Vladimir Putin is the “biggest driver” of migration to Europe due to his role in stoking conflict over the past decade, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner told the FT.
“It’s always Putin who is involved in those big migration movements. It’s always Vladimir Putin,” Brunner said.
He pointed to Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war, which contributed to the 2015–16 migration crisis when more than 2 million people sought asylum in Europe. Brunner also cited Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, after which around 4.3 million Ukrainians received temporary protection in the EU.
In the current Iran war, even if it was not started by Russia, “Vladimir Putin was supporting the regime there”, Brunner said. “So he is actually the biggest driver of migration towards Europe.”
Several EU countries led by Italy and Denmark have been pushing for tighter measures including border closures to prevent people arriving from the Middle East and stave off a situation similar to the Syria crisis.
In a joint letter, Mette Frederiksen and Giorgia Meloni warned that “we cannot risk a repeat of the refugee and migratory flows to the EU which we saw unfold in 2015-2016”.
The Danish and Italian prime ministers called on the European Commission “to explore mechanisms that can work as an emergency brake to be activated as force majeure in the event of sudden large-scale migratory movements towards the Union”.
Brunner said he took such requests by member states “very seriously”. “We really have to look into that,” Brunner said. “What the member states ask us to do, we’re doing.”
Brunner said the EU is now better prepared, highlighting new border systems that have logged 40 million entries and rejected 19,000, while stressing the need to monitor both migration and security risks.
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