Migrants cross the border into Hungary. Noticias Cuyo/Flickr. All rights reservedFor many years European countries have been warned about the inadequacy of their immigration and asylum systems. Now, with increased refugee arrivals and more frequent tragedies, this system is showing all its weaknesses. The cause of this collapse is not, however, the arrival of refugees in Europe. The real reason is political.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 430,000 asylum applications have been lodged in European Union member states since January 2015. 40% of them have been received by Germany alone and Hungary taking one in four of the remaining ones. This means that 26 EU countries are dealing with just over 180,000 asylum applications; an epic effort indeed.
Even including the almost 300,000 people who arrived in Italy and Greece since January – mostly Syrians who will be granted asylum – Europe is still far from experiencing the real refugee arrival pressure faced by much less rich and stable countries like Pakistan, Lebanon and Ethiopia, or, without looking too far, Turkey, home to some 2 million Syrian refugees.
