Europe remains immobile after the tragedy of migrants in the Channel – Pierre Haski

The death of 27 migrants in the English Channel created a trauma: yet another, we would be tempted to say without cynicism. Last week, 75 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean after leaving Libya on board an overcrowded boat, bringing the death toll to 1,300 since the beginning of the year. All in the most absolute indifference. Two weeks ago, on the border between Poland and Belarus, other migrants, manipulated by the dictator of Minsk, were tossed across the border, and some died in that frozen no-man’s-land.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these tragedies which are repeated on almost all of Europe’s external borders is that we, the inhabitants of powerful and rich Europe (including the UK, for once) still do not have an answer to the problem. Yet this drama has been affecting Europe for years, from the shipwrecks of Lampedusa to the prison-like refugee camps of Samos, Greece, from the high barriers of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta to the bleak French jungle of Calais.

The reasons for this impasse are not lacking: fear of a return of the populist winds, differences of views between the various European countries, national selfishness or simply fear of the “other”.

Short-term solidarity
The particular case of the Afghans highlights all our contradictions. On the occasion of the fall of Kabul in the hands of the Taliban, with apocalyptic images arriving from the airport, everyone agreed on the need to help as many people as possible to leave. The mobilization of municipal administrations, associations and individual citizens made it possible to welcome thousands of Afghans who had managed to board a plane with dignity. But many Afghans and Afghans from other walks of life who arrived by other means have not received the same treatment.

For a few days, but only for a few days, the momentum to help Afghan refugees reminded us of the late seventies, when France welcomed 120,000 boat people from Vietnam fleeing the communist victory after a mobilization by intellectuals of all orientations. , from right to left, including the brother-enemies of French philosophy Raymond Aron and Jean-Paul Sartre. A similar scenario today is unthinkable, because the moment is marked by a deleterious debate on the subject and by walls, real and mental.

The topic will be one of the most difficult for the French presidency of the European Union, in the first half of 2022, with the reform of European policies on immigration and asylum. The European Commission has made some proposals, but the dialogue is paralyzed by divisions between states, and not just in the east of the continent. Denmark, although led by the Social Democrats, has for example one of the continent’s most restrictive migration policies.

A few days ago one of the most acute observers of this debate, the Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev, stressed that European politicians “feel incapable of helping those who want more democracy in their country and fear the arrival of migrants”.

With a bit of bitter irony, Krastev added that “Brussels is afraid of the same things that determine its attraction. Europe once held on to the idea that many people around the world wanted to live like its citizens. Today this idea scares her ”. It is a paradox to ponder, waiting for the next tragedy to arrive.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)