[D66] European governments step up offensive against refugees

[J.N.]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/28/refu-j28.html

European governments step up offensive against refugees
By Marianne Arens
28 January 2016

At a meeting in Amsterdam this week, European interior and justice 
ministers sought to outdo each other with suggestions as to how the 
influx of desperate refugees from the Middle East could be stopped. No 
measure was too brutal for consideration.

Proposals ranged from the hermetic sealing off of borders to the 
stationing of Frontex troops, even against the will of national 
governments, as well as the erection of concentration camps for hundreds 
of thousands of refugees.

Greece came under sustained attack from several ministers who called for 
its expulsion from the Schengen zone, which guarantees free movement 
within the European Union, if Athens did not reduce the number of 
refugees transiting the country into Europe.

A large proportion of the refugees from the Middle East risk the 
dangerous and often deadly journey from Turkey to the Greek islands 
close by before crossing Greece and leaving the EU at the Macedonian 
border. After travelling through Macedonia and Serbia, they enter the EU 
again through Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia, with many seeking access to 
Germany.

Despite freezing winter weather and rough seas, up to 2,000 refugees are 
still crossing the Aegean Sea daily to the Greek islands. According to 
EU figures, by January 23, 44,000 people had already reached Europe from 
Turkey in this way in 2016. The number of refugees counted as dead or 
missing was 149. During the night of January 22 alone, 42 people drowned 
trying to make the journey, including 18 children.

This route is to be shut down. Ministers demanded a significant 
strengthening of Greece’s northern border with Macedonia by Frontex 
forces, and agreed to strengthen the border controls within the Schengen 
zone until the end of 2017.

Greece was given an ultimatum to restrict the number of refugees or face 
expulsion from the Schengen zone. German Interior Minister Thomas de 
Maizière said after the meeting, “We require a permanent, noticeable and 
sustained reduction of the numbers of refugees, and this must be visible 
in the coming weeks.”

It must be made clear, de Maizière continued, that the border protection 
agency Frontex could act in place of a member state to secure the 
border. Germany’s interior minister did not exclude the expulsion of 
Greece from the Schengen zone. “We will put pressure on Greece to do its 
homework,” he threatened.

Theo Francken, Belgium’s state secretary for asylum and immigration, 
raised the possibility of a “closed facility” in Greece for 300,000 
refugees. It would have to be under EU administration, because Greece’s 
“state structures [were] obviously too weak,” the Belgian politician said.

Francken’s proposal amounts the transformation of Greece into a giant 
concentration camp, with the creation of a ghetto for refugees on the 
scale of a medium-sized city. Nothing comparable has been seen in Europe 
since the end of the Nazi era.

Sealing the Macedonia-Greece border with assistance from Frontex forces 
was supported by Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, who for months 
has been demanding the establishment of a massive border fence on 
Greece’s northern border. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico also gave 
his backing. According to a report by Der Spiegel magazine, Hungary, the 
Czech Republic and Slovakia have already deployed their own police 
forces to this border and Hungary has supplied extensive materials for 
the construction of a permanent fence.

On Tuesday, the Danish parliament passed legislation to confiscate 
asylum seekers’ valuables. Police will now be able to seize assets from 
refugees worth more than 10,000 kroner (€1,340) to cover housing and 
food costs. The original proposal was to confiscate everything above the 
value of 3,000 kronor. In addition, the period migrants will have to 
wait before applying for relatives to join them will be extended from 
one year to three, temporary residence permits will be shortened and the 
conditions for obtaining a permanent permit toughened.

With comparisons being made to measures taken against Jews during World 
War II, the Danish government responded by explaining that this was how 
unemployed Danish citizens were already treated! Denmark is, however, 
far from alone in taking such fascistic measures.

Switzerland seized assets from 100 people in 2015 under rules similar to 
Denmark’s, but set even lower at €900. Southern states in Germany are 
already implementing similar measures, with Bavaria confiscating all 
property in excess of €750 and Baden-Württemberg in excess of just €350.

The Syriza government in Greece has already done the bidding of the EU 
in imposing savage austerity measures against working people. It is now 
being told to act with similar brutality against refugees.

Greek Immigration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas responded by declaring that 
some EU members were of the opinion that the refugees should drown, 
while Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias made clear he understood what was 
expected when he complained to Germany’s TAZ newspaper, “If we want to 
stop the refugees, we would have to wage war against them. We would have 
to bombard them, sink their boats and let the people drown.”

The crossing of the Greece-Macedonia border is already a traumatic 
experience for refugees. Immigrants are regularly bullied and beaten by 
the police. A recent report from the German refugee support organisation 
ProAsyl showed that the sealing of borders in the Balkans had 
destructive and even deadly consequences for refugees. The Amsterdam 
meeting made clear that this outcome is desired and in line with the 
methods being considered.

According to the report, tens of thousands of refugees are already being 
sent back to Greece from Macedonia, where they are left with nothing and 
forced to live on the streets.

In Athens itself it is almost impossible to register as an asylum 
seeker. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was aware of 
only 1,150 accommodation places in Athens for an average of 10,000 
asylum applications per year. Those who do not register an asylum claim 
risk being arrested and detained in a Greek deportation camp.

Athens has blamed the government in Ankara for the number of people 
crossing the Aegean Sea, while the Turkish government has declared that 
it does not have the capabilities to secure the entire coast. The EU has 
been trying for some time to encourage Turkish cooperation in the 
refugee question and has promised €3 billion in aid, which has yet to be 
paid.

There are currently 2.5 million people in Turkey who have fled the wars 
in the Middle East and North Africa. Only around 250,000 of these are in 
already existing camps. Turkey does not fully recognise the Geneva 
Refugee Convention and refugees cannot work there or send their children 
to school.

Millions of people in Europe today are superfluous and unwelcome. 
Politicians and journalists are discussing openly how best refugees can 
be deterred, detained, channelled and pushed from one place to another, 
as if they were discussing animals or freight. They are, in fact, 
conspiring against people who see flight as the only way out of the 
misery created by imperialist wars carried out by the US and its 
European allies that have devastated the Middle East, Central Asia and 
North Africa.