[ad_1]
As climate change will force millions of African migrants to flee their homes in the coming decades, the European Union will need to find a sustainable solution.
This is according the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project Ian Urbina, a Washington-based journalist. Daily MaverickPeter Fabricius, foreign policy journalist during a Daily Maverick webinar that the EU’s outsourcing the policing of its migrants to a failed state like Libya has led to human rights abuses.
The US had done the exact same thing with Mexico at their border with that country.
“You can get around human rights norms if you house them outside your border,” he said.
The World Bank has predicted that climate change could displace 216 million people across the globe in the next 30 years, and this could worsen brutality against migrants if policies aren’t changed.
“Europe is presenting [their policies] as a humanitarian rescue effort,” Urbina said, but there were differences of opinion within the bloc about this.
Those who support more funding for the EU to fund its current response say they’re trying to fund the Libyan coastguard to save the lives of desperate people before human traffickers take advantage of them, he said. They say: “We are trying to police our border as any state is entitled to.”
“The standard reply focuses on the Libyan coastguard and it says nothing of what happens when those people are returned to Libya. They (the EU) know once they are returned, what happens to them is abhorrent.”
The blame is then transferred to the Libyans.
Read more Daily Maverick: “Exposed: The Libyan detention centers that keep African migrants from Europe in brutality”
However, not all EU members think this way. Urbina said his organisation’s investigation into the abuses was supported by some legislators in the EU, who felt that more journalism on the topic is important.
“Some say this is what they have been claiming all along, but they are now better empowered to make the point.”
Due to the nature and extent of the operations, legal action against it was not possible.
Ramaphosa calls KZN floods a ‘catastrophe’ as death toll climbs above 300
Fabricius asked Urbina questions about her opinion on the average length of stay in Libyan camps for migrants.
Many are extorted, and some are charged $500 to make a call to a relative who can help them.
“If someone does not have anyone who can send them the money, they get tortured or sold off to another facility, or they let them loose.”
Others are used in forced labour in agriculture, construction, and even sex.
Those who are freed end up in Gargaresh (a nearby slum), where they can continue trying to cross into Europe. The cycle of being caught is repeated, making this a serious problem.
Most head for Italy because it’s the nearest land point. “If the Italians catch you, you go through the system there. If nobody catches you, you make your way through Europe,” Urbina said.
A small number of migrants leave their country of origin and seek refuge in Europe.
Urbina stated that those trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe are between 20,000 and 25,000. This is down from nearly half a million during the peak migration.
NGOs were not allowed to help migrants. Port administration was used against them.
These policies needed to be changed. “It is not sustainable to outsource this to a failed state,” especially if a rising number of migrants was expected to cross.
He stated that a long-term solution was needed, but that the EU could in the short-term impose conditions on funding for the coastguard. “You [can] say, ‘unless you improve the facilities, we aren’t going to keep on giving money’.”
Urbina stated that humanitarian visits should not be prohibited at the facilities. “This is a more humane way of tying the revenue with the handling of the migrants.”
Fabricius suggested that a better solution would be to provide development aid for the countries where migrants leave. Urbina said it is one of the tools, but “if you look at a 20-year arc, people are going to keep coming in(to Europe)”.
“I don’t think centres should be in third-party or warzone states. It should be in the country of arrival where you can impose your own laws, oversights, and where journalists can see it,” Urbina said, adding that detention centres had a role and could not be done away with.
These were not only expensive logistically and financially but also politically in countries like Brazil, where foreigner-bashing has become an effective tool for populists. DM
Similar Articles
