Thursday, July 10, 2025
As I am writing this we have a quite eventful week behind us in terms of the perpetuate debate on immigration. In The Netherlands another hot debate over asylum took place just before Parliament closed for the summer recess. That was after the government already had fallen again over the same issue. Meanwhile a massive row ensued between Poland and Germany when Germany pushed back asylum seekers who in turn were pushed back by far-right vigilante activists from Poland back to Germany. Ultimately Poland reinstated border controls with Germany which means that in all likelihood the Polish border police will block people from being pushed back into Poland. The net effect being that people who flee through Belarus, Baltics and Poland will end up in the border zone between Poland and Germany and (most likely) end up in Germany after all. What is clear also is that the border wall between Poland and Belarus does not make much difference in this regard. The European Commission (EC) meanwhile wants to continue with the policy of ‘Tunisia deals’ even while a very high-level EU delegation with that agenda was just thrown out of eastern Libya. Instead of making the fight against extraction, exploitation and oppression (which cause people to become refugees and migrants) the highest priority in Africa, the proposed EC policies only deal with symptoms and consequences of these causes. Worse even, it takes real political effort to stop the EC from making deals that increase exploitation (such as the raw materials deal with Rwanda). Regardless of the mass murder of Nigerian Christians, the EU still has not even appointed the special envoy for freedom of religion and belief. A month ago the French government published a report on the nefarious influence from the Muslim Brotherhood and how it sabotages integration and women’s rights in Europe. In this report it became very clear that Turkey and Qatar are major drivers behind this undermining influence that drives people away from core fundamental rights and freedoms. This comes as no surprise in a time in which the Erdogan regime continues to systematically arrest national and local leaders of the main Turkish opposition (CHP). As per usual, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of EU Member States ignore this completely, regardless of what their Parliaments say. The net effect is clear; people will flee Turkey as was already happening and Turkey and Qatar can continue to undermine Europe. During the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the majority of EU leaders and governments tried to stop Israel regardless of the oppressing nature of the Iranian regime. President Macron said explicitly that there should be no regime change through military force even though no single Israeli or US soldier was on Iranian soil. Which effectively means he did not want the regime to be degraded to the point that the people in Iran could overthrow the regime. Indeed, even right now Kaja Kallas is pleading to have another agreement with the Iranian regime. This regardless of the fact that the Iranian regime through the IRGC militias in Syria was the main cause of the Syrian refugee crisis. This also regardless the fact that the IRGC is enabling the Houthi’s to terrorize European shipping supply lines. Any new EU – Iran agreement will throw a lifeline to a regime that is supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. Moreover the Iranian regime is one of the lifelines for the Venezuelan regime from where also many people flee to Europe. In Syria the EU is completely ignoring the fact that people in the new HTS government are responsible for the mass-killing of Alawites and the attacks against the Druze. The EU tries to enforce the legitimacy of the HTS regardless of the extremists populating it and regardless their unwillingness to end the attacks against Christians in Syria. Even worse, EU Member State officials try to push North-East Syria to surrender its autonomy although it is the protection of real and implemented women’s rights and freedom of religion in one-third of Syria. Simply because of the demands of the Erdogan regime (which is undermining integration in the EU), free women are in reality being demanded by EU and EU Member State officials to surrender to oppression. The risk is real that millions more will flee Syria. In all these cases the EU Member States foreign policy apparatuses and relevant EU institutions are contributing to the reasons that people leave their home and flee or migrate to Europe. Where something could be done to address these causes, it’s not happening. Humanitarian aid is no more than an attempt to cover for a disaster that already happened. What should be done is to end the short-term foreign policy that in too many crucial cases contributes to the causes of flight and migration. In many cases the above described policies are pursued without any democratic mandate. In fact, in many cases these policies are being implemented regardless of Parliaments demanding the opposite. Nevertheless it is sold as ‘realism’ although the ultimate consequences of this ‘realism’ cost our taxpayers dearly. However Parliaments don't follow through. They continuously do not enact consequences by (for example) cutting the budgets for the policy making end of Ministries of Foreign affairs (I am not talking about foreign aid but about the budgets that pay the civil servants and diplomats). In too many cases Parliaments are not sufficiently informed and often do not connect the dots between causes and consequences. The big picture as described above is not seen. Partisan ideology is also not helping. The left does not want to talk about extremist Islamism as a cause and the right prefers easy rhetoric and superficial measures over changing foreign policy. And let me be clear; the notion that fortified borders will stop everyone from coming is not achievable unless we put barbed wire over the beaches of most of the European Mediterranean countries. We cannot escape the need to consider the ultimate causes. Only when Europe learns the connection between cause and effect, Europe will be able to do something about immigration. For these reasons Sallux continues to inform policy makers over the realities outside Europe and the need to implement equal human dignity in our foreign policy. Our latest publication on Iran helps politicians and policy makers to be informed on the facts. Our future publications will continue to present how the dots are connected and how respect for human dignity can help to reduce flight and migration by improving circumstances where people are and through that deliver for our taxpayers. 
