From the fortress to the city

The European Commission recently presented the so-called “Stockholm Program”, a five-year action plan for domestic policies and justice at EU level. A large chapter is devoted to migration policies and asylum. The European Council held in Brussels June 18-19 further confirmed its content.Mediterranean. Over the past months special attention was devoted to migrant landings in the Mediterranean. Notably, the Italian government sparked a debate on the measures regarding its Southern-borders’ control. These include transforming the first-asylum centre of Lampedusa in a centre for the identification and repatriation of migrants and the agreement with Lybia that envisages sending back the migrants’ and refugees’ boats to Libya’s harbours. Worthy of attention are also the precarious situations of Malta and Cyprus, two small islands that are coping with a boost in asylum requests, along with the terrestrial and sea borders separating Turkey and Greece. In its communiqué on the “Stockholm Programme” the Commission highlighted that “the crucial priority in the coming years will be to consolidate an asylum and migration policy that will ensure and implement solidarity between Member States along with the partnership with third countries, and with policies granting clearly-defined common status to illegal migrants. It will be necessary to establish a stronger link between immigration and Europe’s job market and develop specific policies for integration and education. For this reason it is necessary to perfect the adoption of the available tools aimed at combating illegal immigration. The EU will then have to develop a common asylum system, while in solidarity, EU Member States will share the related responsibilities”. The objectives, that are not distant from those reaffirmed last year for “The European Pact on Immigration and Asylum”, place the EU before serious dilemmas whose solutions require thorough political commitment and constant vigilance on the part of those organizations tasked with defending migrants’ human rights. Legal migrants. Illegal immigration is among the primary issues. How can the economic interests of the different European Countries requiring ‘custom-made’ migrants, with academic qualifications, meet the motivations of migrants – mostly youth – forced to flee from wars, corruption, poverty, human rights violations, and by situations sparked off with the co-responsibility of European policies for Africa?Another question is: how can illegal immigration be fought without violating human rights? Indeed, delegating the repatriation of migrants from African or Asian countries to countries like Libya and Turkey means being accomplices of tortures, violence, rapes, arbitrary and inhuman confinement in detention centres placed outside EU borders which are funded and established by the EU herself. There is wide evidence of this. However, the latest European Council approved the activity of the Italian government. Indeed it stated: “The conclusion of the negotiations regarding the readmission of the European Commission with Countries of departure or with transit Countries like Libya and Turkey is a priority. Until then the existing bilateral agreements ought to be appropriately implemented”. Asylum. ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles), representing 69 NGOs that provide assistance to refugees, raised another question. It makes no sense to establish a well-structured European asylum system if under the banner of the fight against clandestine immigration asylum-seekers find it increasingly hard to reach EU Countries. Special legal channels ought to be rapidly opened, so that people stopped in Libya or in other transit Countries, where international protection regulations are not enforceable, may reach European Countries in a legal and protected manner, thus defending their safety and their life. Migration and asylum European policy agenda is full. And further developments are expected in the coming months. However, as things stand, “European Fortress” policies prevail, while proposals aimed at viewing migration phenomena from a broader perspective are gradually taking grounds. The cooperation with the Countries of departure and transit envisaged in these proposals does not focus on the fight against illegal immigration but rather on the quest for development strategies leading to the solution of the ongoing world tragic armed conflicts.