On October 6th 2008, the European Union will open a Centre for Migration in Bamako, the capital of Mali. AME* has clearly analysed that the “Centre d'Information et de Gestion des Migrations” (Cigem) aims at “controlling migratory flows in order to hinder, deter and to discourage potential migrants“. The center is part of the new EU policy, explained in the 'European pact on immigration and asylum' which EU governments want to force African leaders to accept at the second EU-Africa-summit on Migration and Development in October in Paris. This new pact “invite[s] Member States to devise policies for economic migration”, aims to “give priority to temporary or circular migration” instead of freedom of movement, promises no more mass legalisation of undocumented people, the “return of irregular aliens”, which is synonymous with readmission agreements to be able to deport people, “joint flights”, “biometric identification of illegal entrants”, and “more effective border controls” with an intensification of “cooperation with the countries of origin and transit”.

Originally Cigem was supposed to function as the first European job center in Africa. However, this title was abandoned later on, whilst selective inclusion has remained one of its top tasks. This is referred to as “Immigration Chosie“ – selective immigration, specifically directed to the needs of European labour markets and of course to low paid sectors. The AME* is warning of a new phenomenon of “Kleenex workers” – workers to be disposed of after use like a paper tissue. This was the experience this year in Marocco, when some thousand women were recruited for the strawberry harvest in Spain. To get a temporary visa for the job the Maroccan women had to fulfill certain requirements such as proving that they had a family with small children in order to guarantee that they would return afterwards. “The increasing flow of Subsaharan migrants to Europe and the struggles for the regularisation of Sans-papiers all over Europe are confronted with outside as well as with inside practices of exclusion and exploitation. The globalisation of repressive and restrictive measures against migrants is manifested in the dehumanising treatment of migrants in Maghreb countries as well as in the establishment of Frontex“, so the framing analysis of AME. Consequently AME calls for “a synergy of actions, for a globalisation of actions to support and defend the rights of migrants, in transit-countries as well as in the target-countries“. AME organised a conference in Bamako last March within the context of the transnational chain of actions (see report), and their representatives also took in the World Social Forum on Migration in Madrid and will take part in the ESF in Malmö. They will also participate in the actions against the EU-Africa Summit on Migration and Development, which include a counter-summit (17th October), a demonstration (18th October) and a concert. The conference in Bamako ended with a call and the following demands to the Malian government:

• refuse to sign the bilateral re-admission agreements with France and Spain which pave the way to the establishment of quotas of chosen immigrants, precipitating the increased expulsion of Malian 'Sans-Papiers' workers
• stop granting 'Laissez Passer' which facilitates the deportation of Malians
• legalise all undocumented migrants and enable the reunification of families
• demand that the French state return the belongings of deported people and implement the right to receive benefits according to the contributions they paid in taxes whilst working
• denounce the EU return directive which is a real humiliation for all African people
• refuse collaboration with the Frontex Agency, created to manage the externalisation of European borders
• stop the opening of the International Center for the Management of Immigration, “CIGEM”. Its money should be used to assist deported and refouled people
• assist all deported and refouled people who went to the west to help their families and to help their country develop
• create a mixed committee including representatives of the government and of those deported to evaluate the impact caused.

Through its activities AME seeks to connect the demand for freedom of movement with a radical criticism of neo-colonial EU politics in Africa. “We always said that politics of so-called development aid and development cooperation have failed and did never meet the vital needs of the
African population […] To pay for their migration policies, the European Union and more specifically France, use money that should have been allocated to investment in African countries. These funds will not be sufficient to meet even the basic needs of our countries. The fact that in Mali the proportion of money sent back by migrants is far more than the money sent as so-called aid clearly demonstrates this. These funds which are said to be for development are in fact now spent on migration control; The 10 million Euros from the EU Fund for Development were used to
finance the future Malian ?Cigem?, whose purpose will be to control migration and fight irregular migration.“

*The AME, the “Association Malienne des Expulsés”, is a grassroots organisation of deportees who seek to pass on the experiences of deportees from European and African countries to the 'candidats au départ'. They are very active in directly supporting the 'refoulés', who were arrested, detained and deported during their attempts to reach Europe. They clearly criticise both the EU governments and the collaborating African goverments responsible for the consequences of this dehumanising deportation and border regime.

Source: Crossing Borders – Transnational Newsletter