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The Malta Summit and EU hypocrisy
The Malta Summit - the EU’s latest attempt to close the Mediterranean route to Europe - has invited widespread criticism as the deal would send migrants and asylum-seekers crossing to Italy back to Libya without a proper plan for protection and one that will invite even greater human rights abuses than the EU-Turkey deal. Reports from Libya reveal widespread abuses, as migrants are placed in overcrowded detention centers and risk being killed, shot, tortured and exploited. Meanwhile, thousands of asylum seekers in Italy are to lose their right to appeal against expulsion, as Italian government seeks to speed up repatriations. Reminiscent of the EU-Turkey Deal, the Malta Accord, which was signed on February 3, provides €220 million to the Libyan coast guard in return for their responsibility to catch and send migrant boats back to Libya, where the migrants will be sent to camps.
While the European public and officials have widely condemned Trump for his ban on refugees’ entry to the U.S., the EU tries to present itself as the bastion of liberal democracy while it continues its own policies to keep refugees and migrants out. Presenting itself as the bastion of liberal democracy. On Middle East Eye, Federica Marsi calls the EU out as she writes “What Trump calls a wall, the EU called Operation Triton. What he calls a ban, the EU called an EU-Turkey deal.”
As the Mediterranean Sea is becoming more deadly every year, no European authority has yet taken responsibility for an official record of the dead.
Checks and Balances: Protecting Migrants' Rights
While the EU continues its efforts to close off the Mediterranean route, other countries across the world have slowed down their migration policies - reassuring that international law, combined with tireless advocacy and activism, will protect migrants’ rights.
In Kenya, the High Court blocked the government’s decision to close the Dabaab refugee camp, which is the largest camp in the world. More than 250,000 refugees were at risk to be deported back to Somalia who have reported coercion by the government to return to Somalia against their will.
More than 1 million Afghan refugees are able to stay in Pakistan, after the Pakistani government extended their legal right to stay from March 31 to December 31. Last year more than 600,000 refugees returned to Afghanistan, while the Pakistani police was accused of a campaign of abuse and harassment, confiscating registration cards and raiding homes.
In a move against rising right-wing populism and anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, a referendum in Switzerland over new citizenship regulations passed as 60 percent voted in favor of granting citizenship to third-generation immigrants.
Finally, Trump’s appeal to reinstate his travel ban was unanimously rejected by a federal appeals panel. The ruling did not affect, however, the limitation on refugee admittances, which remains capped at 50,000 for this fiscal year.
Deportations of undocumented migrants have started in the U.S.
Unfortunately, at the same time, the administration was laying the groundwork to expand the deportation system resulting in more detentions and a boost for private prison companies, especially in the southwest of the country. Deportations of undocumented migrants have already started, some of whom have been in the country for more than 20 years. The number of arrests is unknown, but raids have been reported in 7 states, California, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, New York and Kansas.
Since Trump’s election there have been increasing border crossings into Canada, while a Canadian-US agreement doesn’t allow refugees to claim asylum at the border - but only once they’ve crossed the border. Within one weekend, 22 asylum seekers crossed by foot, walking hours on end in the cold, while last month two men were hospitalized because of frostbite.
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