Flooded by desperate people
The European Union is readying a rapid reaction team and naval patrols to deal with boatloads of migrants washing up on its shores. But that must be seen against the warning by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that 'zero immigration' is a myth - in other words, Europe mustn't turn itself into a fortress to keep out migrants.
'Either they come legally in an organised way, or they come illegally,' he said. 'They will come anyway, and there is no border policy that can avoid that.'
Mr Sarkozy made that prediction in reference to the influx of migrants from Africa's poorest countries. It threatens mainly Spain, but also France.
Faced with 100,000 potential immigrants this year, Spain has allocated Euro30 million ($296 million) for measures to keep out illegals.
Even tiny Malta, which joined the EU last year - and has a population of only 400,000 - has received 1,000 immigrants since January. The problem was discussed at a recent conference in Rabat, Morocco, of officials from 58 European and African nations. Co-operation is essential because, as Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fahri put it: 'No country can succeed alone to master the migratory flux.'
He might have added that even the mighty United States is finding it extraordinarily difficult to keep out illegal Mexicans. Or that India's barrier along the border with Bangladesh shows that people will always gravitate towards wherever there are better opportunities of earning a living.
That perfectly legitimate human instinct explains history's great migrations. It accounts in large part for the Anglo-Saxon populations of North America, Australia and New Zealand, and for the Chinese and Indian diasporas. The urge for self-betterment cannot be denied in a globalised age that exalts the ideal of the borderless world.
Problems lie with national susceptibilities and capacities, and also with the exploitation of hope. Senegal protests - not without a grain of truth - that France's proposal of selective immigration will encourage a brain drain of the best and brightest. Some Britons complain about welfare services - built out of taxpayers' contributions - being used for newcomers who have made no contribution. Little Malta has a valid problem of numbers.
Stereotyped images - of out-of-work Africans engaging in a variety of anti-social activities - haunt others. Such fears have been blown out of all proportion by Europe's new crop of rightist politicians, accounting for a great deal of avoidable anguish in some countries.
Nor is there any disguising the fact that the response, whether official or public, is sometimes rooted in racial prejudice.
If, as Mr Sarkozy suggests, immigrants 'will come anyway', France's suggestion of micro-credits might regulate the flow. 'To have [enough money] to start up a store or company is to pass from the shadows to the light' said French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. He proposed small grants for citizens of African countries, so they could develop the entrepreneurial spirit at home.
Whether that would solve the problem is a moot point. First, the governments of the countries of origin must co-operate fully. Second, the scheme must be sufficiently generous, and implemented with imagination and effectiveness. Just throwing small sums at potential migrants would achieve nothing.
It is neither possible nor desirable to prevent people from turning their backs on massive poverty in the quest for a better life.
But it is possible and desirable to regulate and, if possible, reduce the flow so as to lessen the pains of adjustment on both sides.
Sunanda Kisor Datta-Ray is a former editor of The Statesman in India
