Illegal Mediterranean Immigration: Is Europe Finally Beginning to Protect Itself?

It seems that the current rate of migration into Europe has increased to the point where it has alarmed even the EU establishment. As a result, Brussels is implementing plans to send people back and prevent the arrival of additional migrants. Needless to say, the new policy is generating intense criticism by the Left in Germany.

The following report by Egri Nök was published previously at Vlad Tepes in a slightly different form.

Illegal Mediterranean Immigration: Is Europe finally beginning to protect itself?

by Egri Nök

An original translation from German magazine Der Spiegel. Please note that due to their political bias, Der Spiegel here depicts measures as drastic and excessive that one might see as quite reasonable.

EU Documents

Migrants to be deported to Niger

Europe increasingly seals itself off from migrants. According to internal documents, people in need of protection are to be flown back to Niger. The Federal Government [of Germany] supports this.

By Markus Becker, Brussels
September 6, 2017

Little time? There is a summary at the end of the text.

The European Union is increasing its efforts to keep refugees and migrants from Africa away — and it appears they are ready for increasingly drastic measures. This is what internal papers and answers to parliamentary inquiries that Spiegel has obtained prove.

The core of the plan is to stop migrants long before they venture from Libya and other Northern African countries onto the Mediterranean. It is already known that the EU intends to achieve this with development aid, the military buildup of African military and police units, and a stronger surveillance of the Mediterranean. The new documents show just how far the Europeans are willing to go.

One of the central points is the retransition of people to their homelands. Even “migrants in particular need of protection” are not to be brought into the EU from Libya, but flown to Niger. Allegedly, the UNO refugee relief organization UNHCR agreed upon such deal with the government of Niger. This is what the answer of the Federal Government [of Germany] to a ‘small inquiry’ by The Left [Die Linke] in the Bundestag says.

In Niger, the need for protection of the migrants is then supposed to be thoroughly examined, and perhaps the possibility of bringing them into the EU might be considered. But the paper leaves open why such an examination would be necessary in Niger, when the need for protection has already been established in Libya — as well as the question who is going to carry out the examination in Niger. Upon repeated inquiry, the Foreign Ministry referred inquirers to the UNHCR.

EU Commission to enforce retraction agreement “with all means”

The Left strongly criticised the plans. “The long-cherished dream of European hardliners will come true under Angela Merkel, the architect of the fortress Europe — the establishment of European camps on the African continent”, says the spokesman on European policies for The Left, Andrej Hunko. The UNHCR were making themselves “the helper of the European migrant Abwehr.” Constantin Hruschka, a jurist in Bielefeld, voices concerns, too. The right to an asylum procedure was an “essential part of the right to protection from persecution or torture or inhumane or humiliating treatment”. If the access to such procedure were denied, this would be a breach of those rights.

A spokesman for the UNHCR denied the accusations. They were only reacting to the humanitarian emergency in Libya. To bring some of them to Niger was a “humanitarian answer”. The question of a resettlement of migrants to Europe was a discussion that needed to be held later. “We want a legal way to Europe for these people.”

Not long ago the commission showed how serious they were about the retransition of rejected asylum seekers. At the end of July, the authorities in Brussels detailed to the embassies of the member states how they planned to implement their new migration action plan. The internal letter says that retransition agreements and “practical agreements” with third-party countries were to be introduced — “using all means”.

According to the commission’s plan, Libya is to be provided with information: the starting points of migration in third-party countries were to be monitored more closely, suspicious vehicles detected and traced by satellite and aerial images. To stay up-to-date about new trafficking routes, the EU asylum authority Easo could surveil traffickers and migrants, and the “discourse on asylum”, in social media — in Arabic, Farsi, Dari and Pashto, according to the implementation plan which was obtained by Spiegel.

The strengthening of military and security forces in African states, too, is to go further than previously known. At the end of July, the EU commission and Italy agreed to provide Libya with training, vessels and land vehicles, communications equipment, and the setup of command centres. It appears that a new project will start up in addition, a “pilot activity” on the southern border of Libya, the “exact organization” of which is to be established after an exploratory mission, the Federal Government says in answer to an inquiry by The Left.

The EU might take more action in Niger, too, through which 90 percent of all migrants from West Africa pass, as an internal document from the EU exterior agency EAD reveals. The EU mission Eucap, which is training security forces in Niger for their fight against terror and organized crime, “made noteworthy progress on a strategic level” in the first half of the year. At the same time, EAD suggests to the member states that they should more strongly support the operations in Niger against human, drug, and weapons trafficking.

Armament in the Fight against Migration

The militarization of the fight against migration is advancing. A “G5 Sahel Joint Force” was agreed upon — a joint military unit of the states of Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauretania, and Burkina Faso, to intercept migrants before Libya. Germany and France want to send money, materials and ammunition for the troop of 5,000, which, according to information from the Federal Government [of Germany] is expected to cost €423 million. In its implementation plan the European Commission suggests “joint patrols” and coordination between the G5 force and the Libyan authorities — of course with the help of the EU.

It remains to be seen if this will suffice to seal off the Libyan southern border. The problem is that the border basically just exists on the map. In reality, it stretches for hundreds of kilometres of Sahara, so surveillance without a gap is hardly possible. “Instead, the measures will lead to more deaths, as the refugees will be forced to take longer routes through the desert,” criticizes The Left politician Hunko.

Still, the Federal Government [of Germany] endorses the commission’s plan. The Foreign Office set a clear goal in a directive to the embassy in Brussels: the “swift implementation” of the undertaking and a “concentrated action” of the EU and the member states. Berlin thus wants to prevent a “solo action by Italy”, which feels let down by the rest of the EU in the migration crisis.

Summary: The EU wants to increase its efforts to stop migrants and refugees from Africa — long before they reach the Mediterranean. Even people in need of protection are to be flown from Libya to Niger. Additionally, the EU wants to strengthen military and police forces in African states with many millions of Euros, to avert migrant departures.

12 thoughts on “Illegal Mediterranean Immigration: Is Europe Finally Beginning to Protect Itself?

  1. I read yesterday or the day before in a Canadian paper(can’t remember which one), the Ms. Merkel had decided four(4) more years of allowing migrants to migrate to Germany. Let’s hope she loses the next election, before she give the whole country away.!!

  2. It will be quietly forgotten after Merkel has been re-elected and agreement has been obtained on the amount of exit fee to be extorted from the UK.

  3. At the same time, Tony Blair (who presided over catastrophic levels of immigration into the UK) is making noises about controlling some immigration.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/10/tony-blair-get-tough-on-immigration-to-stop-brexit

    He’s probably just trying to save the EU, but it could be that even he is getting rattled.

    Or, as other comenters have said, it could be part of a concerted feint. Talk tough about numbers, while running down border controls and fudging the numbers.

    • I don’t think it’s a feint. I think it’s a process designed to restrict the flow of migrants to the planned level.

      If the rate of inflow is too high, the natives get restless, and the electoral chances of the ruling “center” coalitions are put at risk. It becomes more difficult to maintain the Potemkin facade in Europe: voting fraud is not enough to control the outcome of elections, and the velvet glove has to be removed from the iron fist to keep the restive population quiescent.

      Turn the tap back to the right level, and the slow boiling of the frog can continue as planned.

      • That’s cynical, Baron, but probably accurate.

        Niger is one of the most (if not the most) fertile nations on earth. At a recent conference of European and African leaders, its representative demanded more aid. Had I been M Macron (who was there), I’d have said “Yes, if you spend it on birth control, and preventing the marriage of underage girls”.

  4. Maybe flow restricted but we already have millions already here. Tipping point already been reached and only matter of time as breeding increases migrant populations with huge strain on welfare systems.

  5. Being flown from Niger is already budgeted into EU documents: https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/press-material_en

    Here:
    (26/07/2017) http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-2104_en.htm
    On 4 July, the Commission invited Member States to submit new resettlement pledges for 2018 which will be financially supported by the Commission. (…) Member States were specifically invited to focus on resettlement from Libya, Egypt, Niger, Ethiopia and Sudan while continuing resettlements from Turkey. The Commission has earmarked (…) €10,000 per person.

    Here:
    (06/09/2017) http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-3081_en.htm

    On 4 July 2017, the Commission launched a new resettlement pledging exercise for 2018 to ensure the continuation of the EU’s collective resettlement efforts until the Commission’s proposal for an EU resettlement framework is adopted. Member States are invited to submit their pledges for 2018 by 15 September 2017, with an additional focus on resettlement from North Africa and the Horn of Africa.

    Notice that they (the EU) wrote in July 2017 explicitly “Libya, Egypt, Niger, Ethiopia and Sudan” and later in September 2017 wrote only “North Africa and the Horn of Africa.”
    It’s obscene to admit openly to bringing Egyptians and Niger-ans into EU, so they absconded under “North and Horn” of Africa.

  6. No, Europe is not protecting itself, it’s just a show. In more than 5000 years civilization, Europe has produced so many symbols. The favorite of our elites? The rape of Europe, which appears everywhere.

Comments are closed.