Many Americans scoffed at Donald Trump when he announced his plans to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, however the idea of building a wall for protection is not unheard of. In fact, many other countries are building walls for the same reason – to protect them from mass disorganized immigration and from the present threat of terrorism.
In 2015, Hungary began construction on a razor wire fence between the Hungarian and Serbian border. The fence, which stretches 110 miles and was over 13 feet in height, was built to halt the flow of migrants coming in from North Africa and the Middle East.
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban defended his decision at the time, saying, “Those arriving have been raised in another religion and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity. Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative, and we have no option but to defend our borders.”
In one scenario, a fence did nothing to prevent migrants and potential terrorists from entering a country. The wire fence built between Greece and Macedonia was destroyed last year by a group of angry migrants who demanded access to move freely through the countries. Many of the migrants were hoping to eventually travel to Germany before being held back in Greece.
Earlier this year, Kenya also got in on the movement to build walls and keep out terrorists. The country erected a 435-mile wall in an attempt to keep out al-Shabaab, an extremist terrorist group which has a history of raging violent attacks against Kenya.
Another politician besides Trump has also promised to build a wall to keep out migrants. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico announced plans to construct a fence between Slovakia and both Hungary and Austria to ensure that his country would never “never accept a single Muslim” into its borders.
Although there was outrage over Trump’s idea to build a wall to protect America’s borders, it seems as if Trump is not the first—or the last—to resort to this tactic.