A double tragedy in Greece
Two big European projects, the euro and Schengen, are under severe strain in Greece. To work, they require mutual trust. But this has been eroded, first by broken public finances and now by broken border controls. Greece says harsh spending cuts make its immigration and asylum system harder to fix.
As with the sovereign-debt crisis, countries facing an immigration emergency need help from the EU, in exchange for deep reforms. EU countries need to align their asylum policies more closely so as to bridge the big disparities between them. Some means of sharing the resettlement of refugees makes sense. Southern countries want the option, in times of stress, to halt the return of asylum-seekers to their first country of entry. Northerners fear this might encourage southerners to export their problem. A painful compromise might be tried: if Greece wants to suspend Dublin II, it should accept a temporary suspension of Schengen and the return of border controls.
Part of the answer lies in co-operating with Europe’s neighbours, helping a free Tunisia to re-establish border controls, say. Greece is under pressure because Turkey allows visa-free entry for some of its neighbours. Turkey also maintains the “geographical limitation” in the 1951 convention on refugees, restricting asylum to Europeans only. If Turkey wants more influence in both the EU and the Middle East, it should end this legal anomaly.
An effective asylum regime must be part of a more sensible immigration policy, not least because an ageing Europe will in future need more foreign workers. But refugees should not be confused with economic migrants. As long as there is war and oppression, there must be sanctuary. Greece’s prime minister, George Papandreou, should know this more than most: under the Greek colonels, his family was given asylum in Sweden.
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