NEW REPORT: European Anti-Immigration Policies Revealed to Aid Khartoum’s Militias in Human Trafficking
Eric Reeves | September 9, 2018 | https://wp.me/p45rOG-2i0
European efforts to stanch the flow of African migrants to the European continent have accelerated rapidly in recent years. The policies that underlie this effort are often deeply destructive, with extraordinary collateral damage, especially in attempts by the EU to secure the cooperation of the brutal Khartoum regime, with a long history of complicity in chattel slavery and genocidal destruction of marginalized Sudanese populations.
A 2016 investigative report by Der Spiegel made clear both the desire to work with Khartoum and the extraordinary efforts to keep this effort secret:
from Der Spiegel (May 13, 2016), “Questionable Deal: EU to Work with [Sudan’s] Despot [President Omar al-Bashir] to Keep Refugees Out” | By Jürgen Dahlkamp and Maximilian Popp
In an effort to help keep refugees from Africa at bay, the EU is planning to deliver personal registration equipment to Sudan, whose president is wanted on war crimes charges. Germany is leading the way.
The ambassadors of the 28 European Union member states had agreed to secrecy. “Under no circumstances” should the public learn what was said at the talks that took place on March 23rd, the European Commission warned during the meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee. A staff member of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini even warned that Europe’s reputation could be at stake.
[EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini; she has “warned that Europe’s reputation could be at stake” if news of these plans for assisting Sudan became public—ER]
The final paragraphs are especially chilling:
The plan is also controversial within the EU. The “risks” listed in the action plan includes the fact that equipment financed by the Emergency Trust Fund could be abused by repressive regimes and used in the oppression of the civilian population. A general with Sudan’s Interior Ministry told SPIEGEL and ARD that technology would not just be used to register refugees, but also all Sudanese. The regime’s goal appears to be the absolute surveillance of its people.
Can Sudan Be a Serious Partner?
Experts like [Marina] Peter [an expert on the Horn of Africa region at the German relief organization Bread for the World] also express doubts about whether Sudanese leader al-Bashir is prepared to take serious action against migrant smugglers. Human Rights Watch has claimed in reports that the Sudanese regime itself works together with criminal networks. The report alleges that the police and military have sold refugees to human traffickers. The European Commission, meanwhile, has warned EU ambassadors in a classified memo that Sudan is primarily interested in polishing its image abroad.
Germany and the other EU member states nevertheless seem determined to push ahead with their pact with the despot. Sudanese authorities say there have been numerous visitors from Germany in recent weeks who were there to discuss the construction of closed camps.
[The German concentration camps of World War II were of course “closed camps,” and we may be sure that the closed camps Germany builds in Sudan will again be used to “concentrate” people on an ethnic and possibly religious basis. The plans are tailor-made for the needs of Khartoum’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS)—ER]
Der Spiegel provided a map highly revealing of the risks, and thus desperation, of those seeking to migrate to the European continent:
NEW REPORT REVEALS FURTHER “MULTILATERAL DAMAGE” FROM EU ANTI-IMMIGRATION POLICIES
A report released this month from Clingendael/Netherlands Institute of International Relations tells us much more about the destructiveness of EU anti-immigration policies and a willingness to work with a regime headed by a man indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur: “Multilateral Damage: The Impact of EU migration policies on central Saharan routes,” Jérôme Tubiana, Clotilde Warin, Gaffar Mohammud Saeneen (September 2018) | https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/multilateral-damage.pdf
A key finding is that EU anti-immigration policies indirectly empower Khartoum regime militias, who—while pretending to intercept migrants on behalf of Europe—actually become their main smugglers from Sudan into Libya, where they sell them to human traffickers. The lengthy report is utterly compelling in its research, and brings into question the European efforts to combat human trafficking:
Will the European Union take seriously the consequences of its policies, policies now clearly xenophobic in character? The evidence is not encouraging…