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Building walls and fences at the external borders of the European Union will not mean a total end to the influx of asylum seekers. Prime Minister Rutte said this in the House of Representatives in a debate on the European summit that starts today.
One of the topics at that summit is migration. This will include the question of better protection of the external borders. For example, there are plans for border fences on the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. In the debate, Rutte emphasized that it will always be possible for refugees to apply for asylum.
“I want to detoxify the issue a bit. We are now getting something like: we are going to put one big ‘Berlin Wall’ around the EU. But if there is a fence or a wall, there are always gates in it,” said the prime minister.
Coalition divided
His own coalition is strongly divided about the measures to contain the influx of asylum seekers. VVD, CDA and ChristenUnie are more or less in favor of strengthening the external borders with fences, but D66 is strongly against. It is pointless and it only strengthens the revenue model of the people smugglers, says that party.
Rutte himself thinks that border fences can be “sometimes very useful”, but he believes that better border surveillance can also be done in other ways, for example through mobile surveillance in border areas.
Proponents believe that the EU should pay for strengthening the external borders, but that will not happen, Rutte predicted. Too many Member States are against this and, moreover, border control is a task for the countries themselves. However, it is possible that the European Commission contributes to border fences.
Spread law
The Prime Minister himself has strongly urged that the heads of government discuss migration at the summit. He has promised his own VVD party that he would make a case for limiting migration flows in a European context.
Under that condition, the faction agreed to the distribution law, which could force municipalities to receive more asylum seekers.
