Villa (Ispi): “Migrants problem from Belarus magnified, Poland is riding the crisis”

The problem on the border between Belarus and Poland is “exaggerated” for political reasons as in reality there are hundreds, according to the highest estimates, at most 2,500, the migrants who are pressing to enter the EU. “Easily manageable numbers”, as evidenced in an interview with Adnkronos Matteo Villa, head of the ISPI migration program, according to which “the Polish authorities in October said that there were between 15 thousand and 30 thousand attempts to cross the border, but they counted the same people who tried to cross the border several times “. According to the expert, the case is allowing Poland, the country that more in recent months has clashed with Brussels, to “play a card” with Europe, behaving like Erdogan’s Turkey a few years ago, or by focusing on the fact who is defending the borders from a wave of migrants and asking for money for it. Warsaw, says Villa, intends to set itself up as a ‘champion’ of Europe because it has a goal: “to obtain the release of the funds of its PNRR and, at the same time, to push Brussels – on German impulse – to turn a blind eye to the question of the state of law and divert attention from internal protests for the abortion law “. The one at the Polish borders, he stresses, is above all a German problem “because the Iraqis who arrived in Belarus all want to go to Germany and have no intention of staying in Poland” and Berlin, grappling with a transfer of power, does not want to show itself “soft” . Villa believes that the solution to the root of the problem on the border between Poland and Belarus is at hand, that is, it would be enough to sanction the airlines that bring migrants from the Middle East to Belarus. “On the management of immigration at the borders, European competences are few and the EU does not want to finance the construction of physical borders, that is the walls – he explains – The commission is trying to sanction these airlines but it is slow and through no fault of its own. . For the sanctions we need unanimity and there is a government, the Irish one, that had got in the way. Now Dublin is convinced and the sanctions should arrive between the end of this week and the beginning of the next “. instead a redistribution of migrants among European countries is feasible because “the consent of all the members or voluntariness is needed” and this kind of agreements, as the Italian case also demonstrates, “have never worked” and I doubt that the ” EU is thinking about it “. The ISPI expert then comments on the proposals of some European countries, including Poland, to build walls to defend their borders. “In the field of law, a country has every right to protect and manage its borders as it wishes but at the same time a migrant has the right to seek asylum – he concludes – The walls are a symbol and only serve to reject, not to manage. wall can also exist, the point is that if the right of asylum is not regulated it becomes a huge problem “.