The unspoken horrors of migration
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As thousands of migrants continue to embark on treacherous journeys to Europe, seeking refuge and opportunities, their paths often lead them not to safety but further, imminent danger.
Pushed by dire circumstances at home to seek better lives elsewhere, these desperate masses are met with equal measures of peril along the way. Despite this, Europe still stands as a symbol of hope for so many, even when the harsh realities of the journeys they face, including systemic abuse and a catalog of human rights violations, paint a grim picture.
In their quest for a better life, thousands continue to set off on journeys that, paradoxically, are likely to bring them closer to death than the hopes and dreams they are chasing. In the past six months alone, migrant arrivals have surged by 174 percent along the West African route, and 61 percent in the central Mediterranean. Unfortunately, recent reports and investigations indicate that EU funding earmarked for efforts to curb irregular migrant flows along these two routes is instead being used to sustain punitive detentions and expulsions in situations where the principles of the rule of law, accountability, and transparency are sidelined.
From Tunisia to Mauritania, migrants are not only detained but forcibly transported to, and abandoned in, harsh, remote desert areas where basic human necessities, including food and water, are either scarce or unavailable.
Yet the EU money continues to flow, from €400 million ($436 million) between 2015 and 2021, to more recent allocations in the billions to North African countries in anticipation of the implementation of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, ostensibly for the management of migration but with little regard for the grave implications for migrants’ welfare.
The collective expulsion operations funded by European money are responsible for the dumping of dozens of migrants at a time in remote desert areas, among other rights violations that have been corroborated by visual evidence and the testimonies of those who survive to tell of the horrors.
In one case, a group of migrants that included two pregnant women was left to traverse a barren wilderness without provisions after coast guards intercepted the boat on which they were traveling.
It is a tale that is all-too familiar among migrants, refugees and other displaced people who face unspeakable horrors long before they even get within sight of the Mediterranean. Human rights organizations continue to record and report their experiences, including instances of detention in unofficial camps where abuse and torture are rampant, followed by abandonment in desert expanses where many perish.
Ironically, the very measures put in place by European and African nations in their attempts to curb illegal migration have inadvertently supercharged the migrant-smuggling industry across North Africa, particularly along the Central Mediterranean route.
While EU policies have reinforced border controls, they have simultaneously escalated the market dynamics of these smuggling operations. Migrants pay anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 for passage as the traffickers increasingly leverage sophisticated methods to bypass security measures. These high costs reflect both the dangers of the route and the profit requirements of the smugglers, who routinely pay off state security officials to ensure safe passage, revealing one unintended consequence of heightened border security.
As the EU continues to invest in deterrence-based strategies, smugglers continue to find opportunities for making money, effectively turning European policies into very lucrative gains for their illicit operations.
European nations should recalibrate their approach and focus on the reasons why people undertake these desperate journeys in the first place.
Hafed Al-Ghwell
This boom in the smuggling business comes amid a projected surge in migrant flows, driven by worsening conditions in regions such as the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa, where conflict, instability, climate change, and economic despair push individuals to embark on risky journeys.
These emergent pressures make it clear that current EU approaches are not only self-defeating but increasingly disconnected from the realities on the ground. By inadvertently driving up the demand for smugglers and their risky networks, European policies are not only failing to deter new migrants but fostering an environment in which illicit pathways become the only viable option open to many, thereby worsening the very crisis the policies aim to manage.
Tragically, funding to support EU border-externalization programs in North Africa continues to increase without a commensurate broadening of oversight and tighter restrictions on where and how that funding is spent. As a result, Brussels now appears complicit, albeit indirectly, in the atrocious human rights violations and rising death tolls that result from this haphazardly managed intervention.
Moreover, the training of personnel and the provision of equipment intended to enhance border management and combat human trafficking are instead implicated in severe abuses. Allegations of such misuse are not unknown to EU officials, given their own internal discussions, and the extensive reporting by the European Border and Coastguard Agency (Frontex) and the UN’s human rights and refugee agencies since at least 2019.
However, Brussels seems undeterred and unlikely to change course, given the large vote share of the far right in Europe, which inhibits any potential revision of its misguided migration policies. Therefore, it will continue to double down on its policies in the coming years, bolstering its borders as part of its narrative of stemming migrant flows, despite the chilling reality of increased human suffering.
It is an ongoing crisis in which fundamental rights and dignities are not only set aside but doing so has become a state-sanctioned act, blessed by Brussels’ knack for looking the other way. Meanwhile, the migrants, whose only crime is daring to seek a better life, remain trapped in a cycle of exploitation and disregard as the world’s tolerance for such horrors continues to grow.
As Europe continues to face persistent challenges along its southern borders, the limits of the present strategy of border reinforcement have been revealed. Despite efforts to outsource EU border controls to North African countries, irregular migration via the treacherous central Mediterranean route has surged since 2020, calling into question the efficacy of this border externalization.
The approach has not only failed to curb migration but continues to increase human suffering, as resource allocation focuses on securitization over addressing the root causes of displacement. Rather than doubling down on impermanent solutions that attempt to seal borders, European nations should recalibrate their approach and focus on the reasons why people undertake these desperate journeys in the first place.
If Europe is to align its migration policies with its professed values and long-term geopolitical aims, it must consider investments in capacity building for democratic institutions, sustainable economic development, and climate adaptation in countries of origin and transit.
Brussels can also reallocate resources to create viable pathways for legal migration, such as visa schemes, that deter the dangerous crossings managed by smugglers and traffickers while simultaneously helping the bloc to address growing shortages in skilled labor.
By partnering with nations in North Africa, the EU can balance its immediate migration-management needs with longer-term investments that dismantle the political economy of migration.
By tackling irregular migration through a comprehensive framework that emphasizes partnerships over unilateral security concerns, Europe can shape a resilient and cooperative regional environment that lessens the imperative for migration, ultimately serving its dual ambition of managing migrant flows while standing firm on the bloc’s commitments to its fundamental values.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.
X: @HafedAlGhwell
