicts that as many as 5 million people will try to leave Afghanistan for Europe.If this number of refugees becomes a reality, it will dwarf the refugee crisis of 2015-at that time, only more than 1 million refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East went to Europe.
Also mentioning the number of 5 million is Finian Cunningham, the former senior editor of the Russian think tank The Strategic Culture Foundation. He predicts that there are an estimated 5 million displaced persons out of the current population of 38 million in Afghanistan, and the number of Afghan refugees seeking to cross the EU border may exceed the number of refugees who have poured into the EU from Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan in the past six years.
According to EU estimates, since 2015, approximately 570,000 Afghans (almost all young men) have applied for asylum in the EU. In 2020, Afghanistan is the EU’s second largest source of asylum applications, after Syria.
Many of these Afghan refugees and immigrants have difficulty assimilating or integrating into European society, committing hundreds or even thousands of crimes. It is foreseeable that if millions of Afghans come to Europe in the future, it will undoubtedly bring greater social unrest to European countries.
European politics: voices against accepting refugees are rising
**As usual, the 27 EU member states, which have not always been monolithic internally, are now divided on how to deal with the imminent flood of immigration.
Some national leaders stated that they have a humanitarian obligation to accept large numbers of Afghan immigrants. Another part of politicians believes that Europe should no longer open its doors to these refugees. It is time for Islamic countries to take responsibility.However, it is worth mentioning that compared to when the refugee wave just broke out a few years ago, the voice of the latter is obviously much louder than the former. **
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, recently stated that the EU has a “moral duty” to accommodate refugees fleeing the Taliban. But the leaders of many EU member states do not agree with this statement.
In Austria, Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz has vowed that his country will not accept any more Afghan refugees.Austria has received more than 40,000 Afghans in recent years (this is the second highest number in Europe, after Germany, which has received 148,000 Afghans).
In an interview with the Austrian television station Puls 24, Kurz stated that Austria has made a “disproportionately huge contribution” to Afghanistan. “I am clearly opposed to us accepting more people now. This will not happen during my tenure as prime minister. For our country, accepting those who cannot integrate into society will create big problems,” Kurtz said.
The Austrian Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg previously issued a joint statement calling for the deportation of Afghans living in Austria illegally to Islamic countries. According to EU law, they cannot be repatriated to Afghanistan. “If deportation is no longer possible because of the restrictions imposed on us by the European Convention on Human Rights, then alternatives must be considered. Repatriation to the surrounding areas of Afghanistan is a possibility. Of course, this requires the support of the European Commission.”
Nehammer said in an interview that deportation should be considered a security issue, not a humanitarian issue. “As the Minister of the Interior, I am mainly responsible to those citizens who live in Austria. The most important thing is to guarantee social peace and national welfare for a long time.”
According to a poll recently released by Österreich 24, nearly three-quarters of the respondents support the Austrian government’s tough stance on immigration in Afghanistan.
Slovenia is currently holding the six-month EU presidency. The country has also stated that the EU will not allow a surge in immigration from Afghanistan.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote on Twitter, “The EU will not open any European humanitarian or immigration channels for Afghanistan. We will not allow the recurrence of the 2015 strategic mistakes. We will only help those who have helped us in NATO operations. People, and the EU member states that protect our external borders.”
Election Matters: Refugee Fluxes Become the Focus of Multinational Election Wars
In Germany, the topic of refugees from Afghanistan has become a key focus of voters before the Bundestag election scheduled for September 26.
In response, Paul Ziemiak, Secretary-General of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by German Chancellor Merkel, strongly stated that Germany should no longer adopt the open immigration policy implemented in 2015, when the Merkel government allowed 100 More than 10,000 immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East entered Germany. In an interview with a local German TV station, he pointed out, “We are very clear that we must never repeat the mistakes of 2015. Germany’s acceptance of refugees will not solve the problem of Afghanistan.”
At present, Armin Laschet, the prime minister candidate of the CDU, remains silent on the issue of Afghanistan, and the same is true of the Prime Minister candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Scholz. In contrast, the Green Party, which once called for passports to climate refugees, is relatively open to refugees. Annalena Baerbock, the Green Party candidate for prime minister, called on Germany to accept more than 50,000 Afghans. “We have to accept this,” she said in an interview with ARD TV.
On the French side, French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for a coordinated response from Europe to prevent the massive influx of immigrants from Afghanistan. “Afghanistan’s instability is likely to increase the number of irregular immigrants to Europe… Europe will not be able to bear the consequences of the current situation alone. We must plan and protect ourselves to prevent large-scale irregular migration flows.”
France will hold a presidential election in April 2022. The populist leader, Marine Le Pen, who has the same approval rating as Macron in the polls, has strongly stated that France should say “no” to the large-scale immigration of Afghan refugees. “.There is a petition on her party website-“Afghanistan: Say no to the new immigration highway.”
The petition states, “The mayors of some major French cities have announced their plans to welcome refugees. In our view, this poses a clear risk to their compatriots. For us, the most important thing is to protect our compatriots. .”
Refugees set off: Turkey and Greece build walls at the speed of light
At present, thousands of Afghan immigrants have taken the lead in arriving in many European countries.Including Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden.
As one of the main gateways for refugees from the Middle East to enter Europe, the Turkish government is building a 295-kilometer (180-mile) border along its border with Iran to prevent the influx of new immigrants from Afghanistan.
Turkish President Erdogan stated that if Afghanistan and Iran cannot ensure border security, a new wave of immigration is “inevitable” and Turkey will not become a “refugee warehouse” for Afghan refugees.
He pointed out, “We need to remind our European friends of this fact: Europe has become a center of attracting millions of people, and Europe cannot strictly block borders in order to protect the safety and well-being of its citizens, so as to stay out of the solution to the Afghan refugee problem. . Turkey has no responsibility or obligation to become a refugee warehouse in Europe.”
In addition, in Greece in southern Europe, due to the government’s fear of a recurrence of the refugee crisis in 2015, the Greek government has also erected a 40-kilometer (25-mile) fence on the border with Turkey and installed a new surveillance system.To prevent Afghan immigrants from trying to enter Europe from the country. In recent years, Greece has been a key gateway for immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter Europe.
Greek Immigration Minister Notis Mitarachi stated that the EU needs to send the “right message” to avoid a new immigration crisis that “Europe cannot afford”. He emphasized that “our country will not let it become a gateway for illegal immigrants from Afghanistan to enter Europe.”
There is no doubt that the refugee issue is once again testing Europe’s “unity” in the context of the lingering signs of the end of the new crown epidemic. In 2016, in order to show solidarity and mutual assistance, the European Commission created a “refugee quota” system. As a result, it was opposed by most Eastern and Central European member states. As a result, the conflicts within the EU on the refugee issue continued to deepen.
andThis time, when more and more mainstream voices in European politics began to say “no” to the refugee tide, Europe may be becoming more “united” on this issue. It is just the Afghan refugees who have been displaced along the way and died nine dead. What will happen next?
Obviously, the most important answer to this question will be the American government that created the war in Afghanistan 20 years ago, but ended in sadness 20 years later, leaving behind a devastated US government that is full of devastation and the people are in a mess!
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