Ocean Viking: the drama of immigration in Europe

“Ocean Viking” is the name of the Norwegian humanitarian ship that, with 234 immigrants and after the racist rejection of the new far-right government of Italy, was finally able to dock in the French port of Toulon. The resonance of the case reactivated the controversy over policies (anti)immigration in the European Union.

Pablo Vasco

The Ocean Viking wandered for three weeks through the Mediterranean Sea without being able to disembark the people rescued from six ships, who come from Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and other countries with serious economic-social crises. There were three whole weeks of intentional blindness and deafness on the part of all capitalist governments, whether they are right-wing or social democrats, of this Western Europe that many people still consider “civilized” and “democratic”.

At the head of the expulsion campaign of “Fortress Europe”, the new Italian prime minister, the neo-fascist Giorgia Meloni, He said his ban is“just the beginning of the work, since we must counteract decades of installed immigration propaganda.”. And Emmanuel Macron, the president of this France supposedly “land of asylum and human rights”, authorized the disembarkation but only“exceptional”.

The rescued, among which there are 57 children, They continue to be housed-detained in a closed “international waiting area”, on the island of Giens, guarded by the army. At the close of this note, according to the French government 44 They will be expelled to their countries of origin “for not meeting the conditions”, 60 can request asylum, 26 minors fled and the remaining hundred were released due to the overreach of justice. As it seems, twelve European countries will be distributed to those who were accepted.

As a “sanction” towards Italy, Macron found nothing better than suspending the entry into France of 3.500 refugees who are currently on Italian soil, planned for 2023. Above, The French government is preparing a new anti-immigration law with greater restrictions. That is to say, the costs are always paid by the refugees. Also the captains of the solidarity boats, often put on trial by bourgeois governments.

Some figures and reasons for migration

When talking about mass migrations, It is no longer about this or that individual will: the causes are in the wars, hunger, dictatorships or ecological catastrophes, that push thousands and thousands of people to leave their countries as best they can. That is to say, They are all evils caused by the same capitalist-imperialist system that then attacks its victims - the immigrants -, stigmatizes them, He superexploits them and even leaves them to die in the middle of the sea.

Claiming the strike is a necessity 2014, more of 25.000 immigrants have ended their lives in the Mediterranean, included 1.900 This year, either as a result of a shipwreck in the open sea or due to not being able to dock. It's a really scary average.: there are almost eight deaths per day, daily, one after another.

Coastal countries are the first on alert, since due to the Dublin agreements (1990) Asylum applications must be processed in the first country of arrival in the European Union. Since the Schengen agreements (1990, the EU tightened the requirements for immigration. And in order not to "invade" the old continent, These "international zones" were created as dams before allowing the distribution of asylum seekers among the countries of the Union.. But they have even outsourced the control of European borders to non-European countries (Libya, Turkey, Morocco, Niger and others). It's more: some far-right governments - such as those of Poland, Hungary and Austria- They even want the European Commission to finance the construction of a wall on the external borders of the EU, in the best Trump style.

An outrageous double standard

Or rather two double rods, that it is appropriate to unmask and denounce. On the one hand, because their countries are members of NATO, In the current political situation, Western European governments welcome refugees-immigrants arriving from Ukraine without too many obstacles., which is obviously correct.

But what is politically and humanly questionable is its growing closedness towards those who come from other regions of the globe., in general from the southern hemisphere, that have been their colonies or semi-colonies. with what face, With what right do they reject today those who arrive from countries that those metropolises themselves have enslaved?, exploited and looted for decades and centuries until today, imposing poverty on them, backwardness and dependency?

The second double side is of a more historical nature, of Europe in general and of Italy today in particular. We are facing a hypocritical cynicism, to a selective forgetfulness for convenience, because they “forget” that in the last century, from those same countries, Millions and millions of migrants fled, forced by wars and hunger, to Latin America., the United States, Australia and other more prosperous destinations.

As an Argentine descendant of immigrants, for example, my Swiss grandfather and his sister, during his long days of boat travel to Argentina, They gathered scraps of bread from the tables in case when they arrived they didn't have anything to eat... and they cried desperately when they had to throw it away because it got moldy!! Similar thing happened with my Italian and Basque great-grandparents or grandparents.: They all came with one hand behind and one hand forward in search of a dignified and better future for themselves and their families.. Many families were broken up for years., until the emigrants already settled could “send for” the rest, and others never managed to regroup.

How can we not be outraged?, so, in the face of the double standards of these imperialist governments, so racist and anti-immigrant, when currently they have to play the inverse role of receiving them instead of sending them? If they don't even recognize that their countries are mostly black, indians, Arabs and other immigrants who work in garbage collection, construction, supermarkets and other services, that is, in the hardest and worst paid tasks, because many native Europeans resist doing them!

Tightening immigration laws brings a double benefit to capitalists: Discipline these workers so that they accept lower wages and greater precariousness, while putting downward pressure on the salaries and working conditions of the entire working class. The non-regularization of their situation forces some immigrant workers to renew their provisional stay permits every six months, and the same goes for their employment contracts., with the consequent instability and precariousness under the permanent threat of being fired from employment and even expelled from the country.

Towards a world without borders

The capitalist-imperialist system is inhuman by nature. At the service of the profits of the dominant bourgeoisie, it promotes the free circulation of goods and capital across borders., but at the same time it builds humiliating walls, increasingly restricts and criminalizes the free movement of people. At the same time, The disgusting anti-immigrant and racist propaganda campaigns of the right and the extreme right have the political objective of dividing the working class, that is one and without borders.

As part of the political struggle to defeat this capitalist system based on exploitation and oppression, and replace it with the construction of a socialist society, we fight for:

• No to “Fortress Europe” and other obstacles to free immigration in all countries.
• For the unity of the working class against the bosses and their governments.
• For the immediate entry and regularization of all refugees, immigrant or “without papers”, with equal rights as the native population.