BERLIN/VIENNA/TRIPOLI (Own report) – To ward off refugees, the EU should completely seal off the Mediterranean and immediately force refugees, intercepted at sea, to return to their home countries, demands Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, stating an even tougher position than the EU’s current deportation agreement with Turkey, imposed by Berlin. Kurz also undermines the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and – taking Australia as a model – proposes to resettle those refugees, not immediately deportable, to islands. Refugees reaching the EU without a visa should be placed in detention camps on Lesbos or Lampedusa. Whoever attempts to enter illegally, loses their “right to asylum in Europe,” Kurz declared. Protest came from Libya. Fayez al Serraj, the “Prime Minister” installed from abroad, declared that his country would not take back refugees the EU has deported. In the meantime, the number of refugees, who have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean, is at a new high. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – which is itself participating in the global fight against refugees – between January and Mai 2016, at least 2,443 people have lost their lives on their way from North Africa to Europe – more than ever before.
BERLIN (Own report) – While the EU is sealing itself off by fortifying borders, including in North Africa, it is establishing a system of “concentric circles” of refugee camps, write Berlin’s government advisors in a recent analysis on the German-European policy of warding off refugees. In the future, “EU refugee policy” will most likely be characterized by the “synergy of border fortifications, camps and quotas,” according to the analysis published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Since some time, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (Frontex) has been considerably enhanced. The EU Commission has called for increased deployment of drones and satellite surveillance systems to seal the borders. Admission quotas would de facto eliminate the right of asylum for individuals. Above all, the EU is establishing a system of camps in “concentric circles” extending from the EU’s center of prosperity all the way to North Africa and Syria. These camps can “easily” be transformed into “detention centers,” warns the SWP, making reference to the detention “hot spots” in Greece. These “hotspots” had recently placed the EU in direct conflict with aid organizations, the United Nations and the Pope. Detention centers for refugees, built with EU financing, also exist in Libya and Turkey.
Global Geopolitics 