The Folly of Outsourcing Border Security
August 14, 2023
In late July, a military coup in the West African country of Niger against its elected president has created a deepening crisis in the region. Nearby military-ruled countries are now squaring off against Western allies and the prospect of a devastating war looms large. The Sahel region of Africa is already dangerously overpopulated and is one of the poorest and most unstable places on earth. Thousands of miles north in Europe, leaders are also fretting because Niger was one of the linchpins of their outsourced migration strategy. This threatens new waves of migrants and a change in the willingness of countries in the region to stop them from heading to Europe. Niger’s turmoil, and that of several other nations involved, are a warning to America: border security can’t be outsourced.
Most European nations have policies that, like the U.S., are generous to migrants. To hold back a tidal wave of migration, the European Union had begun relying on compacts and informal agreements with Turkey and several African nations (including Niger) to control migration before it reaches Europe’s borders. Europe is now finding out that there is simply no substitute for deterrence and controlling your own borders. This is far more effective that giving money to corrupt and authoritarian states like Niger, Tunisia or Turkey and then being surprised when they take the money but do not uphold their promise to stop migrants coming your way. Turkey hosts millions of migrants whose destination of choice would be the much wealthier E.U., and has found that threatening to let these migrants cross into Greece and beyond is a valuable negotiation tactic. This has included demanding more money from the E.U., gaining visa-free access to Europe for Turkish nationals and forcing the E.U. to take in more migrants.
https://www.fairus.org/blog/2023/08/14/folly-outsourcing-border-security
