# taz.de -- Migration policy and arms industry: The business with high-tech bor… | |
> Radar, „intelligent“ border posts, biometrics, surveillance: to keep | |
> Africans away, any means is right. | |
Bild: The fence at the spanish exclave Ceuta obviously doesn't stop people | |
Three fences, supported by seven-meter high sandwalls, lead through the | |
desert. Anyone who approaches captures underground motion sensors, | |
surveillance cameras or one of the 50 radar systems at surveillance towers | |
or on patrolling jeeps. All information goes directly to a control center: | |
14,500 kilometers of fiber-optic cables secure the fast data connection, | |
3,400 border guards are permanently in use. | |
The European armaments group EADS, now Airbus, delivered this border | |
protection of the luxury class to Saudi Arabia in 2009. For around 2 | |
billion euros, she set up the 900 kilometer border with Iraq as an | |
antiterror wall, in the complete package from the need to determine the | |
training of the border guards by German federal policemen. | |
The officials received their fees from the German Association for | |
International Cooperation (GIZ), which received Saudi money from EADS. | |
Federal Minister of Development and GIZ was at that time the FDP politician | |
Dirk Niebel, meanwhile Cheflobbyist of the armor forge Rheinmetall, one of | |
Germany's leading manufacturers of border installations. | |
Already with the fences around the Spanish enclaves in Morocco – Ceuta and | |
Melilla – the European Union has pushed forward with its outer borders to | |
the African continent. With the EU-Turkey deal, the EU migration shield | |
reached the next stage: the Turkish wall to Syria is equipped with | |
self-shooting systems, which shoot at an approach of 300 meters, made by | |
the emerging Turkish armaments company Aselsan. | |
## The enemy is driving bus | |
Now the EU is expanding its fortress down to the equator. From Central Asia | |
to Central Africa, it wants to invest in the „robustness of the states“, | |
according to the latest EU strategy paper for its common foreign and | |
security policy. In the EU neighborhood there are „turmoil“, the | |
„overlapping of uncertainty“ the EU must counteract. | |
In the Frontex-Africa Intelligence Report 2015, the neighboring continent | |
is presented as a region full of dangers. Frontex agents had visited the | |
bus station in Agadez, the historical trading center in Niger. Through this | |
bottleneck in the desert everything goes from West Africa through the | |
Sahara to the north: goods, traders, migrants. Mostly by bus: Over the past | |
years, overregional bus lines have sprouted up across the globe, a boom | |
business. | |
For EU agents, bus operators are enemies: „People in Agadez regard | |
themselves as service providers. Attempts to combat this growing industry | |
could provoke local protests, „the report said. Then the airline Turkish | |
Airlines, which offers low-cost flights between main African cities and | |
Istanbul, is targeted. It is to blame that not only Syrians, but also | |
Congolese, Nigerians or Cameroonians on the Balkan route advanced to | |
Europe. Frontex CEO Fabrice Leggeri opens the risk analysis for 2016, | |
pointing to „1.8 million cases of illegal border crossings to Europe“. | |
This should be over now. In September, 26 African intelligence workers and | |
border guards were summoned to the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. The | |
Africa-Frontex secret service community has been operationalized. The | |
Africans are to transmit migratory data on a quarterly basis. With the | |
immigration authorities of Nigeria and the Cape Verde, Frontex has already | |
concluded a partnership agreement with the taz. Others will follow. The aim | |
is to „analyze“ all migration movements from Warsaw. | |
## High technology and biometrics | |
The EU's key technology is Integrated Border Management (IBM) developed by | |
the European Union and applied for the first time in the Balkans. These are | |
„intelligent“ borderposts, which allow passers-by with the right papers to | |
pass easily and quickly despite all technical safety precautions, and whose | |
computer databases are networked with all relevant authorities: immigration | |
authorities, security authorities, customs. | |
Through modern turnstiles the biometric passport is drawn. The on-chip data | |
is matched with global databases such as Interpol to track down potential | |
terrorists or counterfeit ID documents. With the help of dogs, heartbeat | |
meters, air-borne scanners and X-ray systems, border guards in trucks | |
should be able to detect blind passengers. | |
„Integrated management promotes the prevention of illegal migration and the | |
fight against all forms of smuggling,“ says an internal strategy paper of | |
the EU Commission on the negotiations with Nigeria, the taz. To this end, | |
funds from the Emergency Relief Trust Fund for Africa can also be used. | |
German development cooperation helps. In Burkina Faso, the German GIZ | |
provides „expert advice on the development of an integrated border | |
management policy“. In Mali, she advises „on the revision of the national | |
border policy“, the Federal Government said in response to a small request | |
from the Linkspartei. In Chad and Mauritania, GIZ also supports the | |
equipment and training of border guards and the construction of border | |
stations. | |
## Operation Seahorse | |
All other ways to cross a border are now rigorously sealed with | |
insurmountable kilometers of fence installations and monitored from the | |
air. The European Union border watchdog is called the Eurosur: since | |
December 2013, drones are looking for refugees, supported by geostationary | |
satellites over the Mediterranean. Boats on the coast, wagons in the | |
desert, migrant migrants – all this can be tracked live on the monitor at | |
the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. | |
A smaller satellite monitoring system, „sea horse“, operates Spain with | |
Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. | |
Currently, a system is being set up with Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. | |
According to the EU, Eurosur cost 338 million euros. A study by the | |
Heinrich Böll Foundation assumes a minimum of 874 million, including | |
development costs. | |
Since 2002, the EU has also invested EUR 316 million in the research of | |
border technology. Leading armaments companies had access to EU funding: | |
Airbus Defense and Space (previously EADS), Thales from France, BAE Systems | |
from the UK, Italian company Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Spanish company Indra, | |
German Fraunhofer Institute and Israeli companies. They equipped the EU's | |
external borders in Bulgaria and Hungary with the latest technology: a | |
super-precise air system from Airbus, which detects even the smallest | |
objects from a distance of 220 kilometers. There is not even a fly through. | |
## VW, Mercedes, Airbus | |
Lobbying organizations in Brussels such as the „European Organization for | |
Security“, led by former Thales manager Luis Rebuffi, the „Aerospace and | |
Defense Industries Association of Europe“, chaired by Mauro Moretti, also | |
Head of Finmeccanica, and Thinktank „Friends of Europe“ workgroups. For | |
example, the „Smart Intelligence Borders“ headed by the French corporations | |
Safran and Thales, and the „AG Border Surveillance“ led by the Italian | |
electronics company Selex. Through technology partnerships, these are | |
indirectly linked to leading companies | |
Billion for border protection | |
German national police officers form Tunisian border guards, the Bundeswehr | |
sends speedboats and armored trucks. For 2017 Germany has supported mobile | |
monitoring systems with ground reconnaissance systems. 5 night surveillance | |
systems, 25 thermal imaging cameras, 25 optical sensors and 5 radar systems | |
delivered by Airbus, paid by the German federal government. Tunisia gets | |
its high-tech limit for free. | |
By 2020 more than EUR 6 billion has been earmarked for the protection of EU | |
external borders. 2.8 billion come from the EU's internal security fund, | |
1.7 billion from the EU's Border Research Program. Approximately 1.5 | |
billion are estimated for Frontex and Eurosur. In addition, there are | |
financial giants: Libya 66.5 million euros, Mauritania 16 million, Lebanon | |
14 million, Tunisia 23 million, according to a study by the Dutch NGO | |
„Stoppt Waffenhandel“. | |
At the beginning of December, the Federal Cabinet decided to send up to 20 | |
officials to Niger. Interpol trains border policemen in Mali, Morocco, | |
Mauritania, Niger, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Chad – financed by Germany. | |
There are nine high-tech border stations between Niger and Nigeria, the | |
Federal Foreign Office paying three, the European Union the remaining six. | |
## „Basically all states“ | |
„The market in Africa is certainly interesting, because there is a need,“ | |
says an airbus spokesman for taz. Access is difficult, however, because of | |
the lack of „responsible local business partners who meet our high | |
standards“. It would be easier to supply individual products such as radar | |
technology or cameras. | |
„As users of border security systems, we believe that in principle all the | |
countries that are faced with the problem of illegal border crossing are | |
eligible. Talks in this direction also take place in individual African | |
states, „says a spokesman for Rheinmetall der taz. But it is „too early to | |
talk about concrete projects“. „Airbus will be a member of the Airbus | |
Group, and we will be pleased to announce the launch of Airbus. | |
A Dutch offshoot of the French armaments giant Thales equipped the Egyptian | |
navy with radar technology worth 34 million euros in 2015. Airbus recently | |
delivered a monitoring draft to the Bundeswehr contingent at the UN mission | |
in Mali. The Italian company Leonardo-Finmeccanica supplied 15 monitoring | |
helicopters to the Algerian border troops. Airbus boasts on its website | |
that it has delivered its Spexer radar specially developed for border | |
surveillance to three West and North African countries. | |
The world-wide total turnover with border technology is to increase from 15 | |
billion euro in 2015 up to 29 billion in 2022, predicts the market research | |
enterprise Frost & Sullivan. At present, American and Israeli companies | |
still dominate this division. Europe's leading armaments companies want to | |
catch up – in Africa. As a sales market, Africa is virtually limitless. | |
15 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Fabian Grieger | |
Simone Schlindwein | |
## TAGS | |
migControl | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
Rüstungsindustrie | |
Grenzsicherung | |
Biometrie | |
Lesestück Recherche und Reportage | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
migControl | |
migControl | |
MigrationControl | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Europas Grenzen in Afrika: Über den Zaun hinaus | |
Die EU baut Frontex zu einer Full-Service-Agentur um. Dabei arbeitet sie | |
mit zwielichtigen Regierungen zusammen. | |
Flüchtlings-Deal mit der Türkei: EU zahlte schon 677 Millionen Euro | |
Die Türkei soll verhindern, dass Flüchtlinge nach Europa gelangen. Dafür | |
hatte ihr die EU drei Milliarden Euro für zwei Jahre zugesagt. | |
Debatte EU-Migrationspolitik im Maghreb: Mafiöse Logik | |
Die EU wird mit ihrer Migrationspolitik nur mehr Elend erzeugen. Solange | |
Ausbeutung besteht, werden Menschen versuchen nach Europa zu gelangen. | |
Kommentar Fluchtgründe in Afrika: Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt | |
Unser Autor stammt aus Äthiopien. Seit Jahren lebt er im Exil. Er glaubt, | |
dass die Repression Menschen außer Landes treibt. | |
ECOWAS-Beamter über EU und Migration: „Man kriminalisiert Migration“ | |
Die westafrikanische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft bleibt bei Verhandlungen | |
zwischen EU und regionalen Staaten zur Migrationskontrolle außen vor, | |
beklagt Sanoh N’Fally. |