By Eugene F. Megyesy Jr.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Europe is facing an unprecedented surge of illegal
immigration from the Middle East and Africa, a crisis of historic proportions
that has dominated international media coverage. Amid all the critical banter
and calls for action, this often-sensational media coverage has stirred up
emotional responses and prompted politicians to focus only on short-term
answers to the crisis. But what we need is a sober look at what is happening
today, a consideration of its potential long-term consequences, and long-term
solutions.
I know what it means to flee your country at night, to be
in a camp, and then wait for a quota to be granted asylum and legally admitted to
the United States, as I fled from Hungary after the 1956 Revolution. I also
recently witnessed first-hand the scenes at Hungary’s border as a volunteer
with the Maltese Charity Service, distributing food to migrants who had just
arrived. I saw how the media focused on the children, even if the vast majority
there were young men, and ignored the many volunteers who came to help.
Influenced by the media’s coverage of these scenes, many
have ignored the facts of this crisis and the problems caused by the lack of a
coherent EU immigration policy and the political failures of the Arab Spring
and the Syrian civil war. Consider for a moment the scale of what is happening.
The number of migrants who have crossed illegally into
Hungary this year has reached 200,000. Adjusting proportionately based on
population, that would be the equivalent of 6.5 million illegal immigrants
entering the United States in eight months. How would the U.S. respond? Would
state and federal authorities allow migrants to refuse to cooperate, issue
demands to be allowed to travel on to another state, and disrupt public order
on highways and important transportation hubs? How would law enforcement
respond if large groups of migrants were to storm the border and physically
attack police with bricks and other projectiles, as they have recently in
Hungary? Would we not think carefully about how our internal security and
anti-terrorism measures would be compromised by allowing hundreds of thousands
of migrants to enter and roam about the country virtually unchecked, as they
have recently in the territory of the EU?
Wanting to be seen as compassionate, many
politicians have responded in a way that ignores these details. Germany stated
that it would accept all Syrian refugees, effectively sending an open
invitation for mass migration into Hungary. At the same time, Hungary, whose
border is an external frontier of the EU’s Schengen Area, is enforcing EU and
Hungarian laws, but is demonized for protecting the border with a fence and
accused of heartlessly playing “hardball” with the migrants. Since when is
following the rule of law “hardball”? Incidentally, Hungary is not the only
country that has built a fence to protect its border. France, Spain, Bulgaria
and, of course, the U.S. have done likewise.
Hungary actually follows European treaty requirements
with respect to those who have entered the country and the EU illegally. EU law
requires those persons to register in the first EU country they enter and then
wait until their status is adjudicated. The migrants photographed sleeping at
the Budapest railroad station were in fact illegal migrants, who had either
refused to register or whose status had not yet been adjudicated. Greece fails
to register them, lets them pass, and the EU, ignoring the growing crisis, has
failed to address the problem. In contrast, Hungary has been trying to provide
for the needs of the migrants, who are victims of unscrupulous human smugglers
and the political failures in the Middle East.
Allowing migrants to enter illegally is simply not
acceptable. Slowly, Germany and others are recognizing these risks and have
reinstituted border checks. Establishing migrant distribution quotas before EU
borders are secure, as some have urged, is meaningless when the number of
potential migrants may be in the tens of millions.
Compassion for refugees with legitimate asylum claims
must be part of the response, but Europe cannot accept the millions of
potential migrants from many different cultures seeking a better life. Hungary
took in East German and Romanian refugees in 1989 and many fleeing the Bosnian
war, but those now entering Hungary have crossed four countries in which their
lives were not in danger. They left seeking a higher standard of living in
Germany or Sweden. Europe and the U.S. have a moral obligation to help the less
fortunate in their native countries and in the refugee camps adjacent to Syria
and Iraq. The camps must be livable and the civil wars must end. But where are
the wealthy Arab countries in helping these migrants?
Every country has the absolute right, indeed obligation,
to protect its borders and to decide on the type of society it wishes to leave
behind to future generations. We should not demonize those who dare to raise
the tough issues, such as cultural differences and the face of a future Europe
overrun by unregulated migration from other societies. Hungary’s Prime Minister
Orbán expresses what many others think but dare not say. The terrorism of
political correctness suppresses discussion. Open debate and sovereignty are
after all essential parts of democratic nations and Europe’s future depends on
sober judgment, not emotional reaction evoked by media coverage.
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