News
Europe and the world blind their borders against immigration
12/05/2018 - 19:09
Author:
Laura Morral
National police on the Ceuta border.
Fence of Melilla.
Police in the British fence that shield Calais.
Refugees in the Serbian and Hungarian fence.
More than 70 walls, on all continents, destroy lives by violating the most fundamental rights of people with complete impunity.
While Germany celebrated the 29th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall last November, Europe is shielding itself with physical walls that endanger the lives of people who want to enter this continent, fortified and infected with fear.
The report 'Lifting Walls. Fear and securitization policies in the European Union' from the 'Centre Delàs' Studies from Peace and the Transnational Institute notes that in 1990 in Europe there were only the walls of Belfast and Cyprus.
Since then, ten EU member countries have shielded their borders against immigration. They have built 1,000 kilometers of tanks in 14 walls: Spain (with the fences of Ceuta and Melilla), Greece, Hungary (a wall with Croatia and another with Serbia), Bulgaria, Austria, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Outside the EU Norway and Macedonia have done so.
Shielding goes far beyond European borders and moves to 35 states of origin and transit of immigrants. Nowadays more than 70 walls, in all the continents, extirpate and destroy lives, at the same time as they strengthen borders and limits of state.
According to the report, "racism and xenophobia legitimize violence at borders and reinforce the imagery of an insured 'interior' and an 'insecure' exterior, which goes back to the medieval medieval fortress." For example, in the frontier devices of Ceuta and Melilla in Spain, systematic violations of human rights occur in multiple ways against immigrants: from assaults by the bodies and security forces of the State , to situations of non-right and non-application of the law when it comes to guaranteeing the basic rights of assistance and support and access to mechanisms for guaranteeing rights to the different immigrant groups.
This is reported by the record 'Border South, towards the restoration of legality' prepared by various human rights organizations and activists for the rights of migrants. Peculiarly, no official record has been made from the judicial or administrative authorities of Spain.
The International Observatory on Human Rights and Business PMSC, ShockMonitor, has also documented, in the specific sector of border control, numerous cases of violations of the right to physical and psychological integrity, the right to equality and non-discrimination and the Right of freedom of movement and the security of the person.
Given this situation, many international organizations denounce this barbarism. The campaign 'For a World without Murs' (#MundoSinMuros) asks us to reflect on the use of these borders by considering how we can deal with them.
They also make public the business that involves the securitization of borders, for the arms industry and for companies providing military services and private security. As an example, the Observatory for Human Rights and Business in the Middle East and North Africa has found that, in ten years, Indra Sistemas SA received more than 27 million euros for the installation The maintenance and maintenance of the third level of perimetral tanks in Melilla.
In this sense, migration becomes a business opportunity and the growing militarization of the Mediterranean is framed within the international phenomenon of the privatization of war and security where transnational corporations are responsible for defining the threats and answers to the The increase in migratory flows, according to the own Observatory.
Add new comment