After the Second World War, the
Americans and the British set the borders of the African countries, leading to
a complex and incompatible mixture of religions and cultures. According to some
Geopolitics analysts like Eduardo Luque, this is the key event that
brought African and Middle Eastern
countries to the severe armed conflicts that have been taking place, at least,
for the last 15 years. Thus, the different groups fought to preserve and impose
their own religions and governments. In the name of religion and power,
millions and millions of innocent children, man and woman have perished. Those
who subsist but still live in fear, unprotected, without the minimum facilities
to endure, start a dangerous journey to escape and find “a better life on the
other side of the frontiers”. But for African and Middle Eastern inhabitants,
crossing the border to the European Continent seems to be a matter of exceeding
the limits of humanity.
In
this article, I will try to analyse what the responsibility of the EU in this
migration movement is considering the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the EU participation in the warfare that dragged the Middle East and Africa to its actual condition.
The conflicts In Africa and the Middle East
The struggles
in these countries are several and complex to understand. The most salient one
is what international analysts catalogue as “The Arab Spring”. It is the name
of a series of political uprisings against the governments (in general
totalitarian regimes) that occur along these continents. It started in Tunisia
in 2010, when Mohamed
Bouazizi, a civilian, self-immolated as a way of protest against several
years of exploitation, human abuse and horrors produced by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s government.
Consequently, Tunisian people started a political uprising to overthrow the
president. The civil war ended relatively fast, with the president’s resignation
fourteen days after. This event served as the starting point for several other
countries to start rebelling against their rulers. In Lybia, the revolt ended
in a more brutal way: with president Muammar
Gaddafi being killed in his native city.
The Syrian case may be even worse. When Bashar al-Asad accessed the
presidency in 2000, he isolated the economy and repressed freedom of speech. It
became very clear that democracy was not his ruling plan. It took 12 years for
Syrian citizens to act and demand reforms. To this action the government
answered opening fire and killing hundreds of civilians. Hence, several radical
groups, armed but small and religiously and politically opposed, started a war
with the government army. Although the
latter is now supported by Iran troops, the radicals resist, therefore, the
civil war is extending in time. In any case, it shall not be forgotten that it
is the civilians that are still suffering the consequences, being submitted to
physical abuse and murdered in the name of the revolution. Facing this
condition, millions of inhabitants encounter themselves forced to be displaced.
I
wish to leave Lebanon because one of [my] brothers is dead and I don’t know
about the other two. I can’t go back to Syria… I will probably get arrested in
Lebanon. We ran away from death in Syria to slowly die in Lebanon,” Sameer,
aged 41, a Syrian refugee who lives in an informal tented settlement in Bekaa,
Lebanon.[1]
Everyone wants a piece.
It is of common knowledge after reading about
history, that every war has its vultures.
In other words, as a result of broken governments and devastated cultures, the
possibilities to appropriate land and resources for rulers who are at the
expectancy of fulfilling their “countries’ needs” is relatively high. Some
specialists in the matter like Alejandro Pozo, also make a point on the fact
that these powerful countries not only profit from the vulnerability the
warfare produces but also, enhance the struggle. This fact does not escape the
Middle Eastern and African case, since it is very rich in oil, minerals and
other natural resources. This was noticeable in the civil wars that occurred in
the recent years: in some cases, countries like Iran, South Africa, North
America among others, provided the governments and the revolutionary groups with weapons, most probably with a
two-way strategy in mind: disguise as allies and ensure the instability or
fracture of the Nations. Related to this subject, Pozo states in his article “Africa
at the crossroads : conflict and development” that : “The trap lies in the subjective and disguised
profile that involves defining which country violates the human rights of its
population, or even what country is at war.”
Irregular immigration: pushed to flee their country
The
growing instability the warfare has raised is reflected in the absolute lack of
protection and basic care for civilians who are desperate to save their lives.
Without food or water, without any money or place to go, and with an
overwhelming fear, irregular migration to the European continent seems to be
the only opportunity for these people. But to reach their destination, migrants
should engage in any of the three life-risking voyages: crossing the Mediterranean Sea on smugglers’
boats, climbing three parallel 6-metres-height-wired
fences guarded by unfriendly military or passing across the border
hidden in suffocating compartments within vehicles. Although they may end their
lives drowning in the waters of the Mediterranean, beaten and massacred by the
guards of the walls or asphyxiate in unusual places inside cars, taking the
risk seems better than to stay and try to cope with the endless miseries to
which they are subjected in their country of origin.
Last year, over 3,000 died trying to reach Europe, and the over 170,000 who managed to make it
to Italy looked forward to what is often an extended period of misery as they
encountered confused and sometimes contradictory European policy towards them.[2]
The EU in trouble: Their
solution to the “Immigration crisis”.
 |
EU leaders observed a minute of silence for the victims of immigration . / ATLAS / AP
|
The
EU needs to develop a significant law that effectively addresses the link
between European trade and violent abuses of human rights in other countries.
These
are the German Canceller Angela Merkel’s words, in the recent meeting with
other representatives of the EU, in which it was determined that the only way
to stem the flow of foreigners is to “plug” the escape routes. It seems to hide
a subtle irony: What does it mean to “plug the escape routes”? It means that
the leaders agreed to give more money to a number of African states to
“monitor” the routes leading mainly to Libya, the starting point of most ships.
Reading between the lines, it can be interpreted that at least, two articles
from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are being implicitly violated:
·
Art. 5: No one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The images of the brutality that people
endure when crossing the fences in Melilla are more than enough to understand
that if the budget, and therefore the military force, is reinforced, most
probably this effect will grow.
·
Art. 14 (1) “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in
other countries asylum from persecution.”
If the asylum is not legal because the citizens
pleads are not replied, what are the possibilities for these people to survive?
Another particular "solution" was the tripling
of the budget for the "Triton" operation, which is expected to
sharpen surveillance in the Mediterranean with a wider deployment of ships.
British Prime Minister David Cameron undertook an unusual amount of assets (two
patrol boats, a helicopter and 30 experts), but with an essential requirement: the
people the British rescue will be transferred, under the right conditions, to
the nearest safe country (probably Italy) but they will have no immediate right
to seek asylum in the UK. This statement reflects a clear intention of closing
the UK borders to any other kind of help other than monetary. It could be said,
this is an action against articles 1 and 7 of the UDHR:
·
Art. 1: All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
·
Art.7 All are equal before the law
and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All
are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of
this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Where is the brotherhood and the sense of equality
when the Prime minister forbids shelter in his territory to other humans in
need?
On
the other hand, perhaps fearing the evidence the survivors of recent shipwrecks
in the Mediterranean might expose, the leaders of the EU pledged to undertake a
pilot programme to house refugees who are now in UNHCR campus, the UN agency
for refugees, and they can live in Europe at least until the situation in their
countries, mainly in Syria, improves.
The strategies the EU apply on African and Middle Eastern countries may be considered as macabre and hypocritical. They take the treasures and richness from the soil, they promote and support civil wars and then they reject, by the most atrocious ways, the people that consider crossing the border to Europe is their only opportunity to survive. A border that is set in an arbitrary way to divide human beings who, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are all equal and have the same rights to safety, freedom and life. If there is something to highlight from this situation, is that apparently there are no limits to the rulers. From their point of view, as long as their control can be extended, hidden behind weak and misleading treaties, people are deprived of their human condition and become just a number. How can the borders of their interests destroy the frontiers of humanity? How can they forget that humanity is the real value of the land? How can they ignore that all humans, regardless of difference of ethnicity, religion, economic status or sex, are all inhabitants of the same world? Perhaps the answer to these questions lies in the moral of that novel of George Orwell: “Power corrupts”.
The strategies the EU apply on African and Middle Eastern countries may be considered as macabre and hypocritical. They take the treasures and richness from the soil, they promote and support civil wars and then they reject, by the most atrocious ways, the people that consider crossing the border to Europe is their only opportunity to survive. A border that is set in an arbitrary way to divide human beings who, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are all equal and have the same rights to safety, freedom and life. If there is something to highlight from this situation, is that apparently there are no limits to the rulers. From their point of view, as long as their control can be extended, hidden behind weak and misleading treaties, people are deprived of their human condition and become just a number. How can the borders of their interests destroy the frontiers of humanity? How can they forget that humanity is the real value of the land? How can they ignore that all humans, regardless of difference of ethnicity, religion, economic status or sex, are all inhabitants of the same world? Perhaps the answer to these questions lies in the moral of that novel of George Orwell: “Power corrupts”.
Works cited
·
“África en la encrucijada: conflictos en el
desarrollo” ceipaz.org. np, 8 May
2010. Web.
·
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” UN Org. United Nations, nd. Web.
·
“The Global Refugee Crisis: A Conspiracy of
Neglect” Amnesty International. Amnesty
International, June 2015. Web.
·
“La
UE busca parar a los foráneos en origen para atajar la crisis migratoria” El País. Internacional.
Prisa, 23
April 2015. Web.
·
“World leaders accused of shameful failure
over refugee crisis” The guardian.
theguardian.com, 15 June 2015. Web.
[1] Interviewed by Amnesty International in
Bekaa, Lebanon, 26 March 2015. His name has been changed in order to protect
his identity.
[2] Kareem
Shaheen. In “World leaders accused of shameful failure over
refugee crisis”.
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