Franck Bertrand Ayinda
Malaga - Last weekend, I had one of the most humbling human experiences of my life. I had the opportunity to talk and engage with migrants who risk their lives to come to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea and southern Spain. Some of the stories I have heard are quite jarring and pitiful. Others are inspiring, full of hope and positivity.
Corruption, manipulation, and, most especially, human rights abuses by the local and foreign authorities were the main struggles that these migrants faced. According to them, the ruthlessness of police forces on both the Spanish and Moroccan sides cannot and do not dissuade hopeful migrants from attempting the journey to Europe.
Their stories are those of despair, hope, resolve, resilience, bravery, and boldness; no obstacle is big enough for any to avert them from accomplishing their dream of a prosperous life in Europe. But why does the European Union close its eyes on the alleged human rights abuses by European and Moroccan police in attempting to deter irregular migration? Understanding the reasons behind this question prompted my editorial.
Migration has been one of the most significant and thorny issues in relations between Morocco and the European Union. One of the most disconcerting aspects of their relationship is the police job the European Union forces Morocco to do in dealing with irregular migration from their side. The EU gives Morocco millions of euros and closes their eyes on the alleged human rights abuses by Spanish and Moroccan coastal civil guards and border patrolmen. It only reveals the EU’s duplicity when it comes to respect for human rights.[1]
Today, in an attempt to receive more support from its northern allies, Moroccan authorities put the misery of sub-Saharan Africans on display by making grand “arrests” on the embankments of the Spanish regions Ceuta and Melilla. This stunt is proving to be effective: a few days after the first arrest claimed five migrant lives in Ceuta in 2005, European Commissioner Frattini gave a bid of 40 million euros to Rabat to back the country’s hard work in deterring irregular immigration.[2]
Even though the shots are fired by the Moroccan police, it is the European Union that provides the weapons. As part of the outsourcing of its immigration strategy, the European Union gives its nearby neighbors in the Maghreb, Mauritania and Libya, the compulsory responsibility of securing its borders. Migrants find themselves held captive in these regions of violence. [3]
The European Union’s program of "selected (chosen) migration" aims at only bringing migrants that are desirable by the European economy, thereby escaping the duties of helping those described as "inflicted” or “forced migration” (persons in exile and all those escaping poverty, environmental calamities, and war).[4]
In assuming this policy, the European Union member states are eager to forsake all human rights’ values. For example, they attest that Libya is a “secure” country, despite the fact that foreigners are randomly detained there, and mass expulsions and abuse are routine. They claim this to validate Italy’s regular practice of deporting immigrants in masse to Libya with packed charter flights.
Many of these immigrants are the boat people who shipwrecked on Sicilian island of Lampedusa. In addition to this, the EU has transformed Morocco into their own private police agent. The Kingdom now apprehends thousands of Africans with no regards for the wellbeing of those in need of international protection.[5]
Although the dreadful snapshots of a lifeless toddler on the shores of Turkey stunned the whole world, this story is nothing new for the lives of many migrants. Migrants and refugees have been journeying across the Mediterranean for many years, and thousands of them have perished. If the European Union was concerned by a dead Syrian toddler on a Turkish shoreline, why aren’t they bothered by black African children running away from poverty, civil wars, environmental disasters, and political persecution? They jump over electric barb wired fences, overcome unimaginable odds, and swim their way to Spain, only to be killed by merciless Coast Guards, or die in rickety boats in the Mediterranean.[6] So, what is the distinction?
To put it bluntly, this is a security crisis. For several years, Europeans have pretended that African migrants dying in the Mediterranean Sea was not their problem. But now, the European Union has settled on the point of open confrontation at its southern frontiers. In December 2015, more than ten people were beaten to death while making an attempt to go across the Moroccan frontier to Ceuta and Melilla.[7]
Instead of heeding to their own established agreement to work for “the easy and steady incorporation of the unindustrialized countries into the global economy,” the EU has preferred to shield themselves from the world’s deprived.[8] As such, the dead of Ceuta and Melilla are the symbolic fatalities of a Europe managing North-South affairs from a fundamentally utilitarian outlook. It rejects the principles it affirms as “universal” and condemns, behind the new wall of ignorance, thousands of people to die in the Sahara.[9] However, the EU does not deserve all the blame for the tragic deaths of these migrants. The African Union and its member states have been equally silent and neglectful of their responsibilities.[10]
[1] At Europe’s Door: Black African Migrants Trapped In Hellish Limbo in Morocco, 2013, by Palash Gosh
[2] Europe get’s tough with migrant crisis, 2005, Sonia Phalnikar.
[3] EU and Maghreb: Asylums, Immigration And Externalization 2006, Abdelkrim Belguendouz
[4] Immigrant Performance and Selective Immigration Policy: A European Perspective, 2005, Klaus F. Zimmermann
[5] EU and Maghreb: Asylums, Immigration And Externalization 2006, Abdelkrim Belguendouz
[6] Spain admits firing rubber bullets at migrants swimming to enclave, 2014, The Telegraph
[7] Hundreds of migrants storm Spanish border with Morocco, 25 Dec 2015, The Guardian
[8] Melilla: Europe's dirty secret, April 2010, Nicky Davies, The Guardian
[9] Spain: refugees killed, survivors abandoned in Moroccan desert, 2005, Paul Stuart,World Socialist Website
[10] Mediterranean migrants’ crisis: Why is Africa silent? April 28 2015, BBC
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