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Wchicken spanish It first surrounded the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla with barbed wire in 1993 and 1996, but few doubted the practice would become widespread. After all, the 1990s were a time of optimism in Europe, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Oh, things are changing. Between 2014 and his 2023, the total length of the border fence will be european union Increased from 315km to 2,163km. This year we will climb another 245km.
Fences first became popular during the Syrian-led migrant crisis of 2015-16. Now that pandemic-era restrictions are gone, illegal immigration is surging again. frontex, european unionExternal border agencies recorded 380,000 illegal border crossings last year, the highest since 2016. Europe is looking to the fence to stem the tide and confront Russian hostilities. The situation is most evident along the eastern border, where Russia and Belarus are orchestrating migration flows into Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. Each fought back with barbed wire.
The costs are huge. Poland, which decided to build a 353 million euro ($407 million) electric fence along its border with Belarus in 2021, spent 80 million euros last year installing state-of-the-art cameras on its Russian border. and installed a motion detector. Finland plans to spend €380 million to fence just 200km (15%) of its 1,340km border with Russia by 2026. On top of that, there are maintenance costs.
Fences are quite cost-effective. Despite all the high-tech equipment, Poland’s fortified borders were unable to prevent a surge in border crossings last year. Unable to reduce their numbers, Slovenia removed its fence with Croatia in 2022. Additionally, “any physical obstruction in one area just shifts movement to other areas,” he says, says Frontex’s Chris Borowski.
Immigrants are not flooding into Europe either. Unauthorized crossings account for only 0.13% of all external crossings in the country. european union Most enter Europe via the Mediterranean rather than the Balkans or eastern land borders (see map). Large-scale migration from Russia is “not that big of a risk,” admits Colonel Marko Salek, deputy chief of the Finnish Border and Coast Guard. “I just have to get ready.”
Voter anxiety has forced leaders to act, even if it is ineffective.of european union In recent years, the country has tightened its stance on immigration. Funding for Frontex skyrocketed. In December, member states agreed to a new migration deal that makes it easier to deport people who fail to apply for asylum. “There’s a willingness to do whatever it takes to keep people out,” said Helena Hahn of the Center for European Policy think tank.
Mediterranean countries have long borne the brunt of illegal immigration. While the new agreement may help (requiring countries to accept refugees or pay them), it poses legal and moral challenges for citizens. european union. Sergio Carrera of the Center for European Policy Research, a think tank, says the fence is “the epitome of failure in immigration policy in the 21st century”. Hundreds of migrants have died on the fortified border between Greece and Turkey. Carrera says Europe is shirking its responsibility towards migrants and asylum seekers. ■
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