The EU is now in the “contingency planning” stages regarding a potential coming migrant surge, a Commissioner for the bloc has confirmed.
Ylva Johansson, the European Union’s Commissioner for Home Affairs, has confirmed to reporters that the transnational bloc is currently in the “contingency planning” stages for a possible coming migrant surge resulting from ongoing insecurity in the global supply of food and energy.
Johansson’s suggestion that the union could be facing another migrant surge comes as the EU’s border force agency, Frontex, issues similar warnings, with one of the organisation’s spokesmen saying that the bloc will soon face “waves” of migration.
According to a report by broadcaster Euronews, the commissioner told reporters that authorities in Brussels are currently racing to work with third-party states to lower the dangers posed by a future migrant surge.
However, Johansson seemed to also admit that the bloc was beginning to brace itself for a serious increase in migration into the bloc.
“We’re working on contingency planning if a lot of more people would come to the European Union, how well prepared we are for this,” the broadcaster reports her as saying.
“But second, of course, we try to avoid this from happening and that is why it seems so important to reach out to partner countries,” she added.
Johansson attributed the significant possibility of a future surge in migration to the ever-increasing insecurity of food and fuel supplies internationally, which she argues will strengthen criminal and terrorist organisations in third-party countries.
“That means people can find themselves in a situation where they don’t feel safe to stay in their country and then start moving,” the EU Home Affairs Commissioner said, describing the future ordeal as a “huge challenge”.
This explanation as to why Europe might be facing another migrant crisis mirrors a similar warning issued by a Frontex spokesman earlier in the week, with the EU border force and coast guard saying that the ongoing war in Ukraine’s effect on the world’s food supply will cause “waves” of migration to hit Europe.
“You know that the transport of wheat from Ukraine is hampered. And this will create waves of migration. So we are preparing for that,” organisation spokeswoman Aija Kalnaja said earlier in the week.
Because of this, Kalnaja argued that the EU must not only continue to be prepared to take in refugees from Ukraine, but must “prepare also for refugees coming from other regions because of food insecurity”.
To make matters worse, it remains unclear whether or not this situation will get better anytime soon, as while negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to get some of the country’s wheat to those who need it remain ongoing, farmers currently trying to harvest their crops are experiencing serious difficulties as a result of the ongoing conflict.
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