Sweden Dials Back on Refugees

Aren't They Cruel and Heartless

Even Europe’s humanitarian superpower is turning its back on refugees

The Bible urges the wise and prudent to sit down and count the cost, before engaging on a great venture.  So, said Jesus, no rational king goes to war without first working out whether he has the wherewithal and means to wage it.  No builder commences a built without working out whether he can afford it before picking up the shovel.  [Luke 14: 28--33]

Of course, our Lord was making the point with respect to folks clamoring to be His disciples.  Count the cost--for there is one.  Those who do not will end up exposing themselves to mockery and shame.

A similar observation can be made about European nations who have recently acted in pride, vainglory, and with apparently no cost-counting.  They sought to "lead the way" in accepting refugees.  Doubtless they looked down large superior noses at those other European states who considered those to whom they were primarily responsible--their own citizens.

This bespeaks yet another failure for internationalism--the ideology which trumps humanity in the abstract over actual human souls in reality.  Ironically, it is most often the latter which in the long run can do far more for genuine refugees and those in real need.

Humanitarianism Has Limits--Apparently

By Griff Witte and Anthony Faiola
Washington Post

MALMO, Sweden — When the small, crumpled body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on the Aegean coast Sept. 2, Europe’s humanitarian superpower sprang into action.

Sweden’s prime minister headlined gala fundraisers, Swedish celebrities starred in telethons, and a country that prides itself on doing the right thing seemed to rally as one to embrace refugees fleeing for their lives.

But after taking in more asylum seekers per capita than any other nation in Europe, Sweden’s welcome mat now lies in tatters.
Overwhelmed by the human tide of 2015, the center-left government is deploying extraordinary new border controls and slashing benefits in an unmistakable signal to refugees contemplating the long trek to Sweden in the new year: Stay out.  “We’re willing to do more than anyone else,” said Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson. “But even we have our limits.”

Those limits can be readily seen in a tent camp where dozens of migrants are bedding down in the frigid Nordic winter and at the train station where many new arrivals are turned back within minutes of setting foot on Swedish soil.

Doubtless there will be a realignment across Europe on this issue.

The impact of such controls could be felt far beyond Sweden: The country’s dramatic shift threatens to wreak havoc all the way down Europe’s migrant trail in 2016 by setting off a domino effect in which countries seal their borders for fear that their neighbors will do the same. . . .

Barriers have already risen across the continent, primarily in the transit nations for migrants traveling by land into wealthy Western Europe. Hungary lined its borders with razor wire, forcing this autumn’s unparalleled streams of humanity farther west into Croatia and Slovenia.  In November, Macedonia introduced strict controls meant to filter out new arrivals from countries other than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The policy has left thousands of people stranded in Greece.

But Sweden’s abrupt reversal is potentially far more consequential. Across Europe this year, two countries have stood out for their uncommonly generous reception policies: Sweden and Germany.

Now, Sweden is actively trying to keep people out, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from critics within her own center-right coalition to do the same after the country welcomed a record 1 million asylum seekers this year.

During her Christian Democratic Party conference in December, she bowed to those critics, at least in part, saying that Germany needed to “palpably reduce” its refugee numbers.

It is not just the issue of housing, support, the prevention of ethnic and religious ghettoes, and successful integration, it is also recapturing and maintaining security--the most fundamental duty, if not the only duty of the state.

. . . . The most tangible evidence of change, meanwhile, can already be seen in the ID checks aboard the trains, buses and ferries that connect Sweden with its southern neighbors, Denmark and Germany.

Under the free-movement rules of Europe’s Schengen Area, such border controls are supposed to be deployed only in emergencies. But in the past month, they have become routine, blocking the path of asylum seekers wishing to transit through Sweden on their way to Norway and Finland.

The Swedish parliament recently passed a law that will expand the checks next week to the Danish side of the border, allowing Sweden to keep the large number of migrants who travel with no papers from ever reaching its shores. Denmark has threatened to follow suit on its border with Germany. . . .

Despite repeated pledges from E.U. officials about the need to gain control of the continent’s external borders, there has been little concrete action — forcing member states to revive internal border controls that disappeared decades ago.

Faiola reported from Berlin. Karla Adam in London and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.