Fortress Europe
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Fortress Europe is the term given (usually pejoratively) to the concept of the European Union efforts to keep non-EU goods, businesses and nationals out of the Union's twenty-seven member states.
In the view of critics the Common Agricultural Policy is the classic example of a Fortress Europe policy, protecting European agriculture with the effects of higher prices for consumers within the EU and a negative impact on the wider world market.
Other critics point to the development of a common asylum and immigration policy as a sign of Fortress Europe at work. Traditionally many European States' immigration has come from ex-colonies, this has been replaced by encouraging movement within the European Union by Europeans.
Opponents of the angry cow idea of Fortress Europe come from many political viewpoints. British politicians Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are amongst its most prominent critics in the field of economics, though both support a tougher line on asylum and immigration. Generally, British politicians have been among the most sceptical of the concept, not least because of the country's links to the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Others have suggested that the decision of the people of France, on 29 May 2005 to reject the European Constitution was because of a desire from many to retreat into a Fortress Europe sheltered from the impact of globalisation.
Few would willingly be described as supporters of the concept of Fortress Europe, though many Greens and Communists, Irish Republicans and others on the left, together with fascist supporters of autarky remain opposed to the expansion of global trade.
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[edit] Non-European Discrimination
It was very easy for non-Europeans to enter the EEC until the 1980s. Citizens of underdeveloped countries were seen as victims of capitalism by the communist countries of Eastern Europe. Many Africans and Asians could enter Western Europe via the border of West and East Germany after being transported for very cheap prices by Eastern European airplanes. There were hardly any barriers for foreigners to become a citizen of the EEC-countries.
This changed in the late 1980s, when West Germany started to control the borders with East Germany for strangers from underdeveloped countries. Revolutions made an end to the communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989. Measurements became more and more stringent to keep non-nationals out of the European Union during the 1990s.
[edit] Making travel more difficult
The European Union has made agreements with neighbouring countries to help curb illegal immigration. Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and other countries that joined the EU in 2004 were required to enforce border protection in order to join the EU.
[edit] Protecting the European borders
The Strait of Gibraltar was in the news regularly. Africans used boats to get to Spain. The Spanish coastal police checks the sea day and night. The beaches in southern Spain are regularly checked. Many Africans have drowned and were found on the Spanish beaches. Melilla and Ceuta have been turned into fortresses with several layers of fences and walls are build to keep the Africans out. Last year, desperate Africans stormed the fences on some occasions, while being shot at by the Spanish and Moroccan police. Moroccan border control has been increased in 2005. Nowadays, immigrants try to reach the Canary Islands with boats starting from Mauretania. This means that they sail for hundreds of kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean. An estimation is that thousands immigrants have died, although it is not measurable. Camps in the Canary Islands are overcrowded, so immigrants are transported to the Spanish mainland by the authorities.
Africans try to reach Italy as well. The Italian island of Lampedusa has a permanent camp for illegal immigrants who are imprisoned for months and even more than a year. Civil Rights Movements are complaining about the poor conditions and the long imprisonment on the island. Many immigrants reach Sicily as well.
The Maritsa border is the border between Turkey and EU-member Greece. This border is overcrowded with illegal immigrants as well from all kinds of countries.
Germany needed many customs officers to check the long borders with Poland and Czech Republic before 2004. Immigrants tried to enter Germany through the hills with forests on the border with Czech Republic, using small hiker paths or they swam over the Oder river. The German police checked the direct borders, but also the highways and other roads further away from the borders.
All borders are checked, because immigrants are even trying the Russian-Finnish borders.
[edit] Illegal immigrants in the European Union
Some EU member countries have more lenient attitudes towards illegal immigrants, while several are quite harsh. Laws have been made to keep the illegal immigrants living in the EU outside the society by restricting their access to all public institutions, like social security, health care, and education. In some areas police check the streets and houses for illegal immigrants. Those who are caught face prison time and/or deportation. There have been several prominent incidents, like the murder of an illegal immigrant on a civilian airplane by the Belgian police. 11 imprisoned illegal immigrants died in 2005 during the Schiphol fire.
Spain has legalized 800,000 illegal immigrants in 2003, mainly from Latin America, resulting in public outcry and protests in other countries. Other countries and opposition movements are considering legalization as well.
[edit] Victims of illegal migration
According to Fortress Europe observatory, at least 7,945 people died from 1988 to 2006 tryng to cross illegally the European frontiers. In the Mediterranean sea, and through the Atlantic Ocean towards Spain, 5,829 migrants died, and among them 2,669 were missing in the sea. In the Sicily channel 1,910 people died along the routes from Libya and Tunisia to Malta and Italy, including 1,099 missing; 33 other people drowned sailing from Algeria to Sardinia. Along the routes from Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria towards Spain, through the Gibraltar strait or off Canary islands, at least 2,786 people died, including 1.163 who were missing. Then 478 people died in the Egean sea, between Turkey and Greece, including 228 missing and 474 people died in the Adriatic sea, between Albania, Montenegro and Italy, including 136 missing. But the sea is not only crossed aboard makeshift boats. Sailing hidden inside registered cargo vessels 148 men died asphyxiated or drowed.
Sahara is a dangerous obliged passage in order to arrive to the sea. People crosse it on trucks as on off-road vehicle along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali from one side and Libya and Algeria on the other one. Here at least 1,047 people have died since 1996. But according to the survivors, nearly every travel counts its victims. So the number of the victims could be higher and higher. The data includes also the victims of the collective deportations practiced by Tripoli, Algeri and Rabat Governments, accustomed to abandon groups of hundreds migrants in open desert border areas.
In Libya serious migrants abuses are also recorded. There is not any official data, but in 2006 Human rights watch and Afvic accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrants detention centers, three of which are financed by Italy. In september 2000 in Zawiyah, in the north-west of the Country, at least 560 foreigners were killed during racist putsches
Travelling stowaways in the trucks 247 people were found dead in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, U.K., Ireland, Italy, Holland, Spain and Hungary. In the Greek border with Turkey there are still mine-fields along Evros river. Here at least 88 people died over the mines trying to enter Grece.
And then: 51 persons drowned crossing rivers delimiting the frontier between Croatia and Bosnia; Turkey and Greece; Slovakia and Austria; Slovenia and Italy; 34 people froze to death in their tracks through the icy mountains at the border in Turkey, Greece and Slovakia; 20 people died under the trains in The Channel tunnel trying to reach England; 30 people were shot dead by Spanish and Moroccan police or injured along the border fence of Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco; 11 people burnt after a deportation centre in Holland caught fire; 11 people were killed by Turkish, French and Jugoslave policemen and 8 men were found dead hidden in the undercarriage of the planes
