GETTY Bill Gates warned that mass immigration on its current scale is a disaster for the continent

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In their relentless propaganda, these ideologues portray the unceasing foreign influx as a progressive ideal which has enriched our culture and boosted our prosperity. Anyone suggesting otherwise is held to be a reactionary bigot without compassion. This narrative was always bogus, as we can see from the strains now tearing apart European societies. But the conceit of the dogmatists has now really been demolished by an unlikely voice: that of Bill Gates, Microsoft genius, American billionaire and global philanthropist. In an interview this week with a German newspaper, Gates warned that mass immigration on its current scale is a disaster for the continent, “which cannot possibly take in the huge number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe”.

Using stark language he added that: “Europe must make it more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes.” His statements cannot be dismissed as mere prejudice. A man of impeccable liberal credentials, Gates now uses the colossal fortune that he built from Microsoft to fight poverty, hunger and disease in Africa, largely through the foundation that he and his wife Melinda created. In total, their charity has so far spent at least £28billion on this work, while Gates has pledged that his long-term goal is to give away almost all his personal wealth, currently estimated at more than £70billion. Such a background of epic generosity only reinforces the power of his words. He is right to argue that Europe is in the grip of immigration meltdown. The day before his interview was published, the UN revealed that the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean has already topped 100,000 this year, with 85 per cent of them reaching Italy. Last week 12,000 arrived in Italy by boat. So desperate is the crisis that the Italian government has now threatened to close its ports to rescue vessels, at the same time pleading with other European nations to alleviate its burden. But Austria has moved in the opposite direction by beefing up security on its border with Italy through the introduction of tanks and putting 750 troops on standby. There could be no greater symbol of Brussels’ failure on migration than Austria’s move. This is happening because the governing elite has shown no will to protect our civilisation.

GETTY Bill Gates's statements cannot be dismissed as mere prejudice

Obsessed with free movement, cultural diversity and the abolition of national identities, Europe’s leaders are wilfully presiding over the destruction of our continent. The suicidal decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 to open the migrant floodgates is matched today by the EU’s bizarre policy of providing a gigantic ferry service from the Libyan coast to Italy, masquerading as a humanitarian rescue initiative. Colonel Gaddafi, the late Libyan dictator, once predicted that, if he fell, “thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe. There will be no one to stop them any more”. He underestimated the lethal self loathing of Europe’s political establishment. Far from trying to stop the migrants, the rescue boats pick them up just off the African shoreline and instead of taking their passengers back the short distance to Libya, they transport them to Italy, a journey of more than 300 miles. Bill Gates rightly felt that this approach can only intensify the Libyan migration racket.

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“The more generous you are, the more word gets around about this – which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa.” Indeed the soft-touch reputation of Europe is building up the number of potential African migrants to an alarming degree. One intelligence agency recently claimed that there are now at least 6.6 million people gathered along the shores of the southern Mediterranean waiting to make the crossing. In February, an Austrian military report predicted that, as a result of poverty and turmoil in Africa, as many as 15 million migrants may seek to enter Europe over the next three years. More disturbingly, the president of the EU Parliament Antonio Tajani, an Italian politician, said this week that 20 million African migrants could come to Europe “in the near future”. And most of these Africans are just economic migrants rather than genuine victims of persecution. A UN report this week said that 70 per cent of those crossing the Mediterranean are not refugees at all, a figure that makes a mockery of all the emotional blackmail from the pro-immigration lobby. Yet the Mediterranean fiasco is just one aspect of the immigration nightmare engulfing Europe.