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Your letters: Economic migrants, not refugees
A nation without borders is not a nation and a nation has the right to control its borders
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nation without borders is not a nation and a nation has the right to control its borders.
The first maxim of the European Union is freedom of movement for people. The 350 million people of the 28 member states have the right to move around freely from state to state at will, unhindered. Once a sovereign state becomes a member of the EU and signs the EU's Schengen Agreement, which allows this freedom, it automatically loses control of its state borders. The UK, as a member state, did not sign up to the Schengen Agreement. It, therefore, retains the right to control its own borders.
The European Union has a duty to its Schengen member states to control the border of the entire European Union.
Rights under the Schengen Agreement do not extend to people beyond the borders of Europe. People from outside the EU have no right to enter Europe without clearance through immigration authorities. Because of the absurdly generous welfare system in the UK, it attracts economic migrants like bees to a honey pot, hence the term 'swarm' used by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Genuine refugees fleeing war or persecution are supposed to take refuge in the first safe country they reach. Most of the migrants risking their lives to reach Europe, and by preference the UK, pass by and through relatively safe havens. A vast majority seems to be Muslims who could settle in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and some African countries. They do not. This clearly shows they are not refugees but economic migrants seeking a better way of life at the expense of the people of their targeted host country.
When addressing human rights, only the human rights of the migrants are considered, not the human rights of the people of the host countries. For very many generations, for centuries, the host people have developed their countries to much envied standards. The question must be raised: What right have migrants to invade these developed countries en masse when they could find safe refuge closer to their own counties?
The suffering of the indigenous people of European countries and the UK caused by this massive invasion is intolerable. This is not migration; it is nothing short of a mass criminal invasion. It is a violation of sovereignty and should be stopped.
JC Wilcox
The Nation/Ann/Bangkok
