Europe at work, please don’t disturb, By Owei Lakemfa

The interception and detention of migrants in Tripoli, Libya. Picture credit: Foreign Policy.

Europe has been quite busy perfecting policies of denying migrants their fundamental human rights by paying third parties to do the dirty job. For instance, the Rapid Support Services (RSF), which has been primarily responsible for the genocide in Darfur since 2003 and is engaged in war crimes in its on-going battles against the regular Sudanese military, has received millions of euros from the EU. They are payments to stop, by the use of brutal force, Sudanese, Somali, Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants from travelling to Europe from Sudanese soil.

The ongoing right wing shifts in the European parliamentary elections give the impression that there are seismic shifts in the plates of its politics. Please don’t worry yourself. There are no possibilities of earthquakes. These are mere rumblings in the belly of its body politic.

It is said that Europe’s far-right gained historic grounds in the elections, but the lesson for us in the underdeveloped countries is that it is better to view the right parties as becoming essentially the same. The lines between the right, centre right and far right, are becoming blurred.

Yes, the so-called far-right made political gains in Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and France. But also, some centre-right politicians made moves to the far-right, especially to fight against migration.

In France, for instance, tougher legislation was passed in December 2023 against migration. President Emmanuel Macron, who claimed to have been fighting the far-right in his country over the years, was on the same page with them. He rationalised his anti-migration shift as “a shield that we needed.”

But that did not shield him and his party at the European polls. Expectedly, the National Rally in France made gains at the expense of President Macron. Also expectedly, Macron switched into panic mode. Dazed by the defeats, he called for legislative elections in France this month; three months early. Don’t mind the gambler.

In Germany, the right wing, Alternative for Germany (AfD), beat Chancellor Olaf Schoz’s centre left Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the elections by 16 per cent.

Although the far-right made gains, its 150 seats in the European parliament of 720, does not amount to any dramatic shift; what it does is to announce that significant populations in Europe are beginning to shed their toga of human rights and liberal disposition.

…while Europeans think they have the right to freely migrate to other parts of the world, their political leaders are using any means possible, including criminality, to keep people from the underdeveloped countries from migrating to Europe. This includes consciously letting would-be migrants who can be saved, to drown in the turbulent seas. The Italian government of Premier Giorgia Meloni has a policy of denying ships with endangered migrants, safe harbour.

Before the elections, Europe, which is never tired of talking about partnerships and shared prosperity with Africa, Asia and the Middle East, had been quite busy virtually criminalising migration.

To be sure, they are not opposed to European migration or continued occupation of other parts of the world. Just last month, France violently put down protests in New Caledonia, a colony in the South Pacific. France does not only want a continuation of the so-called right of its citizens to migrate to that territory, but also, the French parliament voted that recent French arrivals in the territory would have the right to vote in provincial elections. The simple plan of France is to flood the colony with its citizens and eventually in “democratic elections” out-vote the indigenes and, transform the colony to a full French territory.

So, while Europeans think they have the right to freely migrate to other parts of the world, their political leaders are using any means possible, including criminality, to keep people from the underdeveloped countries from migrating to Europe. This includes consciously letting would-be migrants who can be saved, to drown in the turbulent seas. The Italian government of Premier Giorgia Meloni has a policy of denying ships with endangered migrants, safe harbour. It is a crime in that country for a ship with rescued migrants to rescue other migrants from the waves, no matter the danger they face.

Greece has been more audacious by sinking migrant vessels and hiring undocumented migrants as police auxiliaries to attack, torture and force back migrants into Turkish borders.

Europe has been quite busy perfecting policies of denying migrants their fundamental human rights by paying third parties to do the dirty job. For instance, the Rapid Support Services (RSF), which has been primarily responsible for the genocide in Darfur since 2003 and is engaged in war crimes in its on-going battles against the regular Sudanese military, has received millions of euros from the EU. They are payments to stop, by the use of brutal force, Sudanese, Somali, Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants from travelling to Europe from Sudanese soil. With such funds, the RSF buys arms and continues to carry out war crimes against the Sudanese. There are now over 10 million displaced Sudanese and double that number in need of urgent food aid. The EU had, in order to fund the militia, branded the RSF killing machine as a “border force.” As recent as Wednesday, 6 March, the British Foreign Office was in secret talks with the RSF allegedly to persuade it to allow peace to reign.

In Euro-Asia, the EU, under its 18 March, 2016 Pact with Turkey, agreed to pay the latter €6 billion to accept migrants forced to leave Europe, especially Greece. The job of Turkey is to force such migrants into mass concentration camps and shut the gates of Europe against them. In addition, Turkey is given the task to stop fresh migrants, especially from Syria, reaching Europe. One of the carrots dangled before Turkey was accelerated EU membership. Interestingly, this has failed to materialise eight years later. However, with massive crackdown, the flow of migrants into Europe through Turkey was reduced by 95 per cent in two years.

One of the EU’s most successful outsourcing of brutality on migrants heading to Europe, is the business deal with Morocco. In exchange for substantial EU financial payments, Morocco stopped 75,000 migrants from reaching Europe in 2023. It has also tried to use the migration gambit to join the EU as a member. But the latter rejected the Moroccan application on the basis that it is not an European state.

Taking advantage of the near-anarchy in Libya, Europe pays the Libyan ‘government’ to keep migrants from reaching Europe by force. Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 2 February, 2017, the Italian government funds Libya to secure its borders and prevent migration.

The EU offered Tunisia, €105 million for “border management” in a so-called partnership programme. This money is simply a contract for the Tunisian government to stop migrants from crossing to Europe from Tunisian territory.

One of the EU’s most successful outsourcing of brutality on migrants heading to Europe, is the business deal with Morocco. In exchange for substantial EU financial payments, Morocco stopped 75,000 migrants from reaching Europe in 2023. It has also tried to use the migration gambit to join the EU as a member. But the latter rejected the Moroccan application on the basis that it is not an European state.

In the case of Britain, it signed a 14 April, 2022 “Asylum Partnership Agreement” with Rwanda. Under this, thousands of migrants are to be deported to that African country for a fee of $146 million. But the 4 July election in Britain has caught up with the deportation plans. So, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the forced deportations will come after the elections.

In its own case, Australia in Oceania has been quite busy honing its anti-migration policies. It out-sourced migration to Papua New Guinea where vast detention camps were established. Before these open prisons for migrants were closed, some had spent up to five years in detention.

What the European parliamentary elections tell us in Africa is that the gloves are coming off. There will not just be tougher migration to Europe, but tougher times for non-White people, even if they are European citizens.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.