28 March 2012
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EU: European activist
network publishes map of centres to detain foreigners
Migreurop,
which describes itself as a "collective initiative of militants"
including individuals, NGOs and academics from different EU countries
aimed at providing information, reflections, and undertaking
activities about, and in opposition to, camps for foreigners
in European states, migration and asylum policies, and new projects
of "externalisation" - such as the setting up of camps
for migrants and asylum seekers outside the EU. The methodolgy
used in drawing up the map of "Camps for Foreigners in Europe
and Mediterranean Countries" is based on a definition that
allows the inclusion of a wide range of different types of establishments
- "locations where migrants are detained and deprived of
their freedom of movement". These include detention centres
for migrants awaiting expulsion, "reception" centres
for migrants and asylum seekers seeking admission, "open"
centres for the identification of asylum seekers and the processing
of their claims (a misnomer, as the processing of the application
is often subject to them remaining in the centres), prisons and
make-shift facilities used for detaining migrants, as well as
camps located in countries neighbouring with the EU from where
expulsions to their countries of origin are organised, and the
map also identifies major informal gathering points for migrants
seeking a route into the EU.
The introduction to the map highlights some common features of EU migrant detention establishments: 1) their occupants are non-EU nationals "who have committed no offence other than crossing or trying to cross a border without papers"; 2) "illegal migrants" are treated as a group, rather than as "individuals with a personal history"; 3) that "it seems impossible to ensure the respect of fundamental rights in these places", where "inhumane and degrading treatment is often perpetrated". Criticism is levelled at the camps as "the materialisation of a security approach to migration" and at plans to "externalise" or "subcontract" border control activities to third countries, with the EU "forcing the latter to cooperate in the fight against illegal migration".
"Camps for Foreigners in Europe and Mediterranean Countries",
is available in: In
English (pdf) and In
French (pdf)
Filed 20.8.04
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