EU Has to Quell Pre-Emptive Panic over Afghan Refugees Fleeing Taliban

As scenes of chaos and desperation have unfolded in Kabul, the response of EU leaders has varied from impassioned calls on the Taliban to allow refugees to leave to expressions of concerns over women's rights.

Beyond the hand-wringing, however, one theme stands out.

French President Emmanuel Macron first voiced it, announcing a joint initiative with Germany to "protect ourselves" from the possible arrival of Afghan refugees.

   As people fell from the sky over Kabul, after trying to cling to a departing US army aeroplane, the Austrian interior and foreign affairs ministers also suggested that if deportations to Afghanistan of rejected asylum seekers were no longer possible, the EU could send them to countries in the region instead.

EU foreign ministers, meeting this week, vowed to pre-empt any "large-scale migratory movement" to Europe.

Talking tough on migration seldom marries with reality. If it did, the panic over possible new "waves" and "influxes" of Afghan people to the EU would be short-lived.

To reach Europe, refugees from Afghanistan have to enter and cross countries like Iran and Turkey, which already host millions of refugees and are busy strengthening their borders; manage to avoid brutal coast and border guards on both sides of the Turkish-Greek border; and then face a barrage of violent push-backs as they attempt to trudge through the Western Balkans.

Many Europeans sympathise with the Afghan people fleeing the Taliban today, but very few know that brutal asylum and border policies have fortified Europe against the possibility of those same women, children and men reaching safety here, with only a few thousand making it into the EU, each year.

EU home affairs ministers also met this week. They were...