Merkel Is Paying for her Illogical Migrant Policy

On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition partners met to seek a compromise for their differences about handling the flood of refugees pouring into Germany. The country expects between 800,000 and a million migrants this year, twice as many as in any previous year - many more than any other European Union country. German media called Sunday's meeting -- between Merkel, Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) that is Merkel's conservative Bavarian sister party, and her other coalition partner Social Democrat (SPD) chief Sigmar Gabriel -- a crisis summit between the ruling coalition partners. But, there was no resolution of Merkel's coalition problems. Her spokesman described the talks as "constructive" and said the three party leaders would meet again Thursday. ~~~~~ The coalition's problem is the idea of introducing "transit zones" at border crossings to process asylum requests, turning back those not qualifying. Seehofer says this action will stem the migrant flow. He's threatened Merkel recently, saying he'd take the government to court over its migrant policies, only to back down. Some of Seehofer's CSU members even want to close Germany's borders, and Seehofer's compromise was to introduce transit zones. ~~~~~ But, SPD members have said they would not agree to transit zones, and Gabriel, the head of the center-left SPD and Merkel's vice chancellor, on Monday rejected the idea of transit zones on Germany's borders to filter out migrants who have little chance of gaining asylum. In the deepening division within Chancellor Merkel's ruling coalition, Gabriel says he's considering challenging Merkel's leadership in the 2017 national elections. So, Seehofer and the CSU demand transit zones, and Merkel agrees with them, but her failure to convince Gabriel threatens to destabilize her government and has led to rare German criticism of her leadership both outside and within her conservative bloc. Gabriel calls the transit zone argument a "totally phoney debate," distracting from what he says are the "real challenges" in taking in and helping the refugees. ~~~~~ And the challenges are many. The number of migrants entering Europe by sea in October was equal to the whole of 2014, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Monday. The October record 218,394 also outstripped September's 172,843, according to UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards : "That makes it the highest total for any month to date and roughly the same as the entire total for 2014." The most in a single day - 10,006 - arrived on Greece's shores on October 20. The largest national group are Syrians, at 53% of arrivals. Afghans were second, at 18% of the total. But, the flow of refugees into Europe is small compared to Syria's neighbors -- Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have Syrian refugees exceeding 2 million, 1 million and 600,000 respectively. ~~~~~ Dear readers, hypothermia, pneumonia and disease threaten the unwelcome migrants as the central European winter closes in with damp foggy days and cold nights on the EU borders where they are massing. Migrants are desperate to save their families. They fight over blankets. Sex traffickers follow the marchers to snatch slow youngsters. A Monday reader's comment to a Guardian refugee article is telling : "Merkel was mad to invite them. Far better to look after them at refugee camps closer to Syria, and relocate only the most vulnerable to Europe." Chancellor Merkel has been known for her coldly methodical decisionmaking. But, her decision to force Germany and the EU to accept unlimited, unvetted refugee waves was ill-considered. It has opened the EU to profound internal division, as well as to the dangers of terrorists and radical Islam. It has presented Europe with insoluble cultural and economic problems. It has made her German constituents ask whether she should be replaced. A heavy price to pay for a problem that could have been managed in the Moslem Middle East, where the migrants belong culturally and where they have a legitimate stake in their own futures.