The escalating number of migrants arriving by sea has become a wicked problem for Europe.

The escalating number of migrants arriving by sea has become a wicked problem for Europe.Credit:Getty Images

Observers of British politics have watched how the party that returned to power on the back of the progressive modernism promised byDavid Cameron has turned more populist and conservative as the prime ministerial faces have changed – most recently,in rapid succession.

The 2015 migration crisis,as millions fled Syria for Europe,set in place a new fault line in British politics reminiscent of the waythe Tampa affair came to redefine the asylum seeker debate for a generation in Australia.

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The UK’s most high-profile Eurosceptic,Nigel Farage,has been unsuccessful every time he has stood for parliament. But he hasn’t needed to enter the House of Commons to change the nation.

Agitating from the sidelines was enough to reshape how voters felt about migration – and what they judged to be the solution. And so in 2016,Britain voted to leave the European Union,setting off fears that countries across the Continent would follow suit.

Ultimately,Brexit convulsed Britain,which quickly dimmed those fears,but migration has remained a wicked problem for both the UK and Europe. As the number of asylum seeker boats crossing the channel escalated,some began to wonder why Britain could not do what Australia had done,andturn back the boats.

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The UK does not have access to international waters between it and the source country of asylum seekers,as Australia has with Indonesia,so it cannot tow the boats back to France or anywhere else.

Rather,it has reached for a Pacific-style solution,throwing huge sums of money at Rwanda to take unwanted migrants,in the hope this might break the people smugglers’ business model,which is essentially selling their passengers a pathway to British life.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made Stop the Boats his mantra ahead of the next election.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made Stop the Boats his mantra ahead of the next election.Credit:Getty

The Rwanda solution is stillnot allowable under law,somethingconservative MPs are trying to change ahead of the next election. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s primary campaign slogan is “Stop the Boats”. Sound familiar?

Across the Channel,theEuropean Union is facing similar dilemmas.

The bloc has paid Tunisia to try to stop migrants leaving its shores for Italy. Italy’sright-wing leader Giorgia Meloni was elected on a platform of ending boat arrivals and is under pressure given thatthey have not stopped.

In the Netherlands,anti-immigration firebrandGeert Wilders,known as the “Dutch Donald Trump”,topped the poll in the November national election after posing as a moderate. He has previously advocated hardline policies that would make the Netherlands less open to Muslims and Islamic worship,and has agitated for his country to leave the EU.

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The Dutch election result sent shockwaves through Europe and in Brussels ahead of next year’s European parliamentary elections,when migration is expected to be a top,if notthe top,issue. And so this week the EU finallyagreed to some hardline solutions to deal with the mass migration challenge.

Under the deal,defacto border detention facilities will be set up to house migrants,including women and children,who arrive by boat (mostly across the Mediterranean and into Greece and Italy) while their claims are processed.

Countries not at the border will have a choice between accepting asylum seekers or paying into an EU fund. The agreement also sets out that claims of asylum will be processed within 12 weeks,but we know from experience that such timeframes are difficult to meet.

Meanwhile,French MPs havepassed their own hardline legislation which will introduce migration quotas and delay access to welfare benefits – including benefits for children and housing allowances – for non-EU migrants by five years.

The bill represents a policy victory for French President Emmanuel Macron – but could cause him political pain as his rival Marine Le Pen has labelled it “a great ideological victory” for her far-right party.

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