'Hubs' without dignity
They say that Europe this week resembles Trump's United States a little more. It Once this law comes into force, European governments will be able to organize "raids" to find "irregular immigrants", investigate them, and seize their documents and belongings. Basically, they will be able to search people whom the authorities consider to have "immigrant faces""
. We will see what happens when images similar to those of that five-year-old child with the blue hat and colorful backpack, Liam Conejo, whom ICE detained and separated from his parents, are repeated in our country.The truth is that Europe has long been violating the rights of immigrants and refugees, both inside and outside its territory. There are countless testimonies documented by immigrants who have reported serious violations of their rights, chilling stories, in detention centers in countries like Tunisia or Libya partially funded with European funds. But we don't have to go that far. It hasn't been long since the 23 people crushed and beaten to death at the Melilla fence, nor since the images of people drowning at sea after the Greek coast guard attacked them.
The issue is that now the EU is equipping itself with a legal framework to do so without hiding. Of course, by dressing up the language with the clear objective of making reality less harsh and more digestible. "Irregular immigrants" are understood as those people who are in a host country without a legal permit. But, if we want, we can also understand it as those people who exercise their right to have a dignified life, who flee from misery or war.
The agreement also speaks of the already famous “return hubs”, as if one were talking about a technological innovation “hub” from 22@. But in reality we are talking about prisons, detention centers where people are sent without having been judged. In fact, return can also be replaced by expulsion.
Furthermore, what has been approved is to allocate European funds to pay countries like Albania, Mauritania or Libya to detain people indefinitely. This also doesn't mean it didn't happen before: don't miss the Pulitzer Center investigation into Spanish centers in Mauritania.Unsweetened reality
The unvarnished reality could be summarized as follows: the European Union approves a law to expel people fleeing war and misery and to detain them, without prior trial, in prisons in countries without guarantees of human rights compliance and indefinitely.
All of this is perverse and dangerously opens the door to a discriminatory drift in which Europe is gradually shedding its foundational and fundamental values. It is worth remembering that the first "European value" mentioned in Article 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon is "human dignity". And it continues: "Freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities".
According to the dictionary, dignity is the respect that someone deserves. Today Europe has decided that immigrants do not deserve this respect. The big question is to know which will be the next group of unfortunate people to fall off the list.