The ongoing crisis of Syrian refugees in the Balkans, Greece, and Hungary in recent weeks has obscured and bumped from the headlines Europe’s greatest immigration challenge — which is coming from Libya.
The problem of people fleeing Syria is bound to subside, both because Russia’s new presence along the Mediterranean coast will bar or discourage departure, and because Germany and the pope have encouraged European countries to welcome the refugees. The “allocation” of immigrants will ebb and the ones already on the old continent will be settled.
But there has been no progress in Libya, the place from which hundreds of millions of poor Africans might want to depart and attempt to land in rich Europe. In contrast, Syria might “export” only a tiny fraction of those numbers. In Libya, it’s impossible to think that any European country could successfully try to put boots on the ground, as the Russians are doing in Syria. Nor is it possible to think of settling millions (not thousands, like those from Syria so far) of Africans on the old continent. It would cripple any country, and it would forever impoverish and bleed to death Africa by depriving the region of its most daring, entrepreneurial, and intelligent people.
The flow of refugees from Libya in recent days has dwindled only because of the start of bad autumn weather. But it is set to start over in the spring, putting the weakening economic and social fabric of Italy and Europe under stress again.