Statement on the EU Migration Summit

No a la fosa comun en la frontera sur de la Union Europea

 

In view of the agreements reached on migration and asylum at the last summit of European leaders held on the 28th and 29th of June, we, the undersigned organisations, express our firm rejection of the content and substance of the resolutions adopted at a meeting, which was expected to provide a necessary and hopeful response to the vital situation that thousands of human beings, forced to leave their places of origin, are suffering.

At that summit, agreements were reached, which in reality are not agreements to anything, giving free rein to each country to do what it wants; agreements that reinterpret the right to asylum, modifying rules to cover up the continuous violations of international and European law in matters of asylum and reception; agreements taken from the point of view of dealing with “human flesh”, thereby giving way to the more regressive and xenophobic approaches that are beginning to emerge in several countries of the Union; agreements that ignore the clamour of the majority of the population in solidarity with migrants and the willingness of hundreds of towns and cities willing to welcome them there.

But perhaps the most shameful thing is that, while many human beings are dying in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean, European leaders centred their discussions on whether to create ‘disembarkation platforms’ within Europe or whether to do so in third countries. There was no self-criticism, no reflection on the responsibility that Europe has had in the generation of conflict; no recognition of the plundering that Europe has carried out and continues to carry out in those countries from where migrants come; no review of its lucrative policy of invasions (as NATO members) and arms sales, which ends up supplying the countries in conflicts from where people flee today.

They basically talked about where to place “disembarkation platforms”, in other words, prisons for foreigners or, more accurately, concentration camps, with the ultimate aim of returning migrants to their precarious countries of origin. It is one more atrocious and dehumanizing step in the direction of the already questioned “Immigration Detention Centres”. Europe cannot torpedo its humanist foundations in order to give in to the racist and fascist ultra-right with a policy that once again criminalizes foreigners, migrants, those who are different and those in solidarity with them, either inside or outside the region.

Human life is sacred and, in the conviction that there will be no progress if it is not for all and by all, we, the undersigned organisations, urge European governments to give a coherent and urgent response by taking measures such as:

In the meantime, we call on people to maintain this spirit of solidarity which is rooted in our best European humanist traditions. We must continue to give a lesson in dignity to our shameful political leaders by working with the tens of thousands of citizens who are offering their homes and with the neighbourhood networks that are being set up to give urgent attention to those who arrive in their cities, as well as by supporting the new generation of leaders who, in their towns and cities, are taking on the responsibilities that national governments and European institutions are incapable of doing.

Convergence of Cultures

Madrid, 3rd July, 2018

Signed by:

Convergencia de las Culturas
Redes Cristianas
Iglesia Evangélica Española
Energia per i Diritti Umani Onlus – Roma
Diritti al Cuore Onlus – Roma
Salute Migrante – Roma
Pressenza International Press Agency
La Asociación Mujeres Humanistas por la Noviolencia
FICNOVA, Festival Internacional de cine de la noviolencia activa
Humanistas por la Renta Básica Universal
Coalición de Tendencias Clasista (CTC-VZLA)
Comunidades de "El Mensaje de Silo" de Villaverde, Vallecas, Alcalá de Henares, Leganés, Madrid ("Comunidad la Realidad Interna", "Comunidad La mirada interna"); Comunidades de "El Mensaje de Silo" de Llinars del Vallés (Barcelona), Comunidad de "El Mensaje de silo" de Gracia (Barcelona)
World without Wars and Violence, Greece
Asociacion Cultural y Social "Puentes No Muros"
Convergencia de las Culturas, Chile
Partido Humanista, España
Partido Humanista, Bélgica
Partito Umanista, Itallia
Humanist Party, Iceland

Partido Humanista Internacional
Eleonora Forenza, eurodiputada de Rifondazione Comunista-Potere al Popolo
Abarekà Nandree Onlus
Comitato Nuovi Desaparecidos, Italia
Coordinadora Estatal de Mareas Blancas