The Ultimate Destination

As mentioned in my previous post, France has established administrative procedures that are intended to prevent refugees from entering the country from Italy, even if they hold temporary residence permits valid for the Schengen area.

The Italians are attempting to solve their massive refugee crisis — which the European Union has mostly avoided dealing with — by deliberately sending the immigrants on to other destinations in Europe. In taking this action, Italy is counting on two salient factors:

1.		Refugees from Africa and other parts of the Third World will be difficult to dislodge, once they are ensconced in their preferred destination.
2.		Italy is not their preferred destination. Although it is far preferable to the festering sinkholes they have left behind in whatever crud-encrusted corner of the globe from which they fled, Italy is not nearly as tantalizing as other parts of Europe, which offer more generous benefits and luxurious living conditions.

If the French succeed in blocking the refugees, there are other ways for the culture enrichers to route around obstacles and reach their intended goal. Austria and Slovenia may be easier to penetrate, and there’s always Switzerland, although the high-altitude passes may prove a daunting barrier.

The French should remember that even the delights of la vie parisenne can’t compete with sumptuous conditions further north. Sweden and Britain are considered prize destinations for migrants with a disinclination for paid labor and a taste for the good life. Once the flood is fully released, watch for it to flow in those directions.

Here’s the latest from AKI:

Thousands of Migrants Granted Temporary Visas

Rome, 7 April (AKI) - Italy passed a decree granting temporary visas to thousands of North African’s who over the past three months have arrived by boats that mainly set sail from Tunisia. They will be allowed leave Italy for other European destinations as most want to do, Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni said.

“Most have the desire to travel to other European countries and this will let them do that,” Maroni said on Thursday in an address to the Italian parliament in Rome. [emphasis added]

Maroni said the nearly 26,000 arrivals between 1 January and 6 April were entitled to the visas, which will be valid for a six-month stay, Italian news reports said.

But all those reaching Italy after that period will be sent home.

“Everyone will be repatriated following simplified procedures,” Maroni told parliament to applause.

Between the beginning of this year and Wednesday, 390 boats carrying 25,867 migrants arrived in Italy, Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Thursday during an address to parliament.

Twenty-three thousand of these landed on the tiny island of Lampedusa which is close to Tunisia.

Other boats embarked from Libya, where Italy’s recent support of international airstrikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s military caused a bilateral accord to be suspended that had held migrant boats at bay.

Early on Wednesday, a Libyan boat approaching Lampedusa carrying a reported 300 migrants from Somalia, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Bangladesh and Sudan capsized. Around 250 people are feared dead.

Maroni also said Italy agreed to give Tunisia 10 boats and 100 off-road vehicles to patrol its shores and stop people smuggling boats from setting sail for Italian shores.

Prior to the recent bi-lateral agreement with Tunisia, “there were no border patrols,” Maroni said.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni.