Move over Eurovision, the EU has just launched ‘The Amazing Border Race’
What happened in the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta last week was tragic for everyone involved. So let’s make it a regular thing, the EU apparently decided – at least judging by its actions.
I’m not saying that anybody overtly wants migrants from all over Africa to routinely storm the borders of some far-flung part of the EU in an attempt to get a foothold on a shuttle from a migrant center into mainland Europe. In fact, Ursula von der Leyen has said that she wants more barriers and watchful eyes on the borders. By barriers, presumably she means walls or fences. And by eyes, she probably means nightclub-style bouncers with biceps the size of my thighs and not neighborhood block watch grannies. Not that she’s going to say that. Although she should. If only to counter all the virtue signaling that Spain did that contributed to the problem in the first place.
All these new measures are supposed to keep migrants out of Europe. But at the same time, the EU is doing its usual routine of mitigating its common-sense measures with self-defeating idiocy. Because what better way to encourage Morocco or any other nation bordering the EU to fumble the migration situation at home than to give them even more financial incentive.
Because that’s worked out well so far. How much EU taxpayer cash is actually needed under this racket for Morocco to do the job that it’s being paid for? From 2014 to 2022, the EU paid Rabat €2.1 billion to stem migration to the EU, plus another €631 million in 2021/2022 alone. Losing total control – or pretending to – seems to be a convenient way to get a raise. It’s like a lifeguard who lets everyone drown and then goes and asks for a performance bonus. Or a security company that gets paid more for a spike in break-ins. Or a firefighter who bills extra for every house that catches fire on their watch.
Türkiye already did this hostage routine with Brussels. In the wake of conflicts in Syria and Libya, the EU paid Ankara to hold back migrants from Europe’s borders. And what do you know – it never turned out to be enough. The tsunami seemed to ebb and flow in rhythm with the ink spilled in Brussels on checks to Team Erdogan.
Speaking of Libya – it’s been paid for the EU’s border outsourcing, too. As have Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of the Horn of Africa, like Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just have doors with actual locks on them at home, like the average common-sense person does? But no, Europe can’t do that because then it can’t say how open and free it is. Better to pay for the iron fist to be wielded elsewhere by someone with the financial motivation to do so. Even if their enthusiasm for the job seems to be like a carnival game where the prize appears only after the operator gets another handful of tokens.
Meanwhile, Spain is being treated like the sole author of this mess, as if this entire surge just spontaneously generated the moment a legal ruling changed deportation procedures. And yes, that ruling mattered because it altered incentives. As did Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s amnesty offer – with a reported million applicants showing interest so far.
But who else has been incentivized? As if thousands of migrants were reading EU policy briefings over breakfast. Instead, they were on social media and apparently saw a sudden onslaught of online content convincing them to drop the Doritos and make a run for the border. Who made that happen? And with all the disinformation fighting tools that the EU boasts about, how did this massive whale actually succeed in beaching itself onto a piece of Europe while the EU’s entire anti-disinformation fleet was patrolling the waters? Guess it’s a pretty good sign that the whale wasn’t Russian, huh? Because the world’s most sophisticated whale-watchers would have already mapped its migration patterns.
It raises a question that no one in official statements really seems too keen to ask aloud: who benefits from the chaos? Not Spain, clearly. Not the EU, judging from how unenthusiastic it sounds about it. But Israel and the US sure have been upset with Spain’s position opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and war in Iran. But upset enough to have funded NGOs to “give away” Spain’s enclave in North Africa, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son once threatened on social media back in 2019?
In any case, now Spain is relegated to begging nation-states to control their own citizens. Not exactly a position of strength. But once that amnesty signal is out there, then unfortunately you don’t get to choose who accepts it, which hidden powers could decide to exploit it in an attempt to pressure you, or how many show up to camp out in your tranquil EU garden and flatten your flowerbeds. Including those caught between the EU and the countries it keeps paying to roleplay as its contracted security guards.
