{"text":[[{"start":8.9,"text":"Europe’s migration system is again being strained to breaking point. "},{"start":12.767,"text":"For a second year running, the passport-free Schengen zone is set to receive more than 1mn asylum applications, the highest since a surge from Syria and elsewhere in 2015-16. "},{"start":22.922,"text":"Germany has imposed temporary controls on its land borders, under pressure to clamp down on irregular migration after a stabbing incident by a suspected Islamist migrant; the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the interim won its first victory in a state parliament ballot. "},{"start":36.902,"text":"Italy’s right-wing premier Giorgia Meloni has, meanwhile, been giving tips to the UK’s Keir Starmer on curbing irregular sea crossings, but some methods used by Italy — and its neighbours — are very questionable. "}],[{"start":49.47,"text":"Continental Europe and the UK face a similar paradox. "},{"start":53.049,"text":"Rising migration — especially the irregular sort — is a lightning rod for the discontent of hard-pressed voters, which is fuelling support for extremist parties. "},{"start":61.641999999999996,"text":"Yet tight jobs markets and ageing populations mean much of Europe sorely needs migrant labour. "},{"start":66.697,"text":"The EU’s working-age population shrank by 5mn to 264mn in the decade to 2021; by 2050, Europe may have fewer than two working-age adults for each elderly person. "}],[{"start":78.66,"text":"The EU adopted a new Migration and Asylum Pact in April aimed at curbing irregular arrivals and due to take full effect in 2026, but Hungary and Poland opposed it because of its migrant-sharing quotas. "},{"start":89.702,"text":"Already some countries are trying to unpick it. "},{"start":92.182,"text":"Tackling irregular arrivals must, though, be the foundation of a successful policy. "},{"start":97.312,"text":"Experience elsewhere suggests citizens are more tolerant of migration if they perceive borders to be properly protected. "},{"start":103.37899999999999,"text":"Canada, for example — hard to reach for irregular migrants — has long had generous legal immigration programmes (though even there, rising living costs have stoked a backlash). "}],[{"start":114.13999999999999,"text":"The EU has to pour more resources into securing its external borders. "},{"start":118.582,"text":"That includes opening more processing centres, hiring more lawyers and translators, so claims can be processed quickly — with those whose claims fail being speedily removed. "},{"start":128.112,"text":"This, in turn, requires reaching return deals with safe countries from which many asylum-seekers originate, with incentives such as more aid and preferential access to legal migration programmes. "}],[{"start":139.58999999999997,"text":"For practical and cost reasons, some asylum-seekers may inevitably need to be housed and processed offshore. "},{"start":145.88199999999998,"text":"But following well-documented mistreatment of vulnerable migrants in some places, further pacts with the likes of Turkey, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt must involve greater European and international oversight — and be conditional on upholding migrants’ human rights. "},{"start":159.11199999999997,"text":"And EU leaders should eschew “pushbacks”, or measures to force migrants back behind external borders, which are cruel, ineffective and often illegal. "}],[{"start":168.10999999999999,"text":"Italy’s offshore processing deal with Albania is touted by some as a game-changer, but it relies on close historical links between Rome and Tirana and does not necessarily provide a model for Britain, or others. "},{"start":179.35199999999998,"text":"It differs from the former UK Conservative government’s egregious plan to ship some irregular migrants to Rwanda, as facilities in Albania will be Italian-staffed and successful claimants will go to Italy (the UK scheme would have left them in Rwanda). "},{"start":191.969,"text":"But human rights groups still see the yet-to-begin scheme as fraught with risk of abuses. "}],[{"start":197.51999999999998,"text":"To lessen the incentives for irregular migration, and those who profit from it, European countries need to operate legal routes to migration more effectively. "},{"start":205.89899999999997,"text":"Political leaders should be more honest with electorates about the economic need for such inflows, provide the infrastructure to support them and make a clearer distinction with illegal arrivals. "},{"start":215.05399999999997,"text":"None of this will be cheap or easy; it may at best be a partial solution. "},{"start":219.17199999999997,"text":"But the costs and efforts will be worthwhile if they create more political space for the immigration Europe needs — and muffle the siren calls of extremists. "}],[{"start":226.67,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftmailbox.cn/album/171896-1726635598.mp3"}