EU cannot copy Australia's offshore asylum model

Casting about for ways to manage refugee flows, some European policymakers speak of emulating Australia’s use of offshore processing centres. But Australia’s approach to asylum seekers is fiscally irresponsible, morally bankrupt, and increasingly unsustainable politically. It’s no model for Europe.

To start with, the Australian approach is expensive: the country’s taxpayers are spending something on the order of €240,000 per person per year on offshore facilities. That figure doesn’t in...