Paris terror: How the attacks have blown the refugee debate wide open

The UN has joined rights groups in warning that the attacks could lead to a crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers

Migrants and refugees enter a registration camp (Getty)

For many escaping civil war, famine and oppression in the Middle East and Africa, arriving in what is supposed to be a safe haven now risks becoming only the start of their problems.

Rights groups, and even the United Nations, have warned that the terrorist attacks in Paris could lead to a crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers, 800,000 of whom have so far this year risked the perilous trip across the Mediterranean to the shores of Italy, Greece and Spain. More than 3,000 of them have drowned trying. Earlier this summer, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, effectively threw open the gates to Germany, allowing migrants to settle in their thousands, giving them access to the rest of Europe thanks the continent’s open borders.

At the time, Ms Merkel’s decision was lauded as a humane act. Last Friday’s attacks across Paris have now blown that debate wide open, with some linking the carnage in the French capital to the uncontrolled numbers entering Europe. Jihadists posing as asylum seekers are getting in, it is said. That argument gained more potency on Monday when it was confirmed that one of the suicide bombers at the Stade de France had crossed into Greece on 3 October. The UNHCR warned that linking the attacks to the influx of migrants would lead to greater restrictions on the numbers being allowed into the European Union.

Of the six Paris terrorists named by French officials so far, five are known to be either EU nationals, and all were known to the security services. A number had managed to travel to Syria to fight for Isis, before returning home without being picked up by the intelligence services.

In the aftermath of Friday’s attacks, a number of EU countries responded by imposing unilateral restrictions on migrants. The new right of centre government in Poland said it would refuse to accept quotas agreed between its predecessor and Brussels. And France will ask later this week for the effective suspension of the Schengen Agreement, which allows free movement of people within the EU. The leader of the far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen, who commands a lead over François Hollande in opinion polls, has called for an “immediate halt” to migration into the Europe.

But despite the horrific events on Friday night, those gathered in Paris’s central Place de la République bore little animosity to the migrants. “What happened here has got nothing to do with immigration,” Clara Stein, a 19-year-old au pair, said. “That would be the worst thing that could happen – if suddenly the migrants got the blame for what has happened. They are just normal people looking for a better life.”

The tougher language from those on the right is seemingly doing little to dissuade those prepared to risk the hazardous journey. At least nine people drowned today off the Greek island of Kos, attempting to cross the Aegean Sea.