Europe’s immigration barriers branded ‘a gift to traffickers’
Restrictive immigration policies are creating a new world order, says Red Cross president
European countries are helping human traffickers by closing their doors to migrants, who risk swapping hardship at home for a new life of slavery on the road, humanitarian experts said on Thursday. They said the stark choice — endure war, famine or persecution at home or opt for a new start in a safer country — is increasingly denied to migrants fleeing peril in Africa and the Middle East as anti-immigrant sentiment rises across Europe. “Restrictive immigration policies are creating a new world order where barriers to basic services turn migration into a real humanitarian crisis,” said Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “These barriers are a gift to the traffickers,” he said at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference. Europe’s migration crisis peaked in 2015 with an influx of well over 1 million people. While annual arrivals have since tumbled, EU members have feuded over how to share the burden an...
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