Europe will be fenced again

Europe will be fenced again

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

By ARIE EGOZI

Reality has a way to deal with Hypocrisy and stupidity. It simply puts the facts in your face and you have to act. That is exactly what happens now in “United” Europe.

Across southeast Europe, nations are investing huge sums of money in closing borders, blocking bridges, stopping cross-country trains and building new high wire fences.

This in an attempt to block tens of thousands seeking safety in Western Europe from crossing into their territories.

The border decisions came as each nation tried to shift the burden of handling the huge influx onto their neighbors, leaving migrants even more angry, confused and desperate.

One of the best examples to the hard hitting reality is Germany. This country that first made the impression it is willing to accept unlimited numbers of refugees, is now introducing border controls in the south of the country.

The border controls are supposed to curb the influx of migrants. Currently, tens of thousands of refugees per day find their way to Germany, many of them from civil-war-torn Syria.

The announcement is in stark contradiction to the principle of open borders to which most EU member states, including Germany, have committed. Apparently Germany wants to increase the pressure on the European Union to finally find an EU-wide solution to the refugee crisis.

The decision marks a surprising shift in Germany’s attitude toward the European refugees crisis.

Germany is introducing temporary controls on its southern border with neighboring country Austria to cope with the influx of migrants.

The decision marks a surprising turnaround in Germany’s dealing with the current refugee crisis. The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel had recently followed a policy of open borders and taken a moral leadership role in the refugee crisis. For example, she had announced Germany’s intention to take up considerably more refugees and provided for €6 billion in emergency aid.

However, now Germany clearly wants to show that it’s not willing or able to solve the refugee crisis alone. By closing the borders, the country increases the pressure on its EU partners tremendously to take their share of the burden.

Until recently, Germany had granted these refugees free travel. Now, this no longer applies, and entering Germany is supposed to be possible with valid travel documents only.

The federal police are now sending all available police officers to Bavaria to close the borders. There are even considerations to use German soldiers to secure the borders.

Germany is intensifying the pressure on less committed EU member states.

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So after weeks of “Romantic thoughts” about absorbing huge numbers of refugees the European countries have realized that this is a foolish attitude.

No country can absorb such numbers and this is without taking into account that fact that a “great” number of the refugees have extreme Islamic thoughts they want to bring with them to Europe.

So Europe has awakened but it was not ready and in some spots the effects will be clear very soon.

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