European asylum-colonialism?
In this article on www.refugees.dk, AMIS affiliate Martin Lemberg-Pedersen gives a historical perspective on the European idea of establishing camps in neighboring countries to affected areas, where refugees could be contained and the European industries could select percieved needed and cheap labor. This externalisation of access to refugees was, however, never inacted. Instead the EU went along with an already existing Italian scheme of having Gaddafi's Libya intercept the refugees before reaching Europe, which still exist today.
Excerpt from the article:
“In the 2000s, beatings and abuse of refugees was commonplace in the Libyan camps but back then, the EU leaders didn’t even raise an eyebrow over it. In 2009, Human Rights Watch described the conditions in the Libyan camp regime as ranging from ‘inadequate to brutal’ … Year after year, organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières and Amnesty International have documented masses of similar cases in Libya. The co-operation with Gaddafi continued undaunted, and was even defended by the EU.”
Read the article European Asylum-colonialism? by Martin Lemberg-Pedersen
Watch this Vice episode about the current treatment of refugees and migrants in Libya: