Winner
Diverse in Unity
Spoiler :
Here's a follow up to the Hadj Pandemic scenario:
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4 years after the pandemic the quarantine of North Africa enforced by the EU was finally lifted. Main reason for that was growing piracy in the Mediterranean, which began to pose a serious problem 3 years after the pandemic. Other reasons included the need to pacify the area and restart local natural gas/oil production.
EU thus created specialized robust land/air/sea peacekeeping forces designated EUSAF (European Union Stabilization and Assistance Force) which was given mandate to establish bases on African coast, combat piracy, re-introduce law and order and oversee humanitarian aid distribution among the surviving indigenous population.
Settlement in Maghreb area soon became a hotly debated issue. The main question was whether permanent settlement of EU citizens would be allowed in the EUSAF mandate zone. Proponents of settlement argued that due to the loss of at least 97% of pre-pandemic population of Maghreb, non-indigenous skilled workers would be needed to restart the economy of the area; on the other hand the critics held various views, ranging from far-left accusations of neocolonialism to conservatives' worry that Europe would lose skilled workforce and waste too much money in a hopeless effort to stabilize the area.
Eventually, EU allowed limited immigration to EUSAF zones of control in order to provide workforce necessary for cleanup and reconstruction. Although Maghreb region was officially under EU sovereign control, EU allowed non-EU migrants to enter EUSAF zones. Most of these migrants came from non-EU European countries, Russia, Americas and East Asia. Since they don't posses EU passports, they are not allowed to travel freely to mainland EU without special permits; the same rules apply to surviving indigenous people who voluntarily registered in EUSAF zones as permanent inhabitants.
However, EUSAF patrols soon began to report sightings of illegal settlements outside the zones of control. Some of these were temporary camps set up by scavengers and looters trying to find things of value in ruins of villages and towns, but others were permanent settlements occupied by people interested in cultivation of abandoned lands. Of these, many were set up by Sub-Saharan African refugees who had originally sought to immigrate to Europe, but were forced by the circumstances to settle on vacant land in Maghreb. Many settlements were mixed, with European settlers "employing" African refugees as workforce.
Initially, EUSAF attempted to remove the illegal settlements, but it soon became clear it was a futile cause. Tens of thousands of people, mostly from Europe, the United States, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, were settling outside the zones of controls and there was simply no way to forcibly expel them all; for this reason EUSAF soon switched to policy of benevolence, ignoring the settlements provided that they didn't break EU laws in any serious way. Despite this, conflict between the settlers and surviving indigenous Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians soon began to intensify and the original inhabitants found themselves being pushed out of the prime land, deeper into the hinterland.
Conversely, EUSAF began to allow African refugees in the zones of control as cheap workforce and loosened the requirements for EU citizens to settle there as well. In just 12 years since the end of the quarantine, the number of migrants surpassed the indigenous population (precise population figures are not available for areas outside EUSAF zones of control).
