29 September 2014
The new European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs will need to ensure that migration and border control in Europe isn’t implemented at the expense of the human rights of migrants.
If Europe is to witness a significant reduction of human suffering at borders, it must bank, not on strict closure and repression, but on regulated openness and mobility. It is paradoxical that, in the name of securing borders, European States are actually losing control over their borders, as mafias will always be ahead of the game: repressive policies without regular migration channels for asylum seekers and much needed low-wage migrants, only entrench smuggling operations and underground labour markets where mafias and unscrupulous employers exploit undocumented migrants, and increase the precariousness of the migrants’ situation, resulting in more deaths at sea and more human rights violations.
Despite good initiatives like the increase in search and rescue operations which have saved numerous lives, such as the Mare Nostrum operation for which Italy must be commended, some European member states continue to officially advocate repression of irregular migration, and haven’t yet opened new legal channels for migration, especially for asylum seekers and low-wage migrants, thus limiting the possibilities for asylum seekers to regularly reach safe destinations and for migrants to respond to the needs of the EU labour market. Consequently, the number of migrants risking their lives on unseaworthy vessels over perilous sea routes can only increase.
The UN estimates that more than 130,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea this year, compared with 80,000 last year. They migrate due to the push-factors in their countries of origin, which may include war, conflict, natural disasters, persecution or extreme poverty, as well as in response to pull factors such as the unrecognized needs in the labour markets of EU member States, as migrants are often willing to do the “dirty, difficult and dangerous” jobs that nationals will not, at the exploitative wages that unscrupulous employers will offer, including in the construction, agriculture, hospitality and care-giving sectors.
Migrants don’t believe that they are doing anything wrong: they believe, and rightly so in my mind, that they’re only doing it to find either protection against violence or a job to support their family. Who can say that such survival strategies are wrong? We would probably do the same if we were in their shoes. We don’t have the moral high ground on this issue. Repressive policies fail to deter irregular migration because hope is always stronger, because, despite what happened to others, or even to themselves in a previous attempt, they believe that next time will be the right time, and that they’ll “make it”.
