{"id":559,"date":"2016-06-28T11:15:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T09:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterromich.com\/mmc\/?p=559"},"modified":"2022-05-23T14:53:27","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:53:27","slug":"at-any-cost-the-outsourcing-of-europes-border-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/articles\/at-any-cost-the-outsourcing-of-europes-border-management\/","title":{"rendered":"At Any Cost? The outsourcing of Europe\u2019s border management"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe EU has repeatedly shown it is willing to stop refugees and migrants from coming to the continent at almost any cost now, with human rights taking a back seat.\u201d
\n– Magdalena Mughrabi, interim Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director
\nAmnesty International<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a\u00a0recent leak<\/a>\u00a0of confidential European Commission documents, online publication Spiegel Online uncovered an alleged plan by the European Union to work closely with governments in the Horn of Africa to stem migration flows from sub-Saharan Africa towards Europe. The leaked\u00a0project documents<\/a>\u00a0proposed the provision of equipment, including the donation of cameras, scanners and cars, and the construction of reception centres with custody rooms, to the Sudanese government, while acknowledging a risk that such support may be \u201cdiverted for repressive aims\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0denied by the EU<\/a>, the plans were met with\u00a0heavy criticism<\/a>\u00a0from rights campaigners who determined that such assistance would make the EU complicit with regimes responsible for the denial of fundamental human rights. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges relating to his alleged role in genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Moreover, Sudanese officials have been accused of\u00a0colluding with human trafficking networks<\/a>\u00a0in Sudan and a report from the\u00a0UN Panel of Experts for Libya<\/a>\u00a0found that Sudan has been arming and supporting radical Islamist elements in neighbouring Libya leading to a further destabilisation of the country in violation of a UN arms embargo on Libya.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s newest plan<\/h2>\n

Most recently on 7th June 2016, the European Commission announced a\u00a0New Migration Partnership Framework<\/a>\u00a0that aims to reinforce cooperation with third countries to better manage migration. The Partnership Framework \u201cwill seek tailor made partnerships with key third countries of origin and transit using all policies and instruments at the EU\u2019s disposal to achieve concrete results\u201d. The EU offers an opening up of legal routes for migration to Europe; a UN-led global resettlement scheme to contribute to the fair sharing of displaced persons; and a series of financial instruments to offer short and long-term solutions, including an additional EUR 1 billion for EU\u00a0Emergency Trust Fund for Africa<\/a>, and a proposition for a package worth up to EUR 31 billion to boost investment in developing countries through an External Investment Plan. With reference to a \u201cmix of positive and negative incentives\u201d, the EU effectively communicates to partner counties that they will be rewarded with trade and aid for curbing the outflow of migrants and refugees from their countries and sanctioned if they fail to do so.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0strong critique<\/a>\u00a0of the Framework, Oxfam International stated that \u201cthe EU [is] rewriting its foreign policy so that it serves the single objective of stopping people from coming to Europe. By choosing to outsource to third countries Europe’s border control and the responsibility for managing migration, Europe attempts to outsource its obligations to respect human rights\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Framework appears to be heavily influenced by the\u00a0EU-Turkey deal<\/a>\u00a0signed in March 2016, the\u00a0impact<\/a> of which the EU says \u201cwas immediate\u201d and which established \u201cnew ways to bring order into migration flows\u201d. However, while the EU\u2019s deal with the EU may have\u00a0drastically cut arrival figures into Europe<\/a>\u00a0via the Eastern Mediterranean route to Greece, it has opened up the EU to what one commentator has called effective blackmail<\/a>. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has\u00a0threatened to withdraw from the agreement<\/a>\u00a0if the EU\u2019s promised commitments on visa liberalisation for Turkish nationals, EUR 3 billion in aid, and a re-energisation on Turkey\u2019s accession to the EU do not materialise. Turkey has also\u00a0refused to change its anti-terror laws<\/a>\u00a0to meet the EU\u2019s requirements on visa liberalisation. After The Turkey deal was announced, the government of Niger told foreign ministers visiting from Europe that it\u00a0needs EUR 1 billion to combat irregular migration<\/a>, and in May 2016 Kenya announced a decision to close Dadaab refugee camp, which speculators suggest may be a\u00a0posturing for more funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Return and readmission agreements<\/h2>\n

To date, the EU has\u00a017 readmission agreements<\/a>\u00a0with partner countries (mostly in Eastern Europe and Asia) and the New Migration Partnership Framework aims to bolster these policies with more countries of origin and those of transit. While the numbers entering Greece may have decreased, a numerical assessment of the EU-Turkey \u201cone-in-one-out\u201d deal appears to show that the EU is yet to make significant headway in the \u201cout\u201d part of the scheme.\u00a0Fewer than 500 people<\/a>\u00a0have reportedly been sent back to Turkey since the agreement came into force, and\u00a0asylum applications shot up in Greece<\/a>\u00a0immediately after the deal was ratified. Moreover, a landmark decision by an independent authority examining appeals claims in Greece\u00a0ruled against sending a Syrian refugee back to Turkey<\/a>\u00a0creating a potential precedent for others.<\/p>\n

A major concern among humanitarian organisations is the return or readmission of people to countries where protection is not guaranteed. Return of refugees from Greece to Turkey are premised on 2 grounds outlined in the EU\u2019s\u00a0Asylum Procedures Directive<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Under Article 35, a refugee can be returned to the first country of asylum if s\/he has been recognised as a refugee in that country and can still avail him\/herself of that protection, or s\/he otherwise enjoys \u201csufficient protection\u201d in that country, including benefiting from the principle of\u00a0non-refoulement.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Under Article 36 and 38, refugees can be returned to a \u201csafe third country\u201d provided that: their life or liberty is not threatened, there is no risk of serious harm, the principle of non-refoulement<\/em>\u00a0is respected, their right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is respected, and a possibility exists to request refugee status.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Directive offers a precarious legal basis for returns to Turkey. Turkey does not provide refugee status for non-Europeans, and any return would therefore be subject to a confirmation that the refugee would instead receive \u201csufficient protection\u201d. However, UNHCR has\u00a0cautioned<\/a>\u00a0that the term \u201cmay not represent an adequate safeguard or criterion when determining whether an applicant can be returned safely to a first country of asylum. In UNHCR\u2019s view, \u201cthe protection in the third country should be effective and available in practice\u201d, meaning that \u201cthere is no real risk that the person would be sent by the third state to another state in which s\/he would not receive effective protection, or would be at risk of being sent from there on to any other state, where such protection would not be available\u201d.<\/a>1<\/a><\/p>\n

    In April 2016, Amnesty International reported on the\u00a0alleged forcible deportations of Syrians<\/a>\u00a0by Turkish authorities to Syria on a near-daily basis since mid-January at the rate of 100 persons per day. In November 2015, Human Rights Watch reported on the\u00a0effective closure of the border to Syrian asylum seekers<\/a>\u00a0at the same time that\u00a0UNHCR guidance<\/a>\u00a0stated that \u201cnearly all parts of Syria are embroiled in violence\u201d, and urged all countries to ensure that persons fleeing Syria are admitted to their territory and are able to seek asylum. If substantiated, these pushbacks would be in violation of the principle of\u00a0non-refoulement<\/em>\u00a0under international law.<\/p>\n

    Future plans: Libya cooperation?<\/h2>\n

    With the containment of refugee and migrant movements on the Eastern Mediterranean route in effect, the attention of European politicians turned to departures along the Central Mediterranean route from Libya, which has witnessed\u00a0a surge in departures<\/a>\u00a0in recent months.<\/p>\n

    In April 2016 the Italian government released a\u00a0Migration Compact<\/a>, which models itself on the agreement between EU and Turkey. According to the plan, the EU would implement a range of development investment projects and offer legal resettlement programmes to countries in exchange for the control of migration flows and screening economic migrants and refugees. Of particular interest to Italy is reaching an agreement with Libya, reminiscent of the \u201cfriendship pact<\/a>\u201d signed between the two countries in 2008.<\/p>\n

    Amnesty International has\u00a0condemned any potential collaboration between the EU and Libya<\/a>, stating that such a cooperation would risk fuelling or perpetuating human rights violations in the country. Amnesty has documented allegations of physical abuse, rape, torture, extortion, exploitation of migrants and refugees at the hands of Libyan officials and has accused the Libyan coastguard of \u201cintercepting and returning thousands of people to detention where they suffer torture and other abuses\u201d. These reports and general reports of difficult conditions have been\u00a0corroborated by other sources<\/a>, including RMMS\u2019\u00a04Mi programme<\/a>, which has documented a range of different abuses against migrants in Libya including physical and sexual abuse, death, and extortion. For example, 4Mi data recorded\u00a0871 migrant deaths in Libya<\/a>\u00a0between 2014 and 2016, which, given the relatively small number of interviews is still an underestimate of the actual number.\u00a0EU law<\/a>\u00a0prevents the return of a third country national to a place they may be at risk of \u201cserious harm\u201d<\/a>1<\/a>\u00a0and in October 2015, UNHCR urged all\u00a0states to suspend forcible returns to Libya<\/a>\u00a0as it was not a safe country, even before the outbreak of civil war.<\/p>\n

    (Outgoing) British Prime Minister David Cameron has backed a push for more international patrol\u00a0ships to start turning back boats<\/a>\u00a0as soon as they set off from Libya, similar to controversial\u00a0Australian\u00a0 deterrent-based model<\/a>. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that\u00a0such pushbacks contravene the principle of\u00a0non-refoulement<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    At any cost?<\/h2>\n

    The EU is rapidly undertaking a series of measures which it suggests are to improve its migration management. But these measures have not just stopped at the bloc\u2019s borders, and have instead, conceivably attempted to create a buffer zone aimed at shifting the responsibility for migration management to third countries. Through a series of bilateral and multilateral deals the EU has entered into multiple outsourcing arrangements taking various forms including, information sharing networks, border surveillance funding, the provision of security equipment and construction of detention facilities, and most recently a carrot-and-stick approach threatening consequences for non-compliance. Arguably these interventions are being earnestly sought so that refugees and migrants can be stopped before they reach EU.<\/p>\n

    The money committed by the EU towards the most recent of these agreements has already run into the multi-billions. The overall successes of the plans will be measured some way down the line, but a\u00a0recent review<\/a>\u00a0of European aid dedicated to migration management found that the EU is struggling to draw a clear link between the causes and the effects of migration and that the limiting effects on migratory movement to Europe have been hard to measure. Instead, the EU\u2019s fixation on prevention or detection of irregular immigration hindered the attainment of longer term of objectives including, developing the link between migration and development, organising effective management of migration, or the development needs of the countries of origin and migrants\u2019 rights. Similarly, a recent report by the UK\u2019s\u00a0House of Lords EU Committee<\/a>, found that the EU\u2019s\u00a0Operation Sophia<\/em>\u00a0naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea failed \u201cin any meaningful way\u201d to disrupt smuggler operations and instead allowed migrant smuggling networks to restructure and utilise \u201cincreasingly convoluted and risky sea-paths\u201d.\u00a02,516 people died in the Mediterranean<\/a>\u00a0between January and May 2016, a 38% increase on incidents reported during the same period in 2015.<\/p>\n

    As the EU frantically searches for solutions to the influx of refugees and migrants on its shores, many critics and human rights experts question whether this is being sought at the expense of human rights.<\/p>\n

    \n

    <\/a>1]\u00a0<\/a>See further for a specific analysis for Turkey:\u00a0http:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/56f3ec5a9.pdf<\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

    <\/a>2]<\/a>\u00a0Article 15 of the European Union Qualification Directive. Serious harm consists of: (a) death penalty or execution; or b) torture of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or (c) serious and individual threat to a civilian\u2019s life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

    Note: This article originally appeared on the RMMS Horn of Africa website<\/a>.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe EU has repeatedly shown it is willing to stop refugees and migrants from coming to the continent at almost any cost now, with human rights taking a back seat.\u201d – Magdalena Mughrabi, interim Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director Amnesty International In a\u00a0recent leak\u00a0of confidential European Commission documents, online publication Spiegel Online uncovered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","region-eastern-and-southern-africa","country-italy","writer-akumu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9384,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/9384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}