A migrant smuggler has boasted that there is nothing European leaders can do to stop people from making illegal and highly dangerous journeys to the continent. The criminal insisted that “not even the Prophet himself could prevent the Harka”—the name given to illegal immigration in Tunisia.
Twenty-nine-year-old Hassan (not his real name) has made a lot of money through what he described as his “illegal travel agency.” At the top of a chain in which a number of “coordinators” collect “customers” from Tunisia and send them off in small boats, he has played an important role in the significant rise of illegal crossings to Italy, increasing four-fold in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period the year before.
The young man spoke exclusively to Italy’s la Repubblica, which described him as looking almost like a “good boy” due to his “perfectly trimmed black beard” and “light metal-framed glasses.” His story has also appeared in Germany’s Die Welt and Austria’s eXXpress. There is, after all, a Europe-wide angle to the migration story given the continued movement through the continent by those who land illegally in areas like Lampedusa, known as “Italy’s gateway to Europe.”
Business, Hassan said, will continue going strong because people from countries like Tunisia will always be willing to pay the roughly €740 to €880 bill to make their way across.
It will not stop, because in Tunisia people live in a stranglehold: preventing them from leaving would mean their immediate death. We have arrived at a point of no return.
He added that “I already have 30 crossings complete and ready for departure for August. [Italian Prime Minister Giorgia] Meloni will have to put up with it.”
Hassan has a point. He, and others like him, has positioned himself to take advantage of an overwhelming lack of resolve and collaboration among EU member states to enforce their own border security.
Pierre-Marie Sève, Director of Institut pour la Justice (Institute for Justice), insisted that the question is indeed whether European leaders possess the will to control their borders. In a recent event hosted by The European Conservative, he stated:
I strongly disagree with the conclusion that all public policies against illegal immigration are doomed to fail. To say this is actually a way of supporting this migration.
Mankind has landed on the moon, we can of course stop people from traveling across [the] sea. We need a strong political will and to put these policies at the top of our diplomatic priorities list.
Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib, speaking at the same event, agreed that there has been an “apparent complete collapse” in political will to control borders, and a drive instead to deport (some of) those who have already arrived.
The only way forward, according to Mr. Sève, is to halt illegal migration—which is no small task:
If we really want to put an end to illegal migration, we, as citizens, should clarify what action we are ready to pursue. Are we ready to not save a single migrant ship? Are we ready to refuse to open our ports and harbours? … It is not an easy choice, but Europe has to keep its head cool and keep a long-term vision.
So long as governments are, as Hassan remarked, willing to “put up with it,” there is no stopping the migrant business from booming.
