Piro Rexhepi<\/p>\n
It has become an article of faith among liberals that Donald Trump is the world\u2019s biggest enemy to refugees and Muslims, while the EU somehow offers them a safe harbour. After all, with the words \u201cWe can do it<\/a>\u201d<\/span> Angela Merkel invited a million Syrian refugees into Germany, while Trump\u2019s travel ban has slammed shut America\u2019s door to some of the world\u2019s most vulnerable displaced people. In today\u2019s liberal mindset, it is Brexit that has stirred up hostility against migrants, while the EU is a bulwark of civilised values, protecting refugees from the threat of a resurgent far right.<\/span><\/p>\n If you were a migrant in a leaking boat approaching Lesbos, however, the treatment you would receive from Frontex<\/a>,<\/span> the EU\u2019s border patrol, would be no less hostile than anything Trump could inflict. In Tunis last week a video showed Tunisian border police whipping cowering migrants from elsewhere in north Africa. This brutality was EU-sponsored. Like Libya<\/a>, Morocco<\/a>, Turkey<\/a> <\/span>and Egypt<\/a>,<\/span> Tunisia receives funding and training from Brussels through the European neighbourhood policy (ENP). Under a broader framework of \u201cdevelopment\u201d and \u201creforms\u201d, these ENP countries serve as a buffer zone, making sure that refugees are intercepted and turned back \u2013 or, in Libya, locked up and tortured<\/a> <\/span>in refugees\u2019 prisons \u2013 before these desperate people can reach the EU\u2019s shores.<\/span><\/p>\n The idea that the Europe of Merkel and Theresa May is more welcoming to refugees than Trump\u2019s America simply isn\u2019t borne out by the facts. The EU\u2019s deal with Turkey, condemned by humanitarian agencies, ensures that refugees arriving in Greece \u2013 regardless of their point of departure \u2013 will be sent to Turkey. Turkey now has the largest refugee population in the world, at about 3 million people.<\/span><\/p>\n