If we don’t secure Europe’s borders then we will continue to fall victim to terrorist atrocities
The way to solve this is a concerted effort to stem the numbers of people coming and only then will we able to strangle terrorism network
A WEEK ago Spain was in the headlines.
Then it was for extraordinary footage showing a boatload of migrants landing on a beach in the south of the country and running ashore.
When that footage emerged it became a symbol not just of a mad loss of control in Spain, but the mad loss of control at all of Europe’s borders.
It threw up immediate questions. How can you keep your society safe if you don’t enforce your own laws or borders?
How can you prevent terrorist horrors if you have so little care in knowing who is even inside your country?
Now, a week later, terror has struck in Spain again.
Thursday’s van attack in Barcelona was the first major Islamist attack in Spain since 2004’s Madrid train bombs.
Like the many similar attacks that have happened across Europe in recent years, this one bears all the hallmarks of IS, who were quick to claim credit.
As in Nice, Berlin, Stockholm and in London, the terrorist drove a hired vehicle down one of the busiest and most popular tourist streets in Barcelona.
In the days and weeks ahead, the Spanish police and intelligence officials will be piecing this together.
They will be trying to work out who the terrorists knew, who they were in contact with and whether there are still more people waiting to do the same thing.
Politicians and others will remark not just on the tragedy but on the difficulty of stopping such attacks.
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has described them as perhaps being just part of living in a big modern city.
Last year, then-French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France must “learn to live with” such terror.
But all this glosses over the errors of a generation of politicians.
It was not the citizens of Europe who asked for our borders to be dissolved.
It was not the citizens who suggested that European countries stop patrolling the soft underbelly of our continent.
And it was not the citizens who argued for European and NGO ships to become part of the people-smuggling networks bringing millions into Europe.
Even in the days before this attack, newspapers across Europe talked of the upsurge of migrants coming into Spain this year (almost 10,000 so far this year).
Most referred to these migrants being “saved” from the brief sea journey they take. Few recognised that these people are being “encouraged”, not saved.
And that from Spain to Italy and Greece, our continent has little to no idea of who these people are who are coming in.
This year to date nearly 100,000 have entered our continent through the Italian ports. A deal with the dictator of Turkey has slowed the entries into Greece.
But we are still absorbing years of illegal migration.
And though most are simply after a better life, our governments have little to no way of working out who anyone is — let alone who they might become and, crucially, what they might do.
Open borders advocates point to Europe-born terrorists like those who carried out the massacres in Paris in November 2015.
But if we are having trouble keeping on top of people already here, who but a madman would let the illegal flow continue?
The migration is like water. You can block one point of flow, but it will keep trying to find another place to come through.
But it is not hopeless. All that is needed is a concerted effort to stop or stem the flow of people coming and get on top of the situation we are already in.
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Only then can we begin to strangle the networks that allow terrorism to conjure up its devastating plots.
Will it be easy? Certainly not. When al-Qaeda attacked Spain in 2004 they reminded the world that Islamic extremists cannot forgive Europe for their “loss” of the Muslim portion of the country.
That was six centuries ago. Those who wish us harm have evil intent and long memories.
To defeat them, it wouldn’t hurt to develop a basic degree of common sense. And some survival instinct.
- Douglas Murray is the author of The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam.