Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-13-Speech-4-165"
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"en.20011213.12.4-165"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I believe that this new tragedy illustrates yet again what we might call the fate of immigrants. A year ago, it was 58 foreigners who were found dead in Dover; the year before, Yaguine and Fodé, two young Guineans, were found dead in the undercarriage of a Sabena plane. It seems to me that this keeps happening and that, faced with these tragedies, we actually only have one policy, which is to lock the door and throw away the key.
And, as Bernard-Henri Lévy would say, it seems to me that increasingly people are losing interest in what we might call the suburbs of the world. It would appear, Mr President, that there are two ways of tackling immigration issues today. The first, which is increasingly common, is to want to keep our borders wide open so as to have a source of cheap labour, liable to be ruthlessly exploited; and the other is not to want any immigration at all, which is neither preferable nor desirable.
I believe that it is high time, Mr President, that we had some effective legislation, which is rigorous, of course, but simple in terms of form and common to all European countries, which takes account of the needs of both the southern and northern countries. We cannot continue to strip the countries of the south of their intellectual assets whenever we need them, cynically importing brainpower as if it were just another commodity which we need, as it were, to safeguard our pensions, while at the same time speaking the language of repression.
This is not about repression or charity; it is dignity which is at stake here. I believe that this is how we should tackle the issue of immigration.
On the other hand – and we have seen illustrations of this throughout the afternoon – if we do not take into consideration the fact that today three quarters of the earth's population is living in the most absolute poverty; if today we do not cancel the debt of developing countries and if we do not discipline ourselves to invest in health, education and infrastructure, I am convinced that, once again, we will have failed to learn the lessons of history, as recent as it is.
Today, these destitute men and women, who are totally neglected, form a breeding ground for terrorism, a place where terrorism thrives. Fighting terrorism today also means fighting this poverty. Mr President, I have been so bold as to intervene without taking notes because I really do not think that we can continue to treat these people with such great inhumanity."@en1
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