Pro-Migration NGOs Claim Border Walls ‘As Bad as Brexit’

NGOs working along the Balkan migrant route have rejected proposals to build border walls to stop illegal migration flows, likening walls and barriers to Brexit.

Gianfranco Schiavone, President of ICS, the Italian Solidarity Consortium, an NGO operating out of the city of Trieste slammed the idea of border fences saying closing border is “self-harming for Europe, a continent that can live only if it maintains open relations with the rest of the world.”

Schiavone went on to add, “Economic development over the past 30 years has been based on the end of borders, it is sufficient to see what is happening with Brexit,” the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.

Silvia Maraone of the NGO Ipsia-Acli, which also works on the Balkan route, added, “The attempt to block arrivals by reinforcing borders, water or land ones, has been done for years but it is not working. We have a wall between Serbia and Hungary since 2015, yet it continues to be one of the principal routes of migrants inflows.”

Last year, the number of migrants crossing the Balkan route increased by 136 per cent, with around 145,000 illegal migrant crossings recorded.

According to Maraone, walls and barriers will just make it more likely people smugglers will choose more dangerous points to cross such as rivers.

The NGO’s statements come in response to a recent European Union meeting last week on the subject of illegal immigration in which several countries called for more resources for border barriers and walls along the external borders of the bloc.

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer was one of the leaders calling for more border control and stated, “We need the money for it, no matter if you call it a fence or border infrastructure. Bulgaria needs help when it comes to border surveillance and personnel, with technical equipment, every fence is only as good as there is effective surveillance.”

Countries across the European Union have agreed to tackle the issue of illegal immigration with some suggesting limiting visas to countries that do not take back their nationals after they have been deported.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.