The Italian government, supported by EU member states, has reached a new step in the war waged against migrants, criminalizing the NGOs whose task is to rescue them in the Mediterranean.

For months now, NGOs saving lives in the Mediterranean have had to suffer libels and slander coming from the Italian Justice Department, FRONTEX and the European Far Right. The NGOs are accused of colluding with smugglers, putting people’s lives at risk and acting as pull factors.
At the end of 2016, FRONTEX Agency and European military complex EUNAVFOR Med made the first move with two internal reports in which they accused the NGOs of collusion with the smugglers. In April 2017, the (…)

Lately, Tunisian authorities have been the target of intolerable pressure by Germany and Italy. Within a week, they have been forced to clarify their opposition to the German as well as to the Italian authorities which were allegedly planning to send migrants and refugees back to Tunisia. Domestic security issues appear as a cornerstone in the cooperation framework imposed to Tunisia albeit being attached to a domain which is clearly distinct from it: the right of asylum.
Pushing for the (…)

Mid-way in the Valletta processes, and as African and European high officials are meeting in Malta on 8/9 February 2017, the European Union is crossing a step further in its attempts to limit mobility of migrants and imposes its rule on countries where most of migrants originate from through the use of the “European travel document”, a document adopted last October 2016 and almost unnoticed. The action plan established in Valletta in November 2015 by the EU, its Member States as well as 35 (…)