LONDON, United Kingdom – The EU is facing renewed calls to end its open border policy between member states as figures showed 218k refugees entered the bloc in October alone. The monthly figure issued by the UN is higher than the total for the entirety of last year, and is being caused by mass immigration from the war torn Muslim world.
Countries on the front line are being deluged by thousands of migrants from countries like Syria and Libya. Hungary has already insulated itself by virtually surrounding the entirety of the country with razor wire. Whilst the Slovenian Foreign Minister, Karl Erjavec, said his country was considering a similar fence as a “last resort”.
In an email reported by the Independent Newspaper he said: “We cannot go on like this for a long time… We have received more than 100,000 migrants in just two weeks. This number represents 5% of our population. Our human, financial and material resources are limited.”
So far countries like Slovenia have simply allowed the refugees to pass through them, in the knowledge most are heading for richer northern EU states like Germany.
Croatia has allowed 300k people to pass through the country on their way north since the crisis began. The Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic, who has been organizing the transport of the refugees, claimed his country had no other option. Mr Ostojic said: “You really think you can stop these people without shooting… You’d have to build a wall around Europe if you really wanted to stop these kinds of flows.”
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, warned the very unity of the EU was now under threat from the migrant crisis. She expressed fears that some countries hoped shutting their borders would resolve the problem.
She told AP: "I am firmly convinced that we will not manage this challenge at the German-Austrian border… Those in Europe who think today that they are not affected by this will be affected in some way tomorrow, if only through the unity of Europe being questioned."
Free movement within the EU has been a central pillar of the project since its inception. The UK is trying to have the right of movement restricted, but under the current rules anyone with an EU passport is entitled to live in any of the 28 member states.
The EU itself has suggested sending the refugees back to their country of origin when the various wars they are fleeing end. This would avoid them being given citizenship and the right to settle elsewhere.
Both Brussels and Berlin want each member state to take a quota of the refugees, but the former former Soviet and Warsaw pact countries are firmly opposed to this.
As previous reported on Townhall.com the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, said there was a risk of the “Christian welfare state” in Europe destroyed by the flood of immigrants.
Orban also warned: "For us today, what is at stake is Europe, the lifestyle of European citizens, European values, the survival or disappearance of European nations, and more precisely formulated, their transformation beyond recognition… Today, the question is not merely in what kind of a Europe we would like to live, but whether everything we understand as Europe will exist at all.”
The chaos is fueling calls for the UK to leave the EU, with polling ahead of the referendum to leave showing the 'yes' and 'no' sides virtually neck-and-neck.