Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-050"
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"en.20051012.12.3-050"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think it is hypocritical to talk about immigration today without discussing the double barrier separating the enclave of Melilla from Africa; this barrier represents, in symbolic terms, the failure of our approach to building a Europe of peace, social justice and intercultural co-existence. Only two days ago, a delegation from our group was able to see for itself the barbaric nature of this place: a militarised border, a terrifying spot that acts as a great divide between hope and death.
It is a sort of reactionary utopia to think that one can curtail the free movement of men and women with the barbed wire separating two continents. It is a selfish folly to create a physical barrier between prosperous and comfortable Europe and the relentless desperation of those fleeing hunger and war who, instead of being welcomed and assisted, are pelted with the rubber bullets of the Spanish
and the Moroccan army.
The Spanish Government bears joint responsibility both for the mass deportations carried out by the Moroccan Government and for the deaths in the desert of dozens of people. On that point, the accusations made by many non-governmental organisations operating in Ceuta and Melilla are serious, and on behalf of my group I call for a committee of enquiry to be set up immediately to find out the truth and who was responsible for what happened in Ceuta and Melilla, as well as to investigate the way in which immigrants are received in Europe.
It is unacceptable in political and legal terms, as well as in ethical and human terms, to have mass expulsions from European territory. The immigrants who have climbed only the first barrier at Melilla, without managing to get over the second, have been expelled from European territory without any kind of recognition, without any attempt to find out their origin and without any check as to whether they might have been entitled to refugee status.
The Commission’s conduct with regard to what has happened is unacceptable: confining itself to preaching the protection of human rights, it is behaving like the three monkeys: it does not see, it does not hear, and it does not speak about the many violations committed by the Member States. Spain has acted as Italy did when it carried out mass deportations from Lampedusa to Libya, with immigrants being abandoned in the desert as a result.
It is deplorable that the Council is talking today about enhanced cooperation with Libya when it should be demanding that Libya ratify the Geneva Convention. All this, however, is being swept under the carpet. The Lampedusa and Libya incident, which was considered to be a highly serious irregularity, is now becoming usual practice. This Parliament, which condemned Italy and its government for the criminal act of deportation to Libya, must now act consistently, which is the reason why we are calling on the groups which voted with us for the resolution on Lampedusa to now draw up a resolution condemning the events in Ceuta and Melilla.
We cannot accept a principle whereby Europe grants the rights guaranteed by international and Community treaties only to the strongest and luckiest immigrants who have succeeded in climbing over the second barrier as well, since such rights should not be governed by a natural selection mechanism. That would lead to Europe becoming – as Thomas Hobbes said – a state of nature. The right to be received should be an inalienable right. A decent and humane reception should be provided at the Melilla processing camp, which would, unfortunately, be in contrast to the reception provided on Lampedusa. We were able to ascertain – as confirmed by an investigative report by the biggest Italian weekly paper – that human rights are being systematically violated on Lampedusa.
We believe that it is not possible to build Europe with barriers and barbed wire: what we need to do, instead, is to try to open the borders to ensure that Europe has a future and a hope of success."@en1
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