CNN's Tim Lister writes how the European response to the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" of illegal migration and especially the controversial separation of children from their parents has largely been one of outrage and disgust.

“We do not share the same model of civilization,” said French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux in June. “Has ever a US president displayed such a total lack of empathy, such a deficit of common human decency?” thundered Britain's Observer newspaper in an editorial. Many Europeans take umbrage at Trump's attacks.

But, according to CNN, even if they don't subscribe to his “zero tolerance” approach to migration, European governments have also become much tougher in handling migrants, asylum seekers and even minorities already resident. More than 1,000 would-be migrants and refugees are known to have died at sea this year trying to reach Europe.

But there is no coordinated rescue response; the European Union has left it to merchant ships and nongovernmental organizations to pick up those adrift. And two of those NGO vessels have been detained in Malta.

The Europeans’ focus is on pushing the problem back to the Middle East and North Africa. Italy is bolstering the Libyan coast guard; more migrants are being sent back to already crowded detention centres in Libya.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fighting for her job, has proposed setting up “reception centres” in several North African states, most of which have already said they will have nothing to do with the plan. She has also offered to help Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia improve border security.

Those who do make it to Germany would be confined for up to 18 months in what Berlin euphemistically calls “anchor centres” — large camps close to the border — while their asylum requests are processed.

Meanwhile, the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean declined sharply after 2015 from 1.07 million to 360,000 in 2016 and 172,000 in 2017, according to the International Organization on Migration. So why the drastic measures, if the flow of migrants has already ebbed?

CNN claims that some governments, notably Merkel's, are reacting to pressure from populist movements and right-wing parties for whom immigration is a dominant issue. The motive, simply, is political survival.

Other governments — in Hungary and now Italy — are made up of those populist and right-wing parties. The result is a battery of laws making asylum harder, repatriation quicker and detention camps more common.    

But mainstream parties have also adopted tougher measures on asylum-seekers and migrants. The same French government that sniffed at Trump's “model of civilization” has pushed through a new law that toughens asylum rules and makes it easier to deport would-be migrants. It also doubles the length of time — to three months — that individuals who have been denied asylum can be detained. But it allowed for children to be kept in detention with their families.

In Denmark, the success of the right-wing People's Party, now the second largest in parliament, has propelled tougher policies. Authorities can seize assets exceeding $1,500 from asylum seekers to help pay for their subsistence.

A new package of measures aims at forcing assimilation in 25 low-income and mainly Muslim areas the government openly refers to as ghettos. It includes mandatory daycare — for at least 30 hours a week — for children up to six years old, so they can learn Danish “values.” If families fail to comply they can lose their benefits.

However, CNN's Tim Lister points to the fact that migration is keeping Europe alive. Birth rates in all 28 European Union countries are below replacement rates. Germany alone needs 400,000 immigrants a year to sustain its workforce, according to one recent study.

This week Italy's pensions chief warned the system would go bust without migrants joining the workforce.