The recent shooting at NGO vessel Ocean Viking by a Libyan patrol vessel marks a new level of violence conducted against civil search and rescue assets. But the violence is not new.
Since 2015, the #EU has poured around €700 million euros into border management, supplying military equipment through Operations Sophia and Irini to stop people from reaching Italy. SUVs, rubber boats, and even patrol ships have been sent with the aim to block migrant boats from crossing to Italy. In 2020, a large supply of hardware, SUVs and patrol boats - one of which was used for the shooting attack of #OceanViking - were sent to #Libya.
But NGOs are not the target, we are only a disturbing byproduct which is directly witnessing and monitoring the brutalisation of #Europe. The violence European states are funding is directed against people on the move, who are seeking a life in peace. With so-called "migration management" the EU covers in a capitalist frame what is, in fact, brutal border violence. You don't stop people from moving with violence, violence is one of the reasons people flee.
We need a migration policy that is focussed an equality, against exploitation, and is not enacting the very forces that destabilise and force people to flee in the first place.
We call on the EU to stop all funding of Libyan forces immediately.
Migration is not a crime, migration is not a trade.
