Governments across Europe are complying with European Union directives to accommodate tens of thousands of migrants arriving each day. Germany, which became the driving force behind the recent influx of migrants after it suspended Dublin convention, refuses to put any cap to the number of migrants it can absorb.
The rules of law and property rights are the first casualties of the EU push for a more ‘generous’ migration policy. Countries like Germany and Sweden are considering revising existing property laws to confiscate homes to house arriving migrants. Austria has changed its constitution to force provinces to accept higher quotas of migrants. The existing law restricted the intake of refugees more than 1.5 percent of the population. The country is expecting to receive about 80,000 asylum claims by the end of 2015. The Austrian news website The Local reports:
The move, mirroring EU efforts to oblige member states to accept more migrants, is aimed at relieving Austria’s overcrowded main refugee centre at Traiskirchen, and comes into effect on October 1.
It was put forward by Chancellor Werner Faymann’s Social Democrats and the centre-right People’s Party, which form Austria’s governing coalition, and votes from the Greens gave it the necessary two-thirds majority. (…)
In recent months Austria has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of migrants entering from Hungary — having travelled up the western Balkans — bound for northern Europe, in particular Germany.
EU still faces resistance from some East European countries, refusing to accept migrant quota dictated by Brussels. As Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven noted earlier this month, “Sweden, Germany and a few other countries have for a long time been alone, taken their responsibility. That’s not good enough,” further calling EU members states to “stand up for human values and do their duty.”
Calls for compassion coming from Brussels have been punctuated by threats of economic sanctions directed to insubordinate members states. Germany’s Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has called for economic sanctions against EU-members who do not “shoulder the burden” [and follow Berlin’s example] by taking in more migrants.
I recently reported on how Free Speech is being restricted in Europe to quell dissent to EU migration policy; if the rule of law and property rights go down the same path, Europe will be abandoning the very principles that made the West’s success story possible in the first place.
As Europe braces to integrate tens and millions of refugees from Middle East and North Africa, it is chopping away at the very values it should be asking the new arrivals to embrace.
| Themes |
| • Emigrants • ESC rights • Housing rights • International • Refugees |
