europeslamsitsgates.foreignpolicy.comEurope Slams Its Gates: Imperiling Africa — And Its Own Soul

Europe Slams Its Gates ▲ Return to Series Share: • Europe Slams Its Gates A FOREIGN POLICY SPECIAL INVESTIGATION IntroductionIntroduction An unprecedented wave of African migration is warping Europe’s politics and threatening its stability. Can the Continent respond without destroying its values and wreaking havoc in Africa? FP ’s special investigation examines Europe’s desperate campaign to barricade itself — and the policies’ unintended consequences. Part I: Mali The Paradox of Prosperity Part I: Mali Europe is spending billions of dollars to jump-start Africa’s poorest economies. But that may just accelerate the exodus. Mali’s Migrant Crackdown Europe has been helping fight the country’s jihadis for years. Now it’s turning its sights on human smugglers. The Deported Europe is expelling thousands of Africans. To one Malian deportee, that looks like a recipe for revolution. Part II: Niger Highway Through Hell Part II: Niger The human-smuggling route across the Sahara may have been the deadliest on Earth. Then the EU paid Niger’s army to shut it down — and made it even more treacherous. My Smuggler, My Savior They’re migrants’ only chance of making it safely across the Sahara. They’re also outlaws engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Niger’s military. Part III: Libya Nearly There, but Never Further Away Part III: Libya Europe has outsourced the dirty work of border control to Libyan militias. In doing so, it has turned African migrants into commodities to be captured, sold, and traded like slaves. The Savior’s Dilemma Are naval search-and-rescue operations saving migrants’ lives — or just encouraging them to take greater risks? Part IV: Senegal All for Nothing Part IV: Senegal Migrants who fail to reach Europe face humiliation, isolation, and impoverishment at home. Part V: Germany The Dam Will Hold. Until It Doesn’t. Part V: Germany Europe has managed to slow the flow of migrants, at least for now — but is undermining its most cherished values in the process. CREDITS: Reporting by Ty McCormick, Nichole Sobecki, Peter Tinti, Jill Filipovic, and Cameron Abadi. Photography by Nichole Sobecki, Anthony Fouchard, Sébastien Rieussec, Peter Tinti, Jill Filipovic, and Getty Images. Editing by Ty McCormick, Ben Pauker, Cameron Abadi, Rebecca Frankel, and Jonathan Tepperman. Copy-editing by Shannon Schweitzer. Design by Adam Griffiths. Development by C.K. Hickey and Andrew Baughman. Audio features recorded by AUDM . Reporting for this series was made possible in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting . THE MAGAZINE: For more stories on migration to Europe, check out FP ’s September/October 2017 issue with reporting from Sune Engel Rasmussen and Andrew Quilty from Afghanistan’s dangerous border with Iran about what’s driving disenchanted Afghans to seek opportunities abroad, an essay from Suketu Mehta challenging the West’s corrosive fear of migrants, and a profile of a woman in Spain coordinating migrant rescues from her couch. Introduction Europe Slams Its Gates Imperiling Africa — And Its Own Soul A Foreign Policy Special Investigation An unprecedented wave of African migration is warping Europe’s politics and threatening its stability. Can the Continent respond without destroying its values and wreaking havoc in Africa? An unprecedented wave of African migration is warping Europe’s politics and threatening its stability. Can the Continent respond without destroying its values and wreaking havoc in Africa? Introduction An unprecedented wave of African migration is warping Europe’s politics and threatening its stability. Can the Continent respond without destroying its values and wreaking havoc in Africa? FP’s special investigation examines Europe’s desperate campaign to barricade itself — and the policies’ unintended consequences. Oct. 4, 2017 In 2015, a record 1.3 million people applied for asylum in Europe — nearly double the previous high, set in 1992 (the year after the Soviet Union collapsed). The arrivals predominantly hailed from the war zones of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Most came through Turkey, rode dinghies across the Aegean Sea to Greece, and then traveled, in vast human caravans, through the Balkans into Hungary, Austria, and Germany. They carried little more than a suitcase or two, some clothes, a bit of cash, and the hope for refuge and a better life. Reporting for this series was made possible in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Some European countries welcomed the arrivals with open arms; others closed their borders and left them to languish. But even the most generous hosts — Germany admitted 1.1 million refugees and migrants in 2015 — soon hit their limits: As social welfare networks were stretched thin and nativist fears of terrorism and Islamization grew, anti-immigrant political parties began to gain sway. The populist surge led many centrist leaders to reconsider their erstwhile openness, lest the rising right-wing backlash threaten the entire European project. And so, in early 2016, the European Union reached a deal with Turkey, offering up to $6.6 billion (and the promise of visa-free travel to the EU for Turkish citizens) in exchange for Ankara’s help in blocking the departures. The plan worked. From 2015 to 2016, the number of people crossing the Aegean to Greece dropped by nearly 80 percent. Above: Refugees wait to get on board an NGO-operated vessel after being rescued from a wooden boat sailing on the Mediterranean Sea near Libya on June 15. (Marcus Drinkwater/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images); Previous: Detainees from West Africa peer out of their over-crowded cell in the al-Nasr detention center in Zawiya, Libya, where migrants intercepted by the Coast Guard in Zawiya are warehoused indefinitely. (Photo by Peter Tinti) But Europe’s migration crisis wasn’t over. With one sea route closed, another — from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy — quickly expanded, with a record 181,000 people taking it last year. And that number is sure to keep growing: Sub-Saharan Africa currently has one of the highest birthrates in the world, and, according to one recent study , almost 800 million working-age people there — more than the current population of Europe — will enter the labor force between now and 2050. Few of them will find decent jobs; many won’t find work at all. Alarmed by such numbers, Europe’s leaders are scrambling to respond. So far, their new policies have focused not just on securing the Continent’s borders but on tackling the problem at its source. Along with tough new immigration policies, Europe has launched a slew of development and state-building efforts in countries including Senegal and Somalia. But lofty ideals are being betrayed by flawed implementation. At least one ill-conceived European-backed development project has already gone bust, while efforts to train and equip local security forces and militias have empowered gunmen known to torture, enslave, and kill civilians. Intentionally or not, European taxpayers are now funding a massive deterrence and interdiction effort that is largely invisible in Europe but profoundly damaging to Africa. It’s also futile: Despite the billions of dollars being spent, the current efforts won’t resolve the causes of Africa’s exodus or stop its flow. Part I of our series begins in Mali, where failed efforts to kick-start the economy are having the opposite of their intended effect, sending even more people streaming north. Part II takes readers along Niger’s lawless smuggling routes, where the military’s efforts to block departures have elevated the body count. In Part III, our reporter tours Libya’s new detention-industrial complex, where would-be migrants are enslaved and ransomed by European-backed militias. Part IV tells the story of one man who fled Senegal for Italy, only to be caught and — like so many others — sent back home to a life of humiliation and poverty. And Part V explores how European...