Externalization of EU borders Podcast w/Martin Lemberg-Pedersen and Ibrahim Diallo

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The Bridge Radio Podcast w/ Martin Lemberg-Pedersen.

 

The Bridge podcast revolves around externalization of EU borders and the implications, effects and consequences for refugees. The elastic concept of externalization refers both to migration control being exported out of the territorial boundaries and borders of Europe to some place else, like Libya or Morocco. It also refers to range of different activities, like hard-core border control or the externalization of responsibilities; asylum policies, funding and the operation of refugee camps and so forth, which is a well-established Western practice. Furthermore, it is also the readmission agreements and FRONTEX operations – so all in all, it is pervasive.

Martin Lemberg explains how these processes of externalization have turned the EU neighbours into EU border guards, who are largely invisible to the citizens of Europe.

An example of the elasticity of the concept and the consequences of externalization can be seen in the EU-Turkish deal on migration control, where the Turkish policies has been reconfigured in order to be aligned with the EU’s policies.

Lemberg adds, that the newly built 911km wall between Turkey and Syria has created this dead zone – a no man’s land – like a Berlin Wall 2.0 where different kinds of EU-financed technology is peering towards Syria in order to detect movement. It has even been reported by the Syrian Human Rights Observatory that 42 refugees have been shot at the border. The zone itself has become militarized, which is an aspect of the EU-Turkey agreement that the EU politicians do not talk about. What then becomes the common ground for the migrants and refugees is the precariousness of their situation, with exploitative circulatory labour regimes, exploitation, systematized prostitution, abhorrent conditions in the refugee and detention camps and situations of modern day slavery.