Cold weather. Rain. And now, an unprecedented wave of rejections. The Greek goverment has made a request to Frontex and the EU to deport 1415 people to Turkey. (1) This while Turkey has not been accepting deportations for almost a year, citing the pandemic. And whilst the country they are being brought to against their will, Syria, is far from any norm of safety we would adhere to in Europe. An act of xenophobic propagandha, to further stigmatize people that are already treated like they are barely human. This is nothing if not a declaration of intent. “Emptying the Islands” in it’s most obviously hateful and destructive way.

With the new Frontex standing corps firmly in place to guard the riches of Europe against the “invasion of the barbarians” it is not hard to see what the direction is where this going. Both of these things are sympthoms of both Fortress Europe’s increasing empire fetish and subsequent militarisation of the borders, and Greece increasing extreme-right populism with it’s own range of cultural obsessions.

As we cannot possibly explain it better then the man himself, this is how it was quoted by Frontex boss Lagerri, according to this source (2):

“In addition, the author states that the executive director “repeatedly made it clear to staff” that “Frontex is not an expensive lifeguard service,” and staff in operations had been made to understand that “reporting pushbacks involving Frontex personnel is not a route to popularity or promotion” within the agency.”

They are building a new closed camp not only on Lesvos, but also on Chios (3), and probably planning to do so on the other Islands and evantually also on the mainland. As extreme-right rhetoric, thought and idea’s becomes the “new-normal”, people will be faced with even rougher and deadlier obstacles. Again, Nation-States are using people as pawns to gain more power and votes to support rotten conservative goverments structures. And again preventable loss and suffering will be unleashed on the people that risked everything for safety and security.

This rise in dehumanizing and contemptuous policy’s and actions around the world does not only affect the struggle of people on the move, but will in the end spread it’s effect to all who struggle for a brighter, dignified and free future for all.

A future without borders, bosses or cops.

Get Angry. Organise.

(1) https://www.infomigrants.net/…/greece-pushing-to-return…
(2) https://www.ekathimerini.com/…/olaf-raided-eu-border…
(3) https://www.ekathimerini.com/…/migration-ministry-to…