Migrant Crisis: A review of policies by European countries

World
Europe

02:11

We see little progress has been made in Africa to stop people from fleeing their homes, like in the Middle East and the countries where these refugees are headed are taking an increasingly more hardline stance against them.

For instance, in Europe where the arrival of massive numbers of migrants over the past few years has stirred fierce debate in many EU member states, and a number of governments have started to take a much tougher line. Another point of friction is how the burden can be shared across the EU -- especially with a growing anti-immigration sentiment amongst the public in those countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than one million asylum seekers into her country in 2015, which caused her CDU party's stinging losses in last year's general election, and she only just managed to hang on to power. An opinion poll last week showed that nearly 90 percent of Germans favour a tougher stance on migration.

Italy is the main gateway into Europe for refugees arriving by sea. But as an anti-migrant coalition was sworn in to government earlier this month, one of its first decisions was to refuse the Aquarius rescue ship carrying 630 migrants to dock in Italy.

France is a country where many migrants would most like to settle. The majority of French people are opposed to illegal immigration, with 56 percent against the Aquarius being allowed to dock in France. Though nearly half of the migrants on board want to apply for asylum in France.

Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia. The four so-called Visegrad countries are opposed to any refugee quota system that the EU has tried to impose on them since 2015.

And finally, Spain is the third main point of arrival after Italy and Greece, but public opinion seems not deeply divided. The new Socialist government under Pedro Sanchez agreed to allow the Aquarius to dock and to handle the migrants' applications for asylum. He argued that the crisis over the boat should help "nudge" other countries within the bloc.