Putting up borders doesn’t solve the refugee crisis. Compulsory quotas now.
Refugees stream from Serbia into Hungary. So Orbán puts up a border fence. But then Serbia struggles to cope with the refugees on its side, and many continue to find ways to cross anyway. Refugees don’t want to stay in Hungary however as they fear Orbán’s government will not treat them well.
Austria, the next destination for the refugees, cancels all cross border rail services with Hungary. So they uses buses and go on foot instead.
Refugees end up in München, until German railways cancels all cross border rail services to and from Austria, and Germany says it is reintroducing border controls with Austria.
So then Czech Republic gets worried, and says it is boosting border controls on its border to Austria.
Meanwhile Poland’s Prime Minister announces an emergency meeting with the head of her border control.
This, countries of the EU, is no way to deal with a refugee crisis – by keeping on passing the problem onto someone else. The Dublin Regulation – that the place the refugees first enter is where they must seek asylum – is also clearly broken. There’s no way Greece or Hungary can, on their own, cope with this.
So tell me please: what better solution is available than Juncker’s compulsory quotas plan? I understand why that might be far from perfect, and scares plenty, but what else is actually an option right now? Keep on passing the buck until Schengen is in tatters, and there are thousands of refugees camped out in rural Serbia? No thanks.
Image: CC License from Flickr. 2015_09_10_Moni_3Roeszke01, September 10, 2015 by Fotomovimiento
Have you heard about the border checks between Sweden and Denmark?
Starting on 4 January, all train, bus and boat passengers need to show identification before boarding a train, bus or boat going from Denmark to Sweden. Train passengers are required to get off at Copenhagen Airport, go through an ID check and then board a later train, causing delays. Apparently, the Swedish legislators forgot to define what an identity document is. DSB, who checks the train passengers, thinks that it is therefore enough if the document contains the name and a photograph of the passenger, but that it is not necessary to check if the document is valid or easy to forge. For example, if the document contains an expiration date, then it is irrelevant if the date is in the future or in the past. Unclear if a homemade ID card would work. Check this page: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/dsb-studiekort-er-legitimation-nok-til-sverigesturen