International

Tomorrow in the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee we will be voting on the accession of Switzerland and Lichtenstein to FRONTEX, the European cooperation organisation for control of borders and the return of people who have been refused asylum, and of illegal immigrants. The SP stands for human dignity and FRONTEX is primarily a cold-hearted operation designed to expel people and keep them out. That's not to say that some kind of effective border guard and some means of returning people who have no legitimate right to be here isn't necessary, because the alternative would be the American situation in which illegal residence is often condoned but the people involved are put into the hands of traffickers who exploit them in the extreme. I will follow the United Left vote list and vote against the extension of Frontex to Switzerland and Lichtenstein. I'm not interested in symbolic politics, however, so at the same time I shall urge the reform of FRONTEX, so that we can develop a more humane form of border control than is currently the case, a more constructive approach than standing on the sidelines and simply voting 'against'.

FRONTEX was established in 2004 when the number of people attempting to enter the EU via the Mediterranean grew considerably. The EU Council of Ministers declared then that they wanted to put an end to the growth in the numbers of people who were falling victim in the course of such attempts as a result of the often rickety boats in which they came, often failing to reach the coast of Europe and instead drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.

You can only endorse such an aim. An end must be put to these tragedies occurring so often in the Mediterranean. But this should surely be achieved in a humane fashion, which means that the refugees must be given the chance actively to request asylum and that children and other vulnerable groups given special protection.

In practice little came of any of this. It seems instead that in the years since, all attention has gone on keeping people out and expelling those who get in. Far from all of the refugees who wish to do so have been able to apply for asylum, and there has been hardly any reference to special protection for vulnerable groups.

In the EP there will shortly be a more general debate on FRONTEX. It must surely be possible with the cooperation of other parties to adapt FRONTEX in such a way that the original, humanitarian goals become central. Changing the mandate will not come about by opposing FRONTEX as such, but rather through intensive negotiations over the necessary proposals for change, negotiations which I will be happy to conduct.

I have been invited to participate at 7 p.m on Sunday 6th June in the monthly 'watch' at the detention centre at Zestienhoven (Rotterdam Airport). This will without doubt be an impressive gathering, at which, together with the group ‘Welkom Onthaal’ ('Welcome Home') and the Rotterdam branch of the SP, I will try to show people that there are people in the Netherlands who put human dignity first, even for foreigners!