HH, AB, EU Proxy War.pdf (411.14 kB)
The EU's proxy war on refugees
For decades, European Union (EU) member states have fought an illegal proxy war – a form of state crime – against refugees and migrants, far beyond EU external borders. Fatalities make this proxy war equivalent to international classifications of war. To justify this war, migrants have progressively been reclassified by the EU as “illegal” or criminal. This article situates the proxy war within wider deterrence-based EU migration policies. Examples like the 2008–2009 Italy–Libya deal and 2016 EU–Turkey deal show the high price paid by refugees, minorities and the damage to the EU’s own stability and reputation. Forcibly confining people at “holding points” along migratory routes, expelling people to unsafe countries and raising barriers to legal movement, the violence of the proxy war became more visible in 2015. We conclude that far from counteracting the dynamics of mass displacement, the proxy war may have contributed to the recent crisis of refugee reception in Europe.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Published in
State Crime JournalVolume
8Issue
1Pages
80 - 103Citation
HINTJENS, H. and BILGIC, A., 2019. The EU's proxy war on refugees. State Crime Journal, 8 (1), pp.80-103.Publisher
Pluto Journals © International State Crime InitiativeVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal State Crime Journal and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.13169/statecrime.8.1.0080. The publisher's website is at: http://www.plutojournals.com.Publication date
2019ISSN
2046-6056eISSN
2046-6064Publisher version
Language
- en