Alarmphone | 01.11.2017
Alarm Phone 8 week report, September 4 – October 29, 2017
+++ EU intensifies border collaborations with Northern African governments +++ Alarm Phone resistance and political campaigns +++ New Harraga Movement from Tunisia +++ Developments in the Central Mediterranean, Aegean Sea, Western Mediterranean, and Black Sea +++ Summaries of Alarm Phone distress cases from all three Mediterranean regions
Over the past 8 weeks we continued to witness the EU’s violent attempts to thwart sea migration in cooperation with third country allies. In (Northern) African and Turkish transit spaces, the situation remains precarious and dangerous for hundreds of thousands of migrants stuck there. In Libya, the situation is constantly deteriorating, not least due to escalating conflicts in particular in Sabratha, a nodal point for migrant journeys.[1] Also in Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, reinforced migrant deterrent or containment practices have been reported, a consequence of EU and member states’ border externalisation strategies.[2] The newest addition to a long list of agreements is a deal signed between Germany and Egypt, where both governments agree to fight smuggling networks and irregular migration in Egypt as well as to continue cooperation in border control.[3] Meanwhile, the European Parliament approved plans to create an automatic entry-exit-system that will require all non-EU citizens to provide biometric photos and fingerprints when they enter the Schengen area.[4] This will further increase the huge amount of data the EU collects on foreign travellers, allow to monitor visa overstayers, and make it more difficult for people without a valid visa to avoid border controls. As legal routes to the EU remain largely absent, this will only increase the likelihood that people will risk embarking on dangerous sea journeys.