By Jaqueline Singh
WHILE within Fortress Europe right wing agitation and violence against refugees are on the increase, its external borders are increasingly impenetrable. People who flee from hunger, war, violence and exploitation are drowned in the Mediterranean or herded into massive camps on the borders of Greece or Turkey.
War zones such as Afghanistan have been declared “safe” so those who have made it to Europe can be sent back there. Agreements have been concluded to oblige countries through which the main escape routes pass not to let refugees through. Meanwhile activists, who try to rescue people from drowning, are criminalised, accused of people smuggling.
There is a great deal of regret expressed about the failure to deal with the suffering, often caused by the EU itself. It is therefore not surprising that there was only a brief media outcry, which quickly faded back into silence, when last year journalists revealed what the practical implementation of “escape prevention” really looked like. In Libya we are talking about prison camps and slave auctions.
Since the overthrow of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has been under the control of militias, rival warlords and two competing governments. But this did not prevent the EU from renewing its cooperation with them in 2016. After all, this was already a tradition.
According to a report by Amnesty International, cooperation to prevent migration has been in place between Italy and Libya since the 1990s,and it is still continuing to this day in the form of joint patrols in the Mediterranean, for example. Currently, these patrols are controlled by one of the warlords.
Although the European Union has “only” been involved since 2005, it has so far invested hundreds of millions of euros Libya’s in border protection. In addition, there are training courses and support for the police and military there.
All this is done in the name of the fight against people trafficking. But if you look at the situation, you notice that it is more likely to finance traffickers, the slave trade, torture and death than to end these evils.
People who come to Libya from other African nations are, per se, illegal. The current figure is 700,000 to 1,000,000. Usually human traffickers lure them with the promise of a job offer. They often come from Nigeria, Niger, Bangladesh or Mali. Many die on the way or are sold on to other traffickers or militias. Once caught in the clutches of such people, they are completely at their mercy.
Then they have to work off the costs for their escape. Men are sold as workers for around $400, women as sex slaves or prostitutes. Escapees caught by the Mediterranean patrol boats end up in internment camps. The violence experienced there can hardly be put into words. In terribly cramped spaces, on one meal a day, they are subjected to arbitrary violence by the prison guards.
In 2017 Oxfam published a survey in which 80% of respondents reported that they had suffered violence and abuse. All female respondents claimed to have become victims of sexual violence. Many said that it does not matter whether they are pregnant or not.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (2016):
There are millions of people worldwide fleeing war and poverty. Many of them are women and young girls who face sexual violence. For those who make it to Europe, the terror does not stop.
Depending on where you land, you have to deal with mass round-ups and camps, lack of privacy, etc. In addition, there is the increasing violence of right wing thugs and racist laws. In order to fight against this, we need an anti-racist movement on a pan-European level.
This should be directed against Fortress Europe itself and opposed to racist anti-asylum seeker laws, deportation and migration agreements as well fighting for safe escape routes, open borders and citizens’ rights for all who come. In addition, it must stand up for women’s rights: the extension and free use of women’s shelters; helping women and children apply for asylum independently of men; and the provision of medical facilities.
To end the horrors in Libya, it is not enough to hope that this “failed state” will develop into an orderly society with a central government. Rather, this disguises the problem. After all, a new bourgeois central government would continue to implement policies in the interests of the EU – or be forced to. The inhumane treatment of refugees would therefore continue.
To tackle the root cause of the problem, we must oppose imperialism as a world system, for it is responsible for the poverty, war, environmental degradation and oppression that are major drivers of forced migration.
This article was translated from German, and originally published in Fight! Revolutionare Frauenzeitung
