Terror shows EU's migration policy is a fiasco

Monday's terrorist attack clearly shows the failure of the European migration and asylum system, Viktor Marsai, director of the Migration Research Institute, told Magyar Nemzet. The weapon the attacker used came from the Balkans, said the assistant professor at the University of Public Service.

"How is it possible that a person who had no right to stay in Europe, who had already been on the radar of the authorities on several occasions, could carry out a terrorist attack? This clearly shows the failure of the EU's migration and asylum system," Viktor Marsai, director of the Migration Research Institute, told Magyar Nemzet, when asked about the terrorist attack that took place in Brussels.

 The terrorist had run-ins with authorities in Tunisia for sympathizing with extremists (Photo:Olivier Hoslet)

As Magyar Nemzet reported in  an earlier piece, during Monday's Belgium-Sweden Euro 2014 qualifier, the assailant killed two men wearing Swedish supporters' jerseys and seriously injured a taxi driver, before fleeing the scene. The perpetrator of the attack, 45-year-old Tunisian Abdessalam Lassoued, arrived in the country as an illegal immigrant and although his asylum application was rejected in 2019, he remained in Belgium.

Media reports suggest that this was not the first time that Lassoued had a run-in with the law:

he was known to the authorities in Tunisia for sympathizing with extremists, and has also committed criminal offences in Belgium – most recently threatening the resident of a refugee center. He was due to appear at the police station for questioning on October 17, the day after the attack.

Weapons used by terrorists

"The gunman opened fire from a Kalashnikov. It is worth noting that this weapon is not in regular use by Western European armed forces. This Kalashnikov was brought to Europe illegally, most probably through smuggling networks in the Western Balkans, with the main source to obtain weapons from being Albania," said the assistant professor from the University of Public Service (NKE).

Citing the TE-SAT report on terrorist crimes published by Europol, Viktor Marsai said that the number of incidents linked to Islamist extremist groups decreased in 2021 (11) compared to 2020 (13), largely due to the work of counter-terrorism services. However, 

radicalization in the case of certain individuals is unpreventable, and the number of convicted extremists in Europe is around one hundred every year.

It is worrying that the number of irregular border crossings at the external borders of the European Union has been steadily increasing since the pandemic, the director of the Migration Research Institute said, noting that he sees no factor that would weaken this upward trend in the next six months.

Motivation

"The Israeli-Palestinian conflict currently has no impact on the migratory pressure on Europe, as Gaza is closed. But if Egypt, already hosting tens of millions of migrants and refugees, opens its borders, or if the conflict escalates in the region, the situation could change in a matter of minutes," he said.

 Palestinians fleeing norther Gaza (Photo: MTI/EPA/Mohamed Saber)

He pointed out that the  civil war in Sudan has been raging since April, with more than a million people already having fled the country. Instead of clearly communicating that there is no need for illegal immigration, the EU is moving towards adopting a package that sends the message: you just come, you'll stay here somehow anyway.

More and more people will set out for the EU in this way.

Statistics show that those who manage to enter are almost impossible to deport, he said. As he explained, smuggling networks also encourage those who want to leave their homeland by asking migrants arriving in the destination country to 

share the news of their arrival on social media platforms, advertising the services of smugglers.

"It is worrying that the draft of the new migration and asylum pact fails to offer a solution to the issue: it is unclear how European border protection could be tightened, how extremist could be better eliminated, and how deportations could be made more efficient," Viktor Marsai from NKE said in conclusion.

Cover photo: Police cordon off the scene of the shooting in Brussels on October 16, 2023. Two people were killed (Photo: MTI/AP/ Sylvain Plazy)