Article: Border Fortification

Constructing Fortress Europe: Border Fortification

Fortifying borders is a current yet relatively new political trend. Across the European Union, governments are spending an (absurdly) increasing amount of money and resources on constructing physical barriers at countries’ borders: think of walls with sharp razor wire and electrically charged fences,or visualise surveillance cameras, drones and armed agents on the look-out. 


There were less than five border walls globally at the end of  World War II, and fewer than a dozen at the end of the Cold War and when the Berlin Wall fell. Since then, walls and fences have proliferated rapidly: at least 74 border walls exist today, most erected over the last two decades. Greece, a major gateway country for eastern migratory routes into the EU, has a budget of 819 million euros to further fortify its border until 2027. In total, the 27 states of which the EU consists are currently fortified with at least 2048 kilometres of walls. 

The deadly reality and intentional harm of border fortification in the EU

There are many reasons why people migrate - fleeing persecution, seeking better economic realities or opportunities, safety, desperation, the desire to improve lives - just to name a few. Migration is not new, human beings have been migrating for these reasons throughout our history. However, doing so is now delegitimised by EU politicians and policymakers, where no safe or legal pathways that recognise these reasons for migrating exist - meaning the only option is to migrate irregularly.  To ‘combat’ irregular migration, the EU has increased border fortification, with sharp razor wire and armed border guards. However, expecting that people will simply abandon their migration plans by removing safe migration pathways and building militarised border fences is not only unrealistic, it’s also blind to the reality and circumstances of many people who will nevertheless stand to benefit from leaving their home situation, regardless of the increased risk of harm during the migration journey.

A significant number of EU governments frame migration as a ‘crisis’ and ‘security threat’ that Europeans and their resources need to be protected from. According to this rhetoric, border barriers are essential in keeping the EU and its residents ‘safe’ by enabling the funnelling of people who wish to enter the EU to specific points of control - allowing EU officials to effectively filter and turn away people who are deemed ‘undesirable’. 


The reality is, however, that border barriers are actually not these altruistic, apolitical physical structures created to control cross border traffic and protect human life. It’s actually the opposite - they’re violent by design, and thousands of people who irregularly migrate to the EU by crossing these barriers end up being killed or hurt, their human rights systematically violated.  In other words, border fences do not stop people from migrating - instead, they result in a systemic and EU taxpayer funded increase of harm and violence experienced by people irregularly migrating to the EU.. Let us elaborate:


Border fences are intentionally violent and designed to cause harm – think about the fact that wire that is barbed, and fences are electrically charged – these are designs that aim to inflict pain and injury on those who attempt to cross the border fence. It’s a method of deterring people from travelling irregularly to the EU even if it means that they or their kids may be killed or hurt in the process.These deterrence attempts do not work or  stop people from migrating, rather than making migration less desirable, they make it more dangerous. In this way, increasing border fortification means consciously increasing the risk that those migrating irregularly will be subjected to violence and tragedy – in other words, the EU is actively spending money on increasing human harm, risk to life and human rights abuses. 

The correlation between border fortification and violence is beyond dispute – over 60.000 people have died at European borders alone since 1993 – and land border fortification measures consistently contribute to this number. There is plenty of available evidence published by rights groups, NGOs and investigative journalists who document the ongoing harm of border fortification and expose links between European policies and border crossings and deaths – the EU has blood on its hands and cannot continue pleading ignorance and increasing the border fortification budget in the face of insurmountable evidence of harm.  


And who actually profits off border fortification?


Another thing about border fortification: it’s an extremely lucrative business for a very small number of companies and people - meaning there exists a keen financial and political interest to keep this industry growing. To give some examples:


Businesses that specialise in fences, borders and fortification have experienced booming demand and resultant financial success. As one example, Mora Salazar was once a small family business that sold fences to people for their homes and their small businesses. In 2006, the Spanish government hired Mora Salazar to install razor wire on the border fence between Ceuta and Melilla. Now, Mora Salazar is a multinational corporation renamed as European Security Fencing, and has branches in Brussels and Berlin and business in more than 30 borders around the world.

The largest growth peak in Europe’s border fence business took place after Viktor Orbán's decision to erect a wall on Hungary's border with Serbia in 2015, in the midst of the 'refugee crisis'. The wall is estimated to have cost more than 2 billion euros, and one of the companies that benefited the most is metALCOM Zrt, whose main shareholder is Zoltán Bozó, a businessman and member of Orbán's political party. 

Other private companies profit off the European fortress agenda too, and their close relationships with European states also give them enormous lobbying power. Indeed, private companies in the border-industrial complex have already been involved in political decisions which resulted in the further militarisation and fortification of European borders - stay tuned as we will publish further on this point.

And of course, the EU and its officials also benefit from border fortification. Politicians use migrants as scapegoats for domestic problems in order to be seen as ‘taking action’ when adopting xenophobic, anti-immigration policy measures that don’t actually work on a policy level - such as building more tall fences. Indeed, it has become a commonplace rhetoric that migration is the root of most issues, and political parties currently in power across EU states predominantly relied on anti-immigrant ideologies in their campaigns. But it’s not only EU politicians and political parties who stand to gain from anti-immigrant rhetoric and border fortification. EU institutions also benefit from this: the annual budget of Frontex, the EU's border monitoring agency, has increased substantially almost every single year. In 2015, the budget was 142 million euros. In 2018, it was at 320 million euros, and in 2023, it rose to 845 million euros. 

Some of the largest arms traders and exporters (such as Airbus, Thales, Leonardo, Safran and Dassault) are also active in border management. Other arms companies, like Idemia and Sopra Steria, are also regularly awarded large contracts for border control (Stop Wapenhandel, 2023). What this effectively means is that some of the companies contracted by the EU to control borders are some of the same companies that are selling arms in conflict zones, which so largely contribute to people needing to flee dangerous conditions and migrate from their home countries in the first place. In other words, these companies are actively causing destruction and population displacement for their own profit, and then profiting once more by helping the EU block those who are displaced from crossing into EU territory. 

Think also about the smuggling rings that profit off migrants’ need to make irregular journeys, and the fact that the smugglers are in some cases connected to the regimes that make it illegal to migrate in the first place - consider the Libyan Coast Guard, which is directly funded by the EU and tasked to stop migrants from coming into EU territory. As revealed by several reports, members of the very same Libyan Coast Guard are part of the smuggling rings that sell transport services to migrants (generally for extremely large sums of money) to make the irregular journey in the first place. 

Borders are extremely profitable, and migrants are used by the EU, private individuals, businesses, smugglers and weapons companies to make money at their expense on several different levels. While there is a crucial difference between profiting off enabling movement (smugglers) and profiting off deterring movement (for example weapons companies) - and as MiGreat we are inherently in favour of enabling movement - the business of border fortification is fundamentally exploitative to the benefit of a few. 

Fight against the EU rhetoric that borders and walls are built for security: they are a business model that profits off migrants’ lives and bodies repeatedly, from conflicts that cause displacement in the first place, to push backs, violence, and the death of those who move. 


Further reading: 

- All EU institutions want billions more for borders, but disagree on the details

- Teichopolitics: Re-considering Globalisation Through the Role of Walls and Fences

Looking for ways to resist border fortification? 

- Donate! We provide ongoing support to organisations working on EU borders – they supply people on the move who are often affected by the violence of border fortification with food, medical supplies, shelter and warm clothes. For specific links to organisations whose work we support, visit our social media channels. 
- Write to members of parliament in your municipality, city, country. We know that taxpayer money is being used to fund bloody human rights abuses - refuse to be complicit in this!
- Directly support  people crossing borders: block out some cameras, knock down a few bricks, cut a hole in your local fence.