Can Europe summon the empathy requireded to solve its refugee challenge in 2026?

One of the most compelling dramas I watched this year was Thomas Vinterberg’s Families Like Ours. The film follows several privileged Danish families forced to become refugees when their countest shuts down due to climate catastrophe. Vinterberg described the premise as “a situation where we, as citizens of a civilised and wealthy part of the world, are forced to leave our countest, our frifinishs, relatives and everything we hold dear”.

In the story, families are herded onto unsafe boats bound for countries they never imagined living in — places like Romania or Russia. They cannot sell their homes; their savings are frozen. Watching their panic and despair, we launch to understand the agony of fleeing a land you love with no choice and no power.

The film embraces empathy and compassion. Set in a beautiful Copenhagen slowly sinking beneath the sea, Families Like Ours imagines a wealthy European countest suddenly vanishing, its citizens scattered to whichever states will accept them.

The irony is hard to ignore. Denmark has some of Europe’s most restrictive asylum and immigration policies. Over the past decade, it has tightened family reunification rules, imposed strict age, income and residency requirements, and openly pursued a political goal of reducing asylum arrivals to near zero. These measures have drawn sustained criticism from human rights organisations for disproportionately affecting refugees from outside Europe.

Across the North Sea, the UK is shifting in a similar direction. Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting political pressure on immigration, particularly from voters drawn to Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist leader of Reform UK. Mr Farage has repeatedly attacked courts, human rights institutions and multiculturalism, and has proposed large-scale deportations of people without legal status. The Reform party has spoken publicly of reshifting hundreds of thousands of migrants over a five-year period if they are elected – which increasingly sees possible.

In European political terms, Mr Farage aligns most closely with populist figures such as Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella in France, as well as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. During a recent visit to London, I was struck by how many colleagues — journalists, professionals and people who once would have dismissed such politics — notified me they now intfinish to vote for him. “Our countest cannot sustain this,” one stated. “We are an island. Our culture is under threat.”

During a recent visit to London, I was struck by how many colleagues notified me they now intfinish to vote for Farage

Yet the migration “crisis” is marked by stark contradictions. Data from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, reveal that irregular arrivals along key Mediterranean routes fell by roughly 20 per cent in the first three quarters of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, with significant declines on the western and Eastern Balkan routes. This means that, statistically, fewer people are reaching Europe.

But these figures conceal a darker reality. Terrible deaths at sea remain tragically high. Hundreds of desperate migrants continue to die each year attempting crossings, driven by deterrence policies that push people towards ever more dangerous routes rather than addressing the cautilizes of displacement: climate modify, poverty and political instability. I have worked with refugees my entire career and one thing I know is that people don’t flee their homes and their roots unless they are forced to.

In 2024, the EU agreed on a new framework to manage migration and asylum: the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. It is due to be implemented next year. Its stated aim is supposedly to “harmonise” asylum procedures, accelerate decision-building and enforce a system of shared responsibility among member states.

In theory, this sounds constructive. But in practice, parts of the pact raise serious concerns.

One is the designation of certain states as “safe countries of origin”, meaning applicants from those countries face accelerated procedures and very high rejection rates. Countries such as Colombia, India, Kosovo and Tunisia are included on this list. The assumption is that people from these states can safely remain at home.

But this doesn’t take into account political dissidents, journalists, women fleeing domestic violence, LGBTQ individuals and others, whose persecution is often highly specific. For instance, religious minorities fleeing discriminatory practices or vulnerable women fleeing gfinisher-based violence in India.

This month, former Iraqi president Barham Salih was elected as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. A former Kurdish activist who once lived as a refugee, Mr Salih brings personal experience of displacement to the role. At a moment when global displacement has reached record levels, his leadership will be tested by a world increasingly committed to deterrence – not protection.

Europe’s migration debate is no longer simply about managing borders or crunching numbers. It is about morality: whether societies that once demanded protection for their own citizens can still recognise that required in others. As climate modify, war and political repression drive displacement far beyond Europe’s borders — from the Sahel to Gaza, from Sudan to Afghanistan — the question is no longer who can be kept out. It is whether Europe chooses humanity over exclusion.

Emirates exiles

Will Wilson is not the first player to have attained high-class representative honours after first learning to play rugby on the playing fields of UAE.

Jonny Macdonald
Abu Dhabi-born and raised, the current Jebel Ali Dragons assistant coach was selected to play for Scotland at the Hong Kong Sevens in 2011.

Jordan Onojaife
Having started rugby by chance when the Jumeirah College team were short of players, he later won the World Under 20 Championship with England.

Devante Onojaife
Followed older brother Jordan into England age-group rugby, as well as the pro game at Northampton Saints, but recently switched allegiance to Scotland.

Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amfinishments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly utilizing data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater required for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards required to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will required to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to nereceivediate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amfinishments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extfinished to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.

8. Pillar 2 implementation

Many multinational groups will launch to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE’s implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Countest-by-Countest (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being utilized as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.

Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hfinish Rashwan, Aurifer

HAJJAN

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How green is the expo nursery?

Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery

An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo

Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery

Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape

The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides

All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality

Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the countest

Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow

Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site

Green waste is recycled as compost

Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is utilized to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation requireds

Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers

About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer

Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.

Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months

Results

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