Asylum crisis on Lampedusa: The difficult search for the common denominator

2023-09-18 09:02:00

More than 11,000 people arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa last week. The worsening of the refugee problem in the Mediterranean was the topic of the ORF discussion group “In the Center” on Sunday evening, which focused on the question “Borderless crisis in the Mediterranean – who will solve the asylum chaos?” turned. Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ) in particular caused a stir with some of his statements: Right at the beginning, the EU representative spoke of a situation with an “invader-like character” and controlled migration by NGOs run by investor George Soros.

Judith Kohlenberger contradicted this. The migration researcher from WU Vienna attributed the chaotic situation to political tensions in North Africa, economic hardship and the consequences of the pandemic and the Russian war of aggression. According to Europe expert Stefan Lehne, solving the problem is so difficult for the EU because the countries are very far apart in their fundamental stance on the asylum issue. Hungary has practically dismantled its asylum system, and Greece and Poland are also operating in contradiction to European law: “In this complex constellation, it is difficult to find a common denominator.”

Kohlenberger then spoke of inadequate crisis management and pointed out that Italy had carried out below-average asylum procedures in the past three years: “The number of refugees is too large for Lampedusa alone, but it might be managed for the whole of Italy. There is space if the “There is political will.” Harald Vilimsky showed little political will and spoke of an “intercontinental migration of peoples” that brought a variety of problems. Stefan Lehne replied that despite the flight of five million Ukrainians, there was no chaos in the EU: “This talk of mass migration is simply fiction.”

Video: The current broadcast of “Im Zentrum” in full length