Mass migration worries European nations
What you need to know:
- How to handle illegal immigrants is a hot-potato issue that few discuss openly.
Years ago, I read a novel about millions of Third Worlders mass-migrating to Europe and threatening Western culture in the process. What rubbish, I thought, and forgot all about it. But wait …
Today, almost daily, television news clips show us films of flimsy, dangerously overcrowded boats carrying thousands of men, women and children from Africa and the Middle East across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, Greece, Malta and other parts of southern Europe.
From there, many individuals journey onwards to the richer northern countries such as Germany, Britain and Scandinavia.
The immigrants are fleeing wars and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, or in Africa, from Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, or are simply seeking economic opportunities.
Official figures show that 42,000 illegals entered Europe between January and April, a four-fold increase on the same period last year. If this rate is maintained, the figure for the year will challenge the record 140,000 who arrived in 2011, the turbulent year of the Arab Spring.
Going back to that novel, which I read around 1977; it is titled The Camp of the Saints and was written by a Frenchman, Jean Raspail. It proposes an apocalyptic vision of the future in which an Indian-led invasion of southern Europe spreads across the world.
The Mayor of New York is forced to share his residence with three families from Harlem; the son and heir of the Queen of England is required to marry a Pakistani woman; Switzerland is declared a rogue state for refusing to open its borders; and millions of Chinese walk into Siberia.
The novel was characterised on its publication as “a bilious tirade” by Time magazine and condemned widely as racist, but also as far-seeing. In 2011, it was reissued and returned to the best-seller lists, receiving praise as well as criticism.
Today’s TV news clips often show European sailors rescuing the immigrants, including babies and pregnant women, from vessels that have been abandoned by the smugglers or which have broken down.
Amnesty International says 23,000 would-be immigrants have died since 2000.
Figures vary, but most immigrants say they pay as much as £4,000 or £5,000 (Sh622,800 or Sh778,500) per person for their passage.
A BBC story last week said smugglers were recruiting British car drivers to take migrants from the port of Calais in France to the UK. In the past, criminal gangs hid migrants in trucks, but the use of private cars was now more common because people believed they were less likely to be stopped and searched.
One who was caught was Basir Haji from Preston, detained at the Calais ferry terminal with two Iraqi men in the boot of his car. He agreed to smuggle them into Britain for £500 (Sh77,850). He said he did it because he was in debt. “I’ve been playing a lot in the casino,” he said. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Arriving migrants are fed and sheltered in makeshift camps in Italy and France. There are said to be some 2,400 migrants in Calais alone waiting to sneak into Britain, which is considered to have a generous benefits system.
Germany and Sweden are said to take almost half of all asylum seekers and they are backing a European Union proposal to impose quotas on the 28 Union governments. The scheme is strongly opposed by other states, including Britain, who urge military or economic support for the war-torn and poverty-stricken Arab and African nations from which the migrants come.
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I wrote last week that I would rather pay 135 pence for three bread rolls than get four for 100 pence and throw one away when it went stale. I said I simply don’t like throwing food away. These remarks caused some elevation of the eyebrows. But at least one Kenya friend knows what I meant.
He wrote: “I needed a replacement for my second pair of reading glasses and I opted for inexpensive plastic frames at Sh2,500. When I said my insurance was paying, the assistant’s eyes widened and she said I should get the expensive Sh15,000 photo-chromatic type.
“I said with plastic glasses you can drop them and they come to no harm. And that’s what I got. She thought I should spend more because the insurance was paying.”
Other correspondents asked pityingly if I had never heard of freezing bread. Well, I have and I think it tastes awful when it thaws.
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Yet another libel in the matter of Scottish generosity: Two Scotsmen were on the bus when a local lady got on. “That’s Maggie McPherson,” said one, “I’ll go and chat with her.”
“Hold on,” said his mate. “Wait until she’s paid her fare.”
