# taz.de -- EU migration policy in northern Africa: The logic of mobsters | |
> The EU will only create more misery with its migration policy. As long as | |
> exploitation persists, people will try to get to Europe. | |
Bild: Protest for refugee's rights in Malaga, Spain | |
The situation could hardly be more paradoxical: on the one hand, one speaks | |
in a dramatized and exaggerated manner of the tens of thousands of | |
sub-Saharan migrants living in Morocco and waiting to „penetrate“ Europe. | |
But when it comes to taking responsibility for the gaps in the boat, which | |
are a direct consequence of the European migration policy, the numbers are | |
often played down and talk of some „illegal“ drowned. | |
The figures given in the first case are often the subject of negotiations | |
on grants or political and diplomatic dividends. They are published in | |
Europe by populist media in order to create anxiety among the population, | |
thus justifying the implementation of a migration policy that is | |
exclusively attributable to the security disposition. For this reason, it | |
is absolutely necessary to critically examine and question the figures | |
circulating with regard to the so-called irregular migration. | |
The European Union has just started to build so-called hot spots on its | |
territory, and many camps outside the EU, aimed at destroying those | |
migrants wishing to move towards Europe and, on the other, those who are | |
from Europe Have been deported. In order to safeguard this logic, the EU | |
invents a whole new set of new concepts to protect its policy against the | |
public. So one hears again and again from so-called „safe third countries“ | |
or „safe countries of origin“. | |
Jurists may have wondered when they suddenly saw countries like Turkey, | |
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, which the European Union considers safe. It | |
is no longer that those countries are classified as safe third-country and | |
/ or countries of origin which guarantee the basic rights and freedoms of | |
the citizens, but simply those who accept it to register themselves in the | |
logic of the externalization of EU border policy. This means that for the | |
EU, a country is considered to be „safe“ when its political leaders are | |
both willing to stop migrants on their way to Europe, as well as those | |
refugees who are returning as transit migrants through their country | |
Traveled. | |
## Shameful and unscrupulous | |
In the context of this migration policy, the EU has declared Morocco as a | |
„safe third country“ and has given this country the role of „border arms�… | |
for part of its external borders. The basic idea is to give responsibility | |
for one's own actions and to leave the others the „dirty work“. | |
For the implementation of this policy, the EU is spending billions of Euros | |
and is attracting political and economic dividends as incentives for the | |
countries concerned. Are not the signatories of these treaties subject to | |
the same mafia logic as the tugs, which they condemn as shameful and | |
unscrupulous? | |
Despite the alarming human rights situation of sub-Saharan migrants in | |
Morocco, this country is classified as a „safe third country“. It ignores | |
the fact that there are continual arrests and deportations from the | |
northern border towns of Nador and Tangier, and those affected in the large | |
cities of Casablanca, Rabat and Fès are simply exposed on the road. Those | |
who have no papers are often deported to Oujda, where they are thrown into | |
a ditch seven meters deep, which has been lifted to prevent the entry of | |
migrants from Algeria to Morocco. | |
## Recognized and without support | |
However, migrants who have been recognized by the UN refugee agency UNHCR | |
and the Moroccan state are also denied the issuance of a passport. Access | |
to the labor market and hospitals is also extremely limited. | |
There is only a chance for treatment if an employee of an antiracist group | |
or NGO accompanies her. Furthermore, access to school education for migrant | |
children is very difficult, despite official regulations, because there is | |
no support or accompanying measures that ensure that most parents live in | |
extremely precarious circumstances. In some schools even refugees are | |
simply rejected. Another example of a particularly serious form of | |
discrimination are sub-Saharan refugees who are begging on the street. In | |
contrast to Syrian and Moroccan beggars, they are frequently arrested, | |
imprisoned or deported to the Algerian border. | |
The EU's repressive and human rights-taking policy will certainly not stop | |
the migration from sub-Saharan Africa. It will at most lead to a shift in | |
the migration routes and drive the number of death victims even further. | |
This recognition should have been achieved in the meantime in Europe and | |
thus a change of course towards a humanist policy which respects the | |
fundamental rights of migrants. | |
## Exploitation as a cause of escape | |
The billions spent on European frontier protection and militarization will | |
not stop the migration from sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, the EU should have | |
the courage to name the true causes of migration and act accordingly. This | |
includes, on the one hand, the fact that many European corporations have no | |
interest in the ending of armed conflicts in Africa and, on the other, the | |
fact that the exploitation of natural resources is supported or even | |
promoted by multinational corporations by European and African governments. | |
As long as these mechanisms of exploitation and hegemonic power do not | |
change, people will continue to leave their countries. | |
As far as the commitment of the „Afrique Europe“ network is concerned, we | |
have decided, in view of the current situation, to take concrete measures | |
for the sub-Saharan women who arrive in Morocco and do not have a place to | |
live. For them, we have built a shelter called Baobab. It is open to them | |
and their children and has capacity for about 20 people. While the demand | |
for seats is constantly increasing, capacity can unfortunately not be | |
expanded. In September, we also started to set up a school education | |
program for refugee children and have so far been able to integrate 30 | |
children into the schools. For this project we are looking for individuals | |
or organizations who would like to sponsor the school education of refugee | |
children in Morocco | |
The author studied economics in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and | |
was active in the student organization of the opposition party „Union for | |
Democracy and Social Progress“ (UPDS). In 2002, he was imprisoned in the | |
course of a demonstration against the regime of Joseph Kabila, but was able | |
to flee. Since 2008 he lives and works in the Netherlands. He is an | |
anti-racist activist in the network Afrique Europe Interact and author of | |
the book „My Way from Congo to Europe – Between Resistance, Flight and | |
Exile“ (2015) | |
14 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Emmanuel Mbolela | |
## TAGS | |
migControl | |
Marokko | |
EU | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
migControl | |
migControl | |
EU-Flüchtlingspolitik | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Integration von Migranten in Marokko: Auf Sand gebaut | |
Die EU, allen voran Spanien und Deutschland wollen Flüchtlinge und | |
Migranten von Europa fernhalten. Das Kalkül geht nur zum Teil auf. | |
Spanische Exklaven in Marokko: Ein heißer Zaun | |
Immer wieder versuchen Menschen die Grenzanlagen in Ceuta und Melilla zu | |
überwinden. Spanische Behörden schieben sie rechtswidrig unmittelbar ab. | |
Debatte EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Afrika: Europas neuer Umriss | |
Unter Merkels Führung verteidigt die EU neuerdings ihre Außengrenzen tief | |
in Afrika. Das soll die Migration nach Europa radikal stoppen. | |
Kommentar Wiener Flüchtlingsgipfel: Vor allem Grenzen sichern | |
Es ging in Wien nicht darum, die Migration in geordnete Bahnen zu lenken. | |
Die europäische Flüchtlingspolitik war schon mal weiter. |