De militaire hightech van Fort Europa

Ben Hayes van Statewatch schreef voor The Economist een artikel over de manier waarop Fort Europa haar grenzen steeds sterker beveiligt met technologische ‘hoogstandjes’. Die innovaties zijn er in de eerste plaats op gericht om vluchtelingen en sans-papiers zo vroeg mogelijk op te sporen en buiten de grenzen van Europa te houden. Opvallend is onder meer de nauwere samenwerking tussen defensie, de veiligheidsindustrie en Europese agentschappen als Frontex. Samen maken ze werk van de militarisering van de Europese buitengrenzen.
In a hi-tech upgrade to ‘Fortress Europe’, the EU is developing drone planes, satellite surveillance systems, unmanned ground and marine vehicles, even combat robots, to be deployed to ‘defend’ Europe from migrants.
The policy is the result of a convergence in the EU’s ‘industrial competitiveness’ strategy, which has identified the global ‘homeland security’ market as one in which Europe should prosper, and an EU approach to migration control that places the prevention of refugees and undocumented migrants from crossing borders above any other objective, principle or approach.
In this upgrade, the defence sector, the surveillance industry and quasi-autonomous EU bodies such as Frontex and the European Defence Agency are joining forces.