REFUGEES: EUROPE BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE .

Parts of the Middle East and Africa empty out while Europe gets filled to the rim.  Europe and the world have seen human displacements before with the consequences thereof in agriculture, science, mobility of labour, industry, trade, culture...  Most of those events were nevertheless geographically confined. The only exception might have been the Balfour Declaration which led to the creation of Israel in the biblical homeland.

Today, part of the Middle East looks like a ship adrift, abandoned by passengers clinging to the nearest viable alternative. They arrive by the thousands in Europe which remains in fact an opportunity rather than a cause. European history, culture, secular values, economy, are generally unknowns to the refugees, who risk all in order to exchange the inferno they know for the fate they ignore.

Europe's welfare system is already strained and will be unable to care for individuals who ignore "birthrate borders" as well.  Besides, the EU is totally unprepared to face a crisis of a magnitude which might well lead to a hard reality check, once the emotions give way to a more rational analysis.

Europe has a moral obligation to intervene in what is a humanitarian issue for now. Germany is right for now.The EU should also be aware of the fact that most refugees will be reluctant to engage in the democratic values which make Europe what it is, a system wherein the separation between state and religion is absolute.

The EU is trying to redistribute or redirect refugees among member states. This is an illusion, since refugees will continue to try to enter their country of choice rather than stay in a place of imposition.  Meanwhile, setting them up in "glorified" Bantoustans (type Banlieu), or with generous families, is a missionary approach doomed to backfire, or worse, by way of an incompatible (given the background) Malthusian sustainable model Utopia.  Better to take the example of Singapore:  do not accumulate, separate.

Many bona fide individuals suffer from past indignities and current trauma. Once "recovered", their DNA will normally take over. The better will pay for the black sheep in their midst and the Europeans will have been the gullible accomplices in worse to come.

All EU interventions should be linked to agreed conditions: the option of return in case the situation in the countries of origin improves;  obligation to seek employment after verifiable identification is secured; respect for existing law and order; "temporary status" for non- political refugees, open to periodic scrutiny, sanctioned in case of non respect of statutory rules of conduct.

Meanwhile, the world and regional powers have to come together in a Geneva-bis conference, encompassing ALL, under the auspices of the 5+1 and the Arab League or the Organisation of Islamic cooperation, so that proper arrangements can be considered even if the outcome or participants are not to everybody's liking.

If nothing is done, the human traffickers will have won, like ISIL does now.  Peace is not for the choosers, it is the work of the doers. One is right to feed the hungry, but to ignore the drought is criminal.