During an interview with a national radio station, Eric Ciotti, known for his exaggerations on immigration, once again criticized the European Union and France’s policies on the matter, calling the behavior of their leaders “cowardice.”
His proposal would involve sinking the boats transporting immigrants without better explaining the “fate” of those who, in search of a better future, or more often, a simple hope of survival, try to seek refuge in the wealthier countries of Europe with nothing but their misfortune as baggage.
These are indeed refugees fleeing war zones, with economic migrants making up only a small part of the current influx, as confirmed by FRONTEX, the European agency for the control of external borders.
Eric Ciotti knows very well that his assertions are unfounded because, without a United Nations Security Council resolution to use force in Libyan territorial waters, the EU Naval Force Mediterranean mission can only identify and monitor the networks.
However, Eric Ciotti’s ultimate objective is obviously another: to counter the far right on the populist front and artificially create a sense of insecurity in the population. Yet, this intolerance leads nowhere, as the following projections clearly show…
Shouldn’t a politician look a bit beyond the next election?
In fact, the United States Census Bureau has just released its projections for the world’s population in 2050. We, humans, will number 9.8 billion instead of the 7.3 billion in 2015.
And while China is currently the most populous country on the planet with its 1.372 billion, it will see its population slightly decrease to 1.366 billion. On the other hand, India will reach 1.66 billion inhabitants and will take over this symbolic first place.
Africa will be the continent experiencing the highest demographic growth: its population will grow from 1.2 to 2.5 billion. For example, Nigeria will rise to fourth place, after the two Asian giants and the United States. In contrast, Europe is the only continent that will see its population decrease, reaching 741.6 million from the current 728 million.
To better understand the impact, of the 34 countries in the world where the population will decrease, 24 are in Europe where “fertility is below the threshold of generational replacement,” says the Census Bureau.
“But this decline is also explained by increasingly impermeable borders – adds the same source – immigration rates are lower than what was anticipated.”
It is easy in this context to foresee that the Mediterranean will still be the scene of mass migration, against which it will be futile to oppose the simplistic and opportunistic proposals made by Eric Ciotti.
