by Jenna Barhoush
The supposed synonymity of the word migration with mobility could not be more incorrectly reflected in the realities of 21st century migration. Instead, with migration come threats of humiliating immobility. People escape their unsafe conditions of oppression, war, and poverty and undergo a treacherous path with the hopes of reaching Europe’s promises of safety, opportunity, and equality. Yet, while European countries provide such promises for their citizens, their securities are not extended to migrants and asylum seekers from outside the continent. Instead, the European Union is involved in the process of refoulement – the return of migrants to unsafe places – by funding migration detention centres and surveillance in Libya, and by convicting volunteer refugee rescuers for crimes of human trafficking.
The refugee ‘problem’ develops from situations of nation-wide violence or oppression that make a country uninhabitable for most people. This has been the case in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eritrea in the past two decades, as the countries’ growing insecurities and oppression contributed to a large exodus of refugees. One Syrian claimed that leaving the house to go to school in the morning was preceded with a daily farewell to family members as survival until the end of the day was not guaranteed (Mardini, 2020). While the rate of lives lost accelerate, those who survive the daily onslaught of war are faced with unending insecurities and oppressive conditions. Basic necessities become scarce and incomes nonexistent for many as facilities are destroyed, and production and import halted (McCarthy, 2022). Seeking refuge in other countries thus becomes the only escape for many. Jordan became a popular asylum for many refugees due to its close proximity to the war-stricken countries and its open borders. Yet the country’s own deteriorating economic conditions meant that minimal securities were all it had to offer to the refugees (Francis, 2015). Its structural stresses and overpopulation of refugees led Jordan to increase regularization which in turn led potential migrants to seek other countries for refuge.
Thus, in 2015, refugees from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iraq headed towards Europe. Europe’s migration policy was based on the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Refugees, and it stipulated a distributed responsibility for the protection of refugees upon entry to European territory (European Commission). This meant that once an individual seeking asylum enters European land or water, their human rights should be met and protection secured.
However, following the 2015 refugee influx, also known as the Europe Migrant Crisis, the policy proved to be more strenuous than not. Countries that had recently opened their doors to refugees, such as Italy in its 2014 search-and-rescue program Operation Mare Nostrum, took a different turn following the migrant crisis (Urbina, 2021). Poland and Hungary completely shut off their doors to migrants, and shoreline countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, and Malta began turning away migrant boats. Yet as public protest became global with the uncovering of the conditions refugees underwent on their way to Europe, governments could not be as blatant with their policies. Rather than contributing to direct refoulement, Europe began seeking ways to prevent migrants from even getting near to its shores. Two strategies were pursued: funding the capture of migrants in international waters, and ending the process of rescuing migrants from sea.
The former strategy was assisted by the European Union Trust Fund of Africa. Under the guise of addressing the root causes of political instability and displacement in Africa, the Trust Fund allocated 6 billion dollars to migration control (European Commission). Libya alone received half a billion dollars to capture illegal migrants heading to European shores. The year also highlighted the works of Frontex, the EU’s border agency responsible for coastal surveillance. Frontex was provided with resources that included surveillance drones to track migrant boats in both domestic and international waters in the Mediterranean (Urbina, 2021). Upon discovering migrant boats and dinghies, surveillance footage would be sent to Italy which would then signal Libyan coast guards to intercept the migrants. According to an Amnesty International report, around 15,000 people were intercepted at sea and taken to Libya in the first few months of 2021 (2021). European money taints the entire procedure starting with its funding of Frontex’s surveillance, to the training of the Libyan Coast Guard in migrant capture, and ending with the vehicles used to transport migrants from the seas to detention camps in Libya. In addition, a 2008 Treaty of Friendship between Libya and Italy formalized their cooperation in the containment and capture of migrants (Amnesty International, 2021). Italy would return those crossing central Mediterranean, and Libya would punish and detain them.
Upon capture, migrants are taken to detention camps in Ghout al-Shaal where gross human rights violations are carried out. People lie in overcrowded warehouses with poor ventilation and no sanitation (Urbina, 2021). Reports indicate the constant threat of individuals being singled out for physical torture and/or sexual assault (Amnesty International, 2021). Migrants are punished for assumed treachery and espionage, and their lack of cooperation with their oppressors leads to their assault. In the rare scenario where rebellions are successful, the authorities have been reported to conduct raids in shelters used by escaped migrants. HRW reports that on October 1, 5,152 people were arrested, 1 man killed and 15 injured (Roth, 2021). Reporters who attempt to contact prisoners are themselves detained and sometimes tortured under convictions of espionage.
Libyan law also allows for the indefinite detainment of unauthorized foreigners and their use for unpaid labor (Amnesty International, 2021). The migrants are stripped of their human rights as they enter an unending cycle of dehumanizing torture and enslavement with little to no hope for escape. Disappeared individuals are forced to work in factories or in the military indefinitely. Enforced disappearances allow for human rights violations to be conducted in detention centres with no accountability as individuals are erased, detention centres hidden, and violators protected from identification.
The second strategy of indirect refoulement adopted by Europe is the prevention of rescue operations in European waters. When migrants do escape Libyan Coast Guard and manage to enter European waters, calls for help are unheard. Migrants attempting to signal the coast guard are either ignored or are told to turn back. EU states withdrew naval assets from the central Mediterranean to avoid any chance encounters with migrant boats (Urbina, 2021). In the rare scenario where such an encounter does occur, migrants report to being passed by.
Non-state search-and-rescue operations and organizations have been continuously targeted by European states and reduced to powerless existence as they lose their abilities to actually help boats in distress. In 2018, volunteers working on the shores of Greece to provide blankets and water bottles to oncoming migrants were detained and persecuted under the false convictions of human trafficking and espionage (Cossé and Esveld, 2023). Sarah Mardini, a former Syrian refugee of whom the new Netflix movie Swimmers is partly based on, was held and detained in a Greek prison for over 100 days and is currently awaiting trial. Mardini, alongside fellow volunteer Sean Binder, face a sentence of up to 25 years for volunteering in the aid of migrants. In a Ted Talk interview with Odedre Mardini recounted the mental abuse and trauma she encountered in prison (2020). The conviction of volunteers and search-and-rescue organizations prevents any potential for migrant rescue whether that be in the sea or on the shores of Greece. It insinuates in potential volunteers and donors the fear of similar prosecution. Migrants have also become more vulnerable to the heinous consequences of refoulement as there is no longer anyone that can protect them.
The resentment of migrants is becoming more vocalized in Europe with growing accusations of migrants stealing jobs, threatening the safety of individuals, and tainting the European national and ethnic identities. It is thus necessary to point out here that Europe’s current prosperous conditions are tied to the juxtaposed insecurities in the war stricken countries. Firstly, the legacies of European colonialism that have created a perpetual cycle of detriment and exploitation in the global South have funded the parallel wealth and ‘development’ of Europe itself (Tusalem, 2016). Secondly, as indicated by the Treaty of Friendship and the African Fund, current European ties to the global South support oppression. After contributing to the dangerous conditions forcing people to migrate, the least European countries can now do is to protect refugees.
Accordingly, Europe should take responsibility for refoulement and provide compensation for its colonial legacies. This requires the deterring of ties with Libya and creating a more robust system of accountability and transparency for search-and-rescue operations. Only then will migration return to its synonymous equivalent of mobility and movement and be rid of its inappropriate association with life-threatening immobility.
Write for Rights – Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder: https://takeaction.amnesty.ca/page/50419/action/1?locale=en-US
Works Cited
Amnesty International. (2021). Libya: Horrific violations in detention highlight Europe’s shameful role in forced returns. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/ 2021/07/libya-horrific-violations-in-detention-highlight-europes-shameful-role-in-forced-returns/
Cossé, E., Esveld, B.V. (2023). Sea Rescuers Still Waiting for Justice in Greece. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/16/sea-rescuers-still-waiting-justice-greece
European Commission. Common European Asylum System. Migration and Home Affairs. European Commission. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/ common-european-asylum-system_en
Francis, A. (2015). Jordan’s Refugee Crisis. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/2015/09/21/jordan-s-refugee-crisis-pub-61338
Mardini, S. Interviewed by Odedre, K. (2020). How I was arrested for handing out blankets to refugees | Sarah Mardini. TEDxLondonWomen.
McCarthy, J. (2022). How War Fuels Poverty. Global Citizen.
Roth, K. (2021). Libya. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/ libya#13d8c3
Spindler, W. (2015). 2015: The year of Europe’s refugee crisis. The UN Refugee Agency. https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2015/12/56ec1ebde/2015-year-europes-refugee-crisis.html
Tusalem, R. F. (2016). The Colonial Foundations of State Fragility and Failure. Polity, 48(4), 445–495. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26358277
United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951). https://www.unhcr.org/ 4ca34be29.pdf
Urbina, I. (2021). The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-migrantsout-of-europe
The former strategy was assisted by the European Union Trust Fund of Africa. Under the
guise of addressing the root causes of political instability and displacement in Africa, the Trust
Fund allocated 6 billion dollars to migration control (European Commission). Libya alone
received half a billion dollars to capture illegal migrants heading to European shores. The year
also highlighted the works of Frontex, the EU’s border agency responsible for coastal
surveillance. Frontex was provided with resources that included surveillance drones to track
migrant boats in both domestic and international waters in the Mediterranean (Urbina, 2021).
Upon discovering migrant boats and dinghies, surveillance footage would be sent to Italy which
would then signal Libyan coast guards to intercept the migrants. According to an Amnesty
International report, around 15,000 people were intercepted at sea and taken to Libya in the first
few months of 2021 (2021). European money taints the entire procedure starting with its funding
of Frontex’s surveillance, to the training of the Libyan Coast Guard in migrant capture, and
ending with the vehicles used to transport migrants from the seas to detention camps in Libya. In
addition, a 2008 Treaty of Friendship between Libya and Italy formalized their cooperation in the
containment and capture of migrants (Amnesty International, 2021). Italy would return those
crossing central Mediterranean, and Libya would punish and detain them.
Upon capture, migrants are taken to detention camps in Ghout al-Shaal where gross
human rights violations are carried out. People lie in overcrowded warehouses with poor
ventilation and no sanitation (Urbina, 2021). Reports indicate the constant threat of individuals
being singled out for physical torture and/or sexual assault (Amnesty International, 2021).
Migrants are punished for assumed treachery and espionage, and their lack of cooperation with
their oppressors leads to their assault. In the rare scenario where rebellions are successful, the
authorities have been reported to conduct raids in shelters used by escaped migrants. HRW
reports that on October 1, 5,152 people were arrested, 1 man killed and 15 injured (Roth, 2021).
Reporters who attempt to contact prisoners are themselves detained and sometimes tortured
under convictions of espionage.
Libyan law also allows for the indefinite detainment of unauthorized foreigners and their
use for unpaid labor (Amnesty International, 2021). The migrants are stripped of their human
rights as they enter an unending cycle of dehumanizing torture and enslavement with little to no
hope for escape. Disappeared individuals are forced to work in factories or in the military
indefinitely. Enforced disappearances allow for human rights violations to be conducted in
detention centres with no accountability as individuals are erased, detention centres hidden, and
violators protected from identification.
The second strategy of indirect refoulement adopted by Europe is the prevention of
rescue operations in European waters. When migrants do escape Libyan Coast Guard and
manage to enter European waters, calls for help are unheard. Migrants attempting to signal the
coast guard are either ignored or are told to turn back. EU states withdrew naval assets from the
central Mediterranean to avoid any chance encounters with migrant boats (Urbina, 2021). In the
rare scenario where such an encounter does occur, migrants report to being passed by.
Non-state search-and-rescue operations and organizations have been continuously
targeted by European states and reduced to powerless existence as they lose their abilities to
actually help boats in distress. In 2018, volunteers working on the shores of Greece to provide blankets and water bottles to oncoming migrants were detained and persecuted under the false
convictions of human trafficking and espionage (Cossé and Esveld, 2023). Sarah Mardini, a
former Syrian refugee of whom the new Netflix movie Swimmers is partly based on, was held
and detained in a Greek prison for over 100 days and is currently awaiting trial. Mardini,
alongside fellow volunteer Sean Binder, face a sentence of up to 25 years for volunteering in the
aid of migrants. In a Ted Talk interview with Odedre Mardini recounted the mental abuse and
trauma she encountered in prison (2020). The conviction of volunteers and search-and-rescue
organizations prevents any potential for migrant rescue whether that be in the sea or on the
shores of Greece. It insinuates in potential volunteers and donors the fear of similar prosecution.
Migrants have also become more vulnerable to the heinous consequences of refoulement as there
is no longer anyone that can protect them.
The resentment of migrants is becoming more vocalized in Europe with growing
accusations of migrants stealing jobs, threatening the safety of individuals, and tainting the
European national and ethnic identities. It is thus necessary to point out here that Europe’s
current prosperous conditions are tied to the juxtaposed insecurities in the war stricken countries.
Firstly, the legacies of European colonialism that have created a perpetual cycle of detriment and
exploitation in the global South have funded the parallel wealth and ‘development’ of Europe
itself (Tusalem, 2016). Secondly, as indicated by the Treaty of Friendship and the African Fund,
current European ties to the global South support oppression. After contributing to the dangerous
conditions forcing people to migrate, the least European countries can now do is to protect
refugees.
Accordingly, Europe should take responsibility for refoulement and provide
compensation for its colonial legacies. This requires the deterring of ties with Libya and creating
a more robust system of accountability and transparency for search-and-rescue operations. Only
then will migration return to its synonymous equivalent of mobility and movement and be rid of
its inappropriate association with life-threatening immobility.
Write for Rights – Sarah Mardini and Sean Binder:
https://takeaction.amnesty.ca/page/50419/action/1?locale=en-US Works cited:
Amnesty International. (2021). Libya: Horrific violations in detention highlight Europe’s
shameful role in forced returns. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-
release/2021/07/libya-horrific-violations-in-detention-highlight-europes-shameful-role-in-forced-
returns/
Cossé, E., Esveld, B.V. (2023). Sea Rescuers Still Waiting for Justice in Greece. Human Rights
Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/16/sea-rescuers-still-waiting-justice-greece
European Commission. Common European Asylum System. Migration and Home Affairs.
European Commission. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/
common-european-asylum-system_en
Francis, A. (2015). Jordan’s Refugee Crisis. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
https://carnegieendowment.org/2015/09/21/jordan-s-refugee-crisis-pub-61338
Mardini, S. Interviewed by Odedre, K. (2020). How I was arrested for handing out blankets to
refugees | Sarah Mardini. TEDxLondonWomen.
McCarthy, J. (2022). How War Fuels Poverty. Global Citizen.
Roth, K. (2021). Libya. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-
chapters/libya#13d8c3
Spindler, W. (2015). 2015: The year of Europe’s refugee crisis. The UN Refugee Agency. https://
www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2015/12/56ec1ebde/2015-year-europes-refugee-crisis.html
Tusalem, R. F. (2016). The Colonial Foundations of State Fragility and Failure. Polity, 48(4),
445–495. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26358277
United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951). https://www.unhcr.org/
4ca34be29.pdf
Urbina, I. (2021). The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe. The New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/the-secretive-libyan-prisons-that-keep-
migrants-out-of-europe