Italy’s openness to refugees has caused other European countries to close their borders

Suppose the U.S., France, and England had minded their own beeswax and stayed out of Libya. Kaddafi would have suppressed the rebellion in short order and there would be peace. Instead, the U.S., France, and England (under the auspices of NATO) have been carrying out an indecisive military campaign which has kept hostilities going on in that country indefinitely. The continuing violence has sparked a refugee crisis, with people fleeing Libya for Europe.

A fundamental fact about liberals is that they don’t believe in victory, for any side, because victory seems unfair and unequal. From the liberal point of view, it’s better to “manage” conflicts so that they continue indefinitely, with neither side gaining a decisive advantage over the other. But this means that violence goes on indefinitely. And, in this instance, it means that the refugee flood from Africa to Europe goes on indefinitely.

Reported at the Independent, May 14:

Flood of North African refugees to Italy ends EU passport-free travel

Six more boatloads of migrants, mostly Libyans, arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday, exacerbating a refugee crisis that already appears to have ended the long-standing Schengen arrangement for passport-free movement around Europe.

In Italy, which has born the brunt of waves of migrants fleeing turmoil first in Tunisia and now Libya, key members of the government were again warning about the repercussions of Nato’s bombing campaign across the Mediterranean.

“For this reason we have continually pressed for a strong diplomatic response to the situation in Libya,” said Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni, of the anti-immigration Northern League party, who has repeatedly called for an end to Italy’s role in Nato air raids. “Otherwise there is no way to stop the boats.” [LA replies: A strong diplomatic response won’t do it. Either NATO must stop the hostilities, or NATO must defeat Kaddafi. And the latter wouldn’t help, because, most likely, whatever power group replaced Kaddafi would be highly unstable and some kind of civil conflict would continue.]

Ignazio Accomando, from the National Institute for the Health of Migrants, told the Ansa news agency: “About 2,000 migrants are expected to arrive on the island. They are tired, worn out, dehydrated and with some bruises, but overall there are no particularly grave health cases.”

The UN warned yesterday that one in 10 migrants fleeing Libya by sea is likely to die during the crossing. The arrival of tens of thousands of North Africans [italics added] has caused political fall-out across Europe with the EU preparing to reintroduce passport checks among Schengen-zone countries, after pressure from France and Italy. The cracks in the Schengen zone appeared to widen this week when Denmark decided to reinstate controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden to clamp down, it said, on drug and weapons smuggling. [LA replies: isn’t that just remarkable? Under Berlusconi in past years, Italy seemed to be more restrictive of immigration than other EU countries. Now Italy is letting in so many refugees that the other EU countries are closing their borders against Italy.]

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 28, 2011 09:18 AM | Send