Paris attacks intensify EU concerns about refugee influx

The recent deadly terrorist attacks in the French capital, Paris, have intensified the debate about security in the European Union (EU) in the face of the wave of refugees arriving in the bloc’s member states.

The discovery of a Syrian passport next to the body of one of the assailants in the November 13 Paris attacks prompted the concerns, with some EU officials calling for stricter border controls aimed at monitoring the refugees who enter European countries from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The coordinated attacks in Paris were claimed by the Takfiri Daesh group and left 132 dead and over 350 injured. Many blame the rise of the terrorist group on the policies adopted by some Western states and their allies in the Middle East.

Some politicians have, now, raised concern that more terrorists may disguise as refugees and enter the EU.

For and against

​Karl Erjavec, the foreign minister of Slovenia, earlier warned that incidents in Paris indicated that some people “with bad intentions” were hiding among the thousands of refugees who have been entering the EU in recent months.

Markus Soeder, a German politician with the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) Party, on Monday called for a more controlled handling of the refugee crisis.

Soeder, whose party has been critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy on migrants, added that, “Paris changed everything” and that, “This is no time for uncontrolled immigration.”

Other politicians have played down the concerns.

However, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere warned against “swift links” between the deadly attacks and the current refugee crisis.

The Netherlands’ Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders also said that closing borders to the refugees fleeing violence in African and Middle Eastern countries would not be helpful.

Earlier, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said there was no need for an overall review of the European policy on refugees.

“Those who organized these attacks and those who carried them out are exactly those who the refugees are fleeing,” Juncker said.

Following the Friday attacks in Paris, the French government ordered its borders shut in a move to control the flow of potential persons of interest in and out of France. Paris also declared a state of emergency.

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