Forum Federato

The recent shooting at NGO vessel Ocean Viking by a Libyan patrol vessel marks a new level of violence conducted against civil search and rescue assets. But the violence is not new.

Since 2015, the #EU has poured around €700 million euros into border management, supplying military equipment through Operations Sophia and Irini to stop people from reaching Italy. SUVs, rubber boats, and even patrol ships have been sent with the aim to block migrant boats from crossing to Italy. In 2020, a large supply of hardware, SUVs and patrol boats - one of which was used for the shooting attack of #OceanViking - were sent to #Libya.

But NGOs are not the target, we are only a disturbing byproduct which is directly witnessing and monitoring the brutalisation of #Europe. The violence European states are funding is directed against people on the move, who are seeking a life in peace. With so-called "migration management" the EU covers in a capitalist frame what is, in fact, brutal border violence. You don't stop people from moving with violence, violence is one of the reasons people flee.

We need a migration policy that is focussed an equality, against exploitation, and is not enacting the very forces that destabilise and force people to flee in the first place.

We call on the EU to stop all funding of Libyan forces immediately.

Migration is not a crime, migration is not a trade.

#freedomofmovement

Since 2014, at least 76,593 people worldwide have died while fleeing their home countries, according to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organisation of Migration. Most of these people died while crossing borders: drowned in the Mediterranean, crashed while traveling in hazardous trucks, exhausted, starved, beaten, or falling sick and being denied health care. These are all foreseeable results of border policies that block safe passage, push people back to unsafe countries, and make journeys longer and deadlier.

The #CentralMediterranean is the deadliest route, with more than 25,000 recorded deaths in the past decade. The true number is certainly higher and illustrates how desperate people regularly risk their lives fleeing unsafe conditions in search of a life in dignity.

#Europe invests in building walls and the militarisation of borders by funding countries such as #Turkey, #Libya and #Tunisia. Countries known to abuse human rights. This very same ‘border protection’ system enables the smuggling system by forcing those desperate to flee to take dangerous routes to safety. Meanwhile, boat drivers are used as scapegoats to push fascist, racist and anti-immigration policies at home. In reality, it is borders that kill every day.

Every single one of these deaths was preventable.

Open borders now! We need safe routes for all!

#SAR #humanrights #FreedomOfMevement #NoBorders #BordersKill