In a stark display of international schadenfreude, Germany's media landscape is openly mocking Britain's ongoing asylum chaos, highlighting the bitter irony that despite Brexit's central immigration control promises, the UK has "lost control" of its borders.
Brexit Promise Meets Harsh Reality
Publications across Germany are feasting on what they perceive as Britain's spectacular self-goal. Outlets like Bild and Der Spiegel have run damning indictments of the UK's migration policy, pointing to record numbers of small boat crossings and a groaning asylum system that appears more dysfunctional than ever.
The central theme of their reporting focuses on the broken Brexit pledge. Voters were famously promised that leaving the EU would allow Britain to "take back control" of its borders. Instead, German commentators note, the opposite has occurred, with the system descending into costly chaos.
A System Under Immense Strain
The reports meticulously detail the symptoms of the crisis:
- Soaring Numbers: Over 45,000 migrants arrived via small boats in 2022, with 2023 on track to surpass that figure.
- Hotel Crisis: The exorbitant cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels, estimated at £6 million a day, is cited as a catastrophic policy failure.
- Rwanda Policy Stalemate: The stalled and controversial plan to deport arrivals to Rwanda is portrayed as a costly and legally fraught gimmick.
- Infrastructure Groaning: Articles describe a society and public infrastructure buckling under the pressure of processing new arrivals.
'I Told You So' from Berlin
The tone in many German pieces carries a distinct air of vindication. Having warned that Brexit would harm, not help, Britain's ability to manage cross-border challenges, many outlets are now saying "I told you so." The criticism often contrasts the UK's struggle with the EU's more unified approach to migration deals and border management.
This gleeful reporting, however, isn't purely altruistic. Analysts suggest it also serves a domestic purpose for Germany's coalition government, deflecting attention from its own significant migration challenges by pointing to a situation portrayed as even more disastrous elsewhere.
A Political Storm at Home
The international ridicule piles pressure onto an already beleaguered UK government. Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently admitted the country faces an "invasion" on its southern coast and that the system is broken. This internal acknowledgement provides ample fodder for foreign media to amplify the sense of a nation failing to govern its own borders.
The narrative of post-Brexit decline is a powerful one, and Germany's press appears all too willing to wield it, painting a picture of a once-great global power now unable to perform a basic function of statehood: controlling who enters its territory.
