Don’t expect things to get better in terms of the European refugee crisis any time soon. As sentiments against the crime and disruption caused by the new settlers continues to rise in Germany, France and beyond, the nations on the borders of Europe are under increasing pressure from their own citizens. As of this evening, two nations frequently used as a transit route by those leaving the chaos surrounding Syria will be closing their borders. (Yahoo News)

Slovenia and neighbouring Croatia will from Wednesday refuse the transit of most migrants through their territory in a bid to seal off the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people seeking a new life in Europe, officials said.

The latest twist in Europe’s migrant crisis could set off a domino effect among Balkan states, with Serbia indicating it would follow Ljubljana’s lead and Macedonia apparently set to so the same.

The moves to shut down the main route used by the vast influx of migrants hoping to find asylum or better economic prospects in northern Europe come barely a day after the EU and Turkey agreed a proposal aimed at easing the crisis.

To get an idea of precisely what sort of a wall is being thrown up in front of the migrants, it’s probably helpful to take a fresh look at the map of the region.

As you can see, once a refugee (or aspiring terrorist for that matter) crosses over the water from Turkey, there is still a long way to go if you want to reach Austria, Germany, France or Switzerland. Once you take Croatia and, very soon, Serbia out of the mix, the land route is massive. Hungary has already been balking at allowing more people to traipse through, so the next choice is an incredibly long trek to the east through Romania and back around. (And that’s assuming the Romanians are feeling generous.) What’s left beyond that? A water passage to Italy? Crossing the Adriatic Sea under the best of conditions in even a relatively seaworthy small craft is a chore. You’re unlikely to make it in a rubber raft.

The people escaping Syria aren’t facing some sort of political hurdle… they’re involved in a culture clash which was brought on in large part by the horrible behavior of too many of those who came before them. We’ve covered this here before, but any solution which is based on figuring out how many migrants you can pack into each European country as quickly as possible is no solution at all. That’s just a stopgap measure and it was always destined to end in failure sooner or later. The cultural differences combined with the strained resources needed to care for hundreds of thousands of people pretty much doomed this effort from the beginning. Further, the unwillingness of too many new arrivals to make any effort to assimilate into the culture of their hosts was bound to undermine the generosity of the EU nations.

If there is to be a solution to this problem it’s not going to be achieved by turning Europe into a series of massive hostels. The reason for the mass exodus must be eliminated, allowing all of these people to go home and offering a chance for those still there to stay where they are and reconstruct their own lives. Put more resources and international cooperation into wiping ISIS and the rest of the Islamic terrorists off the map and the refugee crisis will disappear on its own.

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