What we’re calling for:
- End the EU border regime
- Freedom of movement, residence and livelihood for all
Context
Europe is built on a history of colonialism, slavery, imperialism, extractivism and exploitation that continues today.
Modern borders are colonial and racist constructs, and the EU’s border policies institutionalise this violence, injustice and inequality. The EU has no right to stop people at its borders and no-one should be illegal.
Europe’s anti-immigration policies, in particular the militarisation of borders, have led to more violence against and risks for people on the move. They are forced to use more dangerous migration routes and are driven into the hands of traffickers and unscrupulous smuggling networks, which have often taken over where local people who assisted migrants on their journey were driven out of work by severe repression. In this way the EU itself creates the market for trafficking and smuggling it says it is fighting against.
Research and resources
- Refugee Rights Europe has collected a non-exhaustive list of key evidence and data on pushbacks. It comprises a mixture of content published by media outlets, networks, INGOs and grassroots organisations who are shining a light on pushbacks in multiple locations across Europe.
- Building Walls: Fear and securitization in the European Union (2018) Member states of the European Union and Schengen Area have constructed almost 1000 km of walls, the equivalent of more than six times the total length of the Berlin Walls, since the nineties to prevent displaced people migrating into Europe. These physical walls are accompanied by even longer ‘maritime walls’, naval operations patrolling the Mediterranean, as well as ‘virtual walls’, border control systems that seek to stop people entering or even traveling within Europe, and control movement of population.
Main site: https://www.tni.org/en/publication/building-walls
Full report – English: https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/building_walls_-_full_report_-_english.pdf – English
Full report in Spanish – Informe en español - The Business of Building Walls (2019) – A report by the Transnational Institute. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe is once again known for its border walls. This time Europe is divided not so much by ideology as by perceived fear of refugees and migrants, some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
Available in English, Spanish, French.
El Negocio de Construir Muros – Resumen Ejecutivo – Espanol
Le Business de L’Édification de Murs – Synthése – Francais - Guarding the fortress: The role of Frontex in the militarisation and securitisation of migration flows in the European Union (2019)
The report focuses on 19 Frontex operations run by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (hereafter Frontex) to explore how the agency is militarising borders and criminalising migrants, undermining fundamental rights to freedom of movement and the right to asylum.
Full report available in English and Spanish - Covid 19 and Border Politics (2020): This briefing takes a look at the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for refugees and migrants and its anticipated influence on the border security and control market. What are the direct effects on migrants and refugees who are already living in vulnerable situations? What does it mean for people crossing international borders, seeking asylum and transiting the deadly and treacherous migrant routes across regions, continents and seas? And how are they affected by government responses to the outbreak?