Sanchez told the electorate in mid-June: “It is our duty to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer a safe port to these people, to comply with our human rights obligations.”
But a 2017 report by the European Commission noted that: “The geographic distribution clearly reveals that a majority of irregular migrants rescued in the Central Mediterranean are most likely not refugees in the sense of the Geneva Convention, given that some 70 percent come from countries or regions not suffering from violent conflicts or oppressive regimes.”
According to The Telegraph the country is now by far the largest gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, while arrivals to Italy now trail Spain by almost 3000 – a gap that just weeks ago was 200.
The Spanish coastguard has been completely “overwhelmed” by the flood and has issued an urgent call for additional resources to deal with the crisis.
The Independent reported that at the last European Council summit in Brussels at the end of June, EU national leaders agreed on the need to set up secure centres to process asylum claims and condemned NGO-operated rescue boats operating off the Libyan coast.
“Leaders also in principle agreed another proposal for ‘disembarkation platforms’ based in North Africa where EU officials could process asylum claims outside EU territory …”
However, despite the so-called agreement between EU members, “no north African country has yet agreed to host migrant screening centres to process refugee claims,” according to Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration.
In an interview with the German tabloid Bild last month, Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said his country should start policing its borders: “They [the migrants] include terrorists, criminals, and human traffickers who do not care about human rights.”
These developments appear not to have impacted on the policies of left-wing parties supporting the new Spanish government at all. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell during a joint press conference earlier this week with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, highlighted the need for “new blood” in a continent with an ageing population. “Europe’s demographic evolution shows that unless we want to gradually turn into an ageing continent, we need new blood, and it doesn’t look like this new blood is coming from our capacity to procreate,” he said.
Borrell added that the arrivals were under control, even if NGOs are warning that many migrant reception centres in Spain are saturated.
Nuria Diaz, spokesperson of the Madrid-based NGO, CEAR, Comision Espanola de Ayuda al Refugiado, said: “Sanchez wants to be the driving force behind a new European solidarity policy towards refugees. We should judge the results obtained.” Diaz added: “The Spanish government will also be evaluated on its ability to receive migrants.”
Turkish MP Alparslan Kavaklıoglu, a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the head of the parliament’s Security and Intelligence Commission, meanwhile welcomed the influx.
“… Europe is going through a time that is out of the ordinary. Its population is declining and aging… So, people coming from outside get the jobs there. But Europe has this problem. All of the newcomers are Muslim. From Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Those who come from these places are Muslim. It is now at such a level that the most popular name in Brussels, Belgium is Mohammed… [If this trend continues], the Muslim population will outnumber the Christian population in Europe… Europe will be Muslim. We will be effective there, Allah willing. I am sure of that.”
Notably Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both very wealthy countries, have refused take in “refugees”, a Polish Member of Parliament pointed out.
Dominik Tarczynski remarked during an interview with Turkish media outlet TRT World: “Where is Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, where is Qatar? Most of the refugees are Muslims which are neighbours to this country, so why you are calling this a European problem?
“The European Union is not responsible for Angela Merkel’s madness and [her] looking for cheap labour.”
Infowars reported in 2015 that Saudi Arabia has 100 000 air conditioned tents near the city of Mina, which are only used for five days of the year by Hajj pilgrims – yet the country refuses to welcome large numbers of Muslim “refugees”.
‘Where is Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, where is Qatar? Most of the refugees are Muslims which are neighbors to this country, so why you are calling this a European problem?’ asks Polish MP @D_Tarczynski in response to world's refugee crisis. pic.twitter.com/Di3GcBVTOG
— The Newsmakers (@The_Newsmakers) July 31, 2018
The interview host claimed Europe was responsible for the migrants, instead of neighbouring Muslim countries, because of “post-colonial repression”. TRT World is owned by the Turkish government.
