The 2015 migrant influx drove a major wedge between some of the EU members, after some countries openly opposed plans for distributing refugees according to quotas. Critical voices also insist that the migrant influx drove government spending and crime rates up significantly.
Several EU officials, including EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, have suggested that the bloc's member states must settle refugees potentially arriving from Afghanistan, but such an idea seemingly does not enjoy backing even among the strongest supporters of accommodating as many migrants as necessary in the past.
However, EU states fatigued by the events of the 2015 exodus of people from the Middle East and North Africa, especially Syria and Libya, learned a different lesson from those times. According to a German diplomatic memo obtained by the AP, instead of struggling with the migrant influx, EU interior ministers mulled providing timely humanitarian assistance to Afghans so they wouldn't come in the first place.
European States Seek to Avoid Repeating 2015 Migrant Crisis
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would gladly receive those Afghans who helped NATO forces, even posting a welcoming tweet, but rejected “irregular migratory flows”, against which the EU must defend itself, in his opinion. More than once France has been a scene of high-profile attacks and murders committed by Muslim migrants and even its own military veterans have drafted and signed an open letter…
