Infonight: Stop the War on Migrants
Waar: De Vrijplaats, Middelstegracht 36, Leiden, Netherlands
Wanneer: 04/02/2018 - 14:00
The EU is waging a war against migration and the arms' industry is profiting.
Migration is perceived as a security threat in which EU responds by militarising border security, both at its borders but also intervening in third countries.
This includes sending armed forces to the borders, erecting security fences (with all kinds of surveillance and detection technology), increasing use of autonomous systems (drones etc), use of military means by border police, (para)military Frontex operations in the Mediterranean, Operation Sophia before the coast of Libya, with support of NATO, and training and providing equipment to (para)military border guards in third countries.
The European military and security industry has been very influential in setting the discourse of a migration-security nexus and shaping the policies in order to benefit from this.
Large arms and technology companies, in particular Airbus, Thales, Leonardo and Indra, as well as lobby organisations, such as the European Organisation for Security (EOS), are key players in this deadly 'game'. For example they participate in consultation bodies which in turn affect the EU funding for security and military.
After influencing the market demand towards advanced borders security, these companies offer their products as a solution to stop migration flows, while previously have equipped the wars that created them in the first place.
Meanwhile, EU not only turns a blind eye to this process but also cooperates with, and thus legitimises and strengthens, human-rights abusive regimes in third countries by combating migration.
In the last decade alone 80 billion euros of arms have been exported from EU countries to the Middle East and North Africa.
The Turkey deal led to the closure of the so-called Balkan route which forces refugees to go to Italy through Libya causing more deaths in the Mediterranean.
At the same time EU feeds the rise of nationalism, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia by depicting refugees as security threat.
During this info-talk we will delve into the parties who benefit from the further militarisation of the EU borders, highlighting the necessity of a collective response. Together we aim to shape this response by shedding light to this inhumanity and forcing those responsible to pay for it.
Organised together with the Darfur Union, who will also present during the event.
info - events
19 jan --- Amsterdam --- Verrekijker, De Boelelaan 1085 --- 19:00
1 feb --- Den Haag --- bookshop Opstand, in De Samenscholing, Beatrijsstraat 12 --- 18:00 food, 19:30 presentation
2 feb --- Amsterdam --- Nieuwland --- 19:00 food, 20:00ish presentation starts
4 feb --- Leiden --- De Vrijplaats, Middelstegracht 36 --- 14:00-17:00
4 feb --- Utrecht Antifa cafe --- ACU --- tbc
09-11 feb --- Amsterdam --- 2DH.5 --- OT 301 --- tbc