BRUSSELS, Belgium — UK Independence Party members of the European Parliament who were in Brussels at the time of Tuesday’s terror attacks have said the atrocity may precipitate the death of Europe’s prized borderless zone.
Speaking to Breitbart London, UKIP MEP Jane Collins said that in the aftermath of the attacks which killed 34 and injured hundreds more that “You can’t now deny that free movement of people is free movement of terrorists and weapons”.
Her comments come after reports Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the cell may have been part of a network spanning France, Belgium, and Germany.
Pressing on the responsibility of the government to protect their people, Ms. Collins continued: “With border controls come the ability to check individuals’ criminal status, their financial status. Those sort of things are crucial in keeping your country safe, and that should be the first responsibility of government.”
Calling those who stand against genuine refugees “heartless”, Ms. Collins said a major problem Europe is facing is the identification of actual refugees as well as terrorists among the migratory flow.
One of the issues was that most individuals arriving in Northern European countries or at the British border could no longer be reasonably considered refugees at all, as they had passed through so many safe countries to be there, she said.
Speaking on the need to reclaim control of Britain’s borders in the wake of trans-national Jihadism, Ms. Collins said: “This is what we’ve been calling for, for long enough. We have been calling for an Australian points-based immigration system where these people are turned back.
“While we are letting in hundreds of thousands of migrants coming into Europe from all over the world, not just from Syria, you are going to have this problem”.
Fellow UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall pointed to Europe’s now inevitable admission of Turkey as a member of the borderless zone, to be followed with full membership. He told Breitbart London: “The remain side, are all fervent supporters of Turkey’s succession.
“Of course this means free movement to Calais for 75 million poverty-stricken Turkish citizens. They are from a state with a despicable human rights record run by a wannabe Islamist revivalist of the Ottoman Empire.
“They must be mad to act as cheerleaders for the death of Europe and the destruction of our security at this time. Given what has happened in Paris and Brussels, to advocate pushing the EU’s borders as far as Syria is beyond belief.”
Ms. Collins also argued the enormous pre-existing communities of Muslims living in Europe needed to get on-board with deradicalisation efforts.
She said: “You’ve got to stop ghettos. If you look at Molinbeek where these terrorists are being harboured, I do not believe some of the residents, and the local community did not know that these people were there.
“We’ve got to be very straight talking and say, you’ve got to give these people up. They may be part of your community, but these people are out-and-out criminals.
“Until we start getting cooperation from some parts of Muslims society then we are stuck.”
While many will have taken the Brussels attacks, which struck at the heart of the machinery of the European Union, to take a critical look at the wisdom of open borders some have been calling for a different solution.
Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called immediately after the blasts on Tuesday for a “European pact for freedom and security” — meaning a common defence policy — pushing a pet political goal. Responding to the idea, UKIP MEP Mike Hookem told Breitbart: “This is typical of the EU, nothing is ever their fault.
“Every problem you have, it is nothing to do with the EU and the answer is always more of the same. How many times does it have to fail before you say we’ve had enough?”
European President Jean-Clause Juncker used the attacks to call for the same. Mr. Hookem was determined in his response: “Juncker must be literally mad if he thinks British people will sign up to a security union with the EU after it has shown itself dangerously incompetent on this issue.
“Inexperienced bureaucrats at the European Commission are not better placed to deal with British security than British security services.
“Schengen open borders have allowed ISIS to create a crisis in the centre of the European Union. What Britain needs to do is to stop the flow of the unknown, the illegal and the undesirable crossing the Channel from the Schengen area via Calais.
“That seven countries have already closed their borders in Schengen shows they acknowledge the idea of open borders without checks is both a delusion and dangerous.
“How dare Mr Juncker use a crisis which the Commission helped to create, as an excuse for a new EU power grab.”
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