On 12 April, another chartered plane carrying Afghan migrants arrived in Toronto and over 30,000 Afghans have now been ‘resettled’ in the country by the UN Migration Agency (IOM).
The IOM has been working closely with the Justin Trudeau government since August 2021 to fly Afghans into the country and grant them permanent Canadian residency.
– The safe and dignified resettlement of refugees globally has been a central part of IOM’s work for more than 70 years and we are proud to be part of Canada’s efforts to provide a new home for tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans, said António Vitorino, Director General of IOM, adding that it ensures that Afghans are given “the opportunity to start their lives in safety”.
Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser calls the 30,000 Afghans received a “milestone” and “a testament to the commitment of our partners”.
– Welcoming 30,000 Afghans, even though Afghanistan is one of the largest and most difficult resettlement efforts in Canada’s history, is a significant achievement.
He further states that he has met Afghans who have had the chance to “build new lives in Canada” and that this makes him more determined than ever to “help as many vulnerable Afghans as possible”.
– We will continue to collaborate with our partners to do everything we can to bring Afghans in need of protection to safety, and to provide them with a new home and the support they need to thrive in Canada, he promises.
The UN agency IOM plays a “crucial role” in helping Afghans get to Canada. This includes coordinating flights, assisting with application processes, providing health assessments and “preparing Afghans for their new life in Canada”.
Canada’s left-wing Liberal government has pledged to accept at least 10,000 more Afghans and the IOM has also worked with the government to fly in large numbers of Syrian and Iraqi migrants in the past.
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Today, the AfD is the largest party in large parts of eastern Germany - largely due to the policies pursued during Angela Merkel's tenure as German Chancellor.
In a new documentary, Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel admits that her borderless migration policy from 2015 onwards caused many Germans to abandon the establishment parties and instead turn to the nationalist Alternative for Germany.
Despite her migration policy having far-reaching negative consequences for the German people and society, Merkel emphasizes that she regrets nothing.
“Wir schaffen das” – we can do it. Angela Merkel’s words from August 2015 became the symbol of Germany’s borderless mass immigration policy when the country received nearly one million asylum seekers during a single autumn. The decision, which was made without broad political support, fundamentally changed German society according to many observers.
Now, nine years later, the former Chancellor is forced to admit in a documentary on the public service channel ARD that her policy also had major political consequences – and that many Germans abandoned the old established parties and instead sought alternatives that better represented their interests.
— Of course my decision caused people to join AfD. And in that way AfD definitely became stronger, says Merkel in the documentary.
“Major task”
The EU- and immigration-critical Alternative for Germany (AfD) today runs almost neck-and-neck with Merkel’s own Christian Democratic CDU/CSU in opinion polls – a dramatic development that can be directly linked to the mass immigration wave of 2015 and the societal problems that followed.
Despite this, Merkel refuses to acknowledge any mistakes. In the documentary, she stubbornly defends both her policy and her controversial statement.
— It wasn’t meant to express anything other than that we face a major task, she says about the infamous words “Wir schaffen das” – a promise that many Germans today consider naive, deceptive and detached from reality.
Stifled debate during Merkel’s era
Under Merkel’s leadership, Germany pursued perhaps Europe’s most borderless immigration policy, while all criticism was systematically dismissed and opponents routinely labeled as “racists” and “Nazis” – a smear campaign strategy that remains common ten years later.
Germany also has some of the Western world’s harshest laws regarding opinion crimes. People who publicly criticize immigration policy in strong terms risk substantial fines and prison sentences – an arrangement that free speech activists say has created a culture of self-censorship and fear of expressing what one really thinks about the consequences of immigration.
Despite more than one in five Germans today voting for AfD – and the party being largest in large parts of eastern Germany – its opponents still try to criminalize it by claiming its policies violate the German constitution.
AfD leader Alice Weidel is very popular in many parts of Germany. Photo: X/@Alice_Wiedel
Rhetorical shift
In recent years, Germany and several other European countries have drastically changed their rhetoric around migration. Talk of open hearts and boundless solidarity has been replaced by demands for stricter border controls and tougher asylum rules.
In practice, however, the tougher rhetoric has not resulted in any comprehensive change. Mass immigration continues, albeit at a somewhat lower pace, while promised large-scale deportation programs repeatedly get bogged down in bureaucratic processes without ever being realized.
In Sweden, for example, the current government often speaks of a migration policy “paradigm shift” – despite mass immigration continuing at historically high levels and Sweden receiving almost 100,000 migrants last year.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán argues that it is the Hungarians' "duty" to protect both Hungary and Europe from the consequences of mass immigration.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warns that mass migration is one of the most acute threats of our time – and that both Hungary and Europe must be protected before it’s too late.
In a post on X, Orbán describes migration as a “silent weapon” that can fundamentally change a country without a single shot being fired.
“It changes cities, neighbourhoods, entire nations, until one day you feel like a stranger in your own home. Our duty is clear: protect Hungary, protect Europe”, he writes.
At an appearance at the MCC Feszt festival in Esztergom, Hungary, where he recently spoke to hundreds of young people, Orbán elaborated on his reasoning. He noted that many young people don’t see migration as a direct threat, despite it being, according to him, “the most decisive and immediate” threat to Europe.
— Migration is the best example of how a country can be lost forever without any weapons being used, he continued.
“Believe your own eyes”
The Prime Minister urged young people to travel around Europe’s major cities and compare today’s reality with older history books. The purpose, he argues, is to discover for themselves how cities have changed beyond recognition.
— If you do not believe us. Then believe your own eyes. This is how you can lose your own country almost imperceptibly, without war, without conflict, in a way that no one asked you and you never agreed to,
Orbán also pointed to how quickly developments can occur.
— Suddenly you start to feel that the entire situation you find yourself in has become foreign. Like when you take the subway home through a suburb, for example. Ten years ago it didn’t look like this.
According to Orbán, migration is the greatest and most acute challenge facing Europe – a threat that, if not stopped, risks permanently changing the continent forever.
— It may not seem as brutal as war, but it’s a constant threat that will persist for decades. We will be under constant pressure – greater pressure than what we experience now.
Politicians and media promised that mass immigration would make Sandviken, Sweden into an economic success story. Ten years later, reality is much bleaker: half the city is now classified as an exclusion area and compared to notorious problem suburbs like Rinkeby and Tjärna Ängar.
In 2014, left-liberal media, led by the Bonnier-owned Dagens Nyheter (Sweden’s largest daily newspaper), trumpeted that mass migration to Sandviken was a gigantic profitable venture that would make the entire municipality economically prosperous.
“Earns over half a billion from immigration”, read DN’s headline, claiming that each immigrant resident would generate €13,000 annually in revenue for the municipality.
The claims were based on figures in a report by auditing firm PwC and had been commissioned by the municipality itself.
Mass immigration was supposed to be a success for Sandviken. Photo: facsimile/DN
However, the optimistic calculations were based on fantasies and wishful thinking, and within just a couple of years it became clear that the municipality’s financial situation had instead become severely strained – with a budget deficit of €6 million.
— It was a fantasy scenario that was painted. The report was flawed from the beginning. How could anyone stand behind it?wondered Moderate Party opposition councilor Jonny Bratberg in 2019.
“White flight”
And since then, the situation has hardly improved. No billion-euro profits from mass immigration have materialized. Instead, the Swedish government now classifies half of Sandviken as an “exclusion area” – on the same list as notorious immigrant-dense and crime-ridden suburbs like Rinkeby (in Stockholm), Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge, and Gottsunda in Uppsala.
Surveillance cameras now sit on almost every street corner, and Emma Holmqvist, a segregation researcher at Uppsala University, notes that a large portion of the ethnically Swedish population has fled from immigrant-dense parts of Sandviken – and that other Swedes avoid moving there.
— ‘White flight, white avoidance’ is what we call it, says Emma Holmqvist.
— In long-term studies we can see that those with high incomes are partly driving spirals of segregation. They have housing choices that low-income earners lack. They can move away from an area with rental apartments and negative development, simply by purchasing housing.
Swedes don’t want to live with immigrants
She emphasizes, however, that people – regardless of group affiliation – tend to want to live near people who are like themselves, and that this applies to both families with children and high-income earners.
— But one thing that stands out is that many with immigrant backgrounds tend to want to live with more Swedes – the opposite rarely applies to native-born Swedes, she notes.
That Swedes in Sandviken don’t want to live together with immigrants is pointed out as a major and acute problem that must be solved by politicians – for example, by building more rental apartments in villa neighborhoods.
Children as integration tools
The municipality’s politicians have previously attracted attention in connection with a heavily criticized integration initiative where they made the decision to forcibly relocate mainly Swedish children from villa areas to an immigrant-dense, low-performing school in an exclusion area.
The decision enraged many parents and was described as a kind of “social experiment,” where children were involuntarily made into tools in politicians’ integration policy project.
— This is some form of Social Democratic wet dream, where you mix up the students in yet another integration project. You take an A-school and exchange half the students with a D-school, and then you get two C-schools instead – so everyone becomes satisfied and happy. It’s completely insane, of course, commented Jonny Bratberg on the matter in Tidningen Näringslivet (a Swedish business publication).
In the middle of Florida’s swamplands, the state is now building a new migrant detention center. According to the authorities, nature’s own predators will contribute to security—and make the facility both cheap and effective.
The new facility, informally known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, is being built at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a defunct airport facility 36 miles west of Miami. The site is surrounded by wetlands and swampy areas that are home to alligators, pythons, and other predators.
– You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons, said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a presentation video.
The video describes the detention center as key to implementing President Trump’s plan for mass deportations, accompanied by slow-motion clips of attacking alligators.
Uthmeier calls the project “cost-effective” and describes the area as “an old, virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades”. According to information from the Department of Homeland Security, the facility is expected to cost the state approximately $450 million per year to operate. He has also confirmed that the Florida National Guard will participate in the operation of the center, which will consist of lighter infrastructure such as tents and trailers.
Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. pic.twitter.com/96um2IXE7U
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
“Cost-effective and innovative”
The facility is scheduled to be completed in the first week of July and will be one of several temporary facilities that Florida is setting up to meet the increasing strain on the federal system. According to Uthmeier, the federal government has approved the state’s plans to create 5,000 detention places in Florida as early as this summer.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called the initiative “cost-effective and innovative” in a post on X, highlighting the collaboration with Florida as an example of how capacity can be expanded in a matter of days. The state’s offer to purchase the land from Miami-Dade County for $20 million is based on an executive order from Governor Ron DeSantis and an emergency order from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens. We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our…
The Minister of Justice assures that the rule of law will be upheld.
– We will give them the legal process that the courts say they are entitled to, Uthmeier said in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
Environmental activists are furious
However, the initiative has drawn criticism from political opponents, particularly environmental activists and groups advocating mass immigration. Friends of the Everglades, which took part in a protest against the construction over the weekend, has warned in an open letter that the project threatens an ecologically sensitive area.
The group calls the site “critical to the future of the Everglades” and warns against opening it up to development in what it describes as one of America’s most iconic and vulnerable ecosystems.
– It really strikes you as a clueless idea that was off the cuff, the group’s executive director, Eve Samples, told CNN. She also pointed out that the same site was the subject of protests back in the 1970s, when plans for a huge airport were halted after massive public opposition.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has also expressed concern about the project.
– We continue to have significant concerns about the scope and scale of the state’s effort, particularly regarding the environmental safeguards, she said in a statement, warning that the rapid pace of implementation leaves little time for reflection and risk assessment.
