of the local coast guard ); the “ humanitarian corridor ” that the powerful pretend to have opened in the Balkans might well be closed down again ; Frontex sends its troops to the Greek-Macedonian and Greek-Albanian borders and since October , the EU operation Sofia ( 9 war vessels plus helicopters and jets ) against smugglers in the Mediterranean went into the more offensive phase ( boarding of boats detected by satellites which then get towed to Italy ). The Spanish model in Ceuta and Melilla , where the Guardia Civil is already firing live ammunition , seems to have shiny days ahead , even if this doesn ’ t prevent all border breaches .
For now , it seems that the so-called “ refugee crisis ” - what can come in more handy than this denomination to present the ruthless and structural normality of the system as a simple dysfunction , and above all play the humanitarian card with it ? - is somewhat outrunning the different European states . If they obviously do not want to eradicate the causes of it , which they themselves have created , they still have to manage the consequences . The deal proposed by the leaders is as clear as it is abject : welcoming the “ good refugees ”, the “ real victims ” goes together with the “ removing ”, in other words the forced deportation as fast as possible , of those who do not fit in the asylum criteria . As these criteria are of variable geometry , lawmakers are working hard on harshening them , for example by making the list of socalled “ safe ” countries to which people can be deported longer . As the numbers of rejected refugees will rise to several hundreds of thousands , the European states and Frontex are working on plans for collective deportation . The EU is by the way also threatening to revoke aid programmes , commercial agreements and visas to countries who refuse to take the economical refugees back and do not systematically deliver consular clearances for deportation .
But enormous selection operations will be necessary to determine who is “ eligible ” to the status of refugee ( in general people coming from Syria , Eritrea and Iraq ) and make sure that the others do not clog up any further the administrations . Luckily the “ hotspots ” that will serve for this selection in the arrival countries ( 5 in Italy and 3 in Greece ) are not ready yet , so for the moment many migrants prefer to disappear in nature before submitting to the registration ( which implies identification , finger prints , obligatory demand of asylum in the country itself and direct transfer to a detention centre in case of “ non-eligibility ”).
One of the questions for the French state in this moment is therefore how to “ welcome ” – read : identify , register , select , park – those who arrive on its territory in spite of the police blocs like in Ventimilla . The next step will be to lock up before deportation those who didn ’ t get a staying permit , as is happening already to so many people who do not have the right piece of paper in their pockets . Therefore the state is rationalising to a maximum the existing places in the detention centres , for example by equipping them with “ a set of instruments to allow the identification of the country of origin of the migrant , in particular when his asylum was rejected , as to simplify the expulsion procedures ”... as far as the detainees do not revolt of course .
In these times of relative and undoubtedly temporal disorganization , contributing to hinder the good functioning of these selection operations and the application of its disgusting consequences seems a high stake . The state is playing with the permanent state of war and calls on national unity as to ensure that the crushing machinery continues to function normally , it is therefore crucial to find ways to block this machinery .
Not aiming to improve the functioning of the system , but to totally overthrow the existing social order , it seems essential to us to oppose the aspiration to freedom for all to the obnoxious parameters fixed by power in its management of the “ refugee crisis ”. One therefore has to imagine interventions that allow us to fight directly and concretely against a war waged on all undesirables , bringing together in an unbreakable bound the fight against borders , control and imprisonment .
Borders
From the moment of arrival in France of a new wave of immigration , the state has set the tone : procedures for asylum – and their possible rejection – must be accelerated in order to avoid administrative grey zones that allow foreigners from different backgrounds to remain in the territory , moreover sometimes intermingling . Reducing the time between the different phases of these Kafkaesque journey is on the agenda and officials from OFPRA ( institution responsible for processing files ) are requested to compel the newcomers to go through their locks as quickly as possible . Thus we saw these particularly intrusive bureaucrats leave the tranquillity of their offices and hurry to migrant camps , files across the shoulder , to collect information data and to proceed to the first selection – the following parts of the procedure is carried out in their buildings . Personal of the OFII , another organisation in charge of the “ welcoming ” of asylum seekers who works closely with the Département Lutte contre l ’ immigration irrégulière , are for their part responsible for the difficult task of promoting incentives to return with some candidate detected as “ ineligible ”, as well as the transfer to the place of accommodation in case of compulsory residence . The institutional framework concerning the dirty job of identification and documentation is seconded by associations that are in charge of urgent housing centres , like the association Emmaüs , Aurore or the group SOS . On the one hand , this accommodation is strictly conditioned by the administrative procedures to be conducted and secondly the OFPRA and the Prefecture have access to lists of the “ hosted ” with their nationality and situation – at least here they ’ re located . The housing of asylum seekers is a real business for the associations and / or
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