This yes is building walls. This yes is racist.
With today’s vote, Switzerland is complicit in the death of and violence against tens of thousands of people. This is a great disappointment! But let’s not forget: resistance against the deadly migration regime existed already before the referendum and will continue to exist. As part of this, NoFrontex will also continue to campaign against Frontex and for the freedom of movement. We ask the Swiss voters: In light of the violence and misery at the Schengen external borders, how can you justify this yes to the expansion of Frontex?
The NoFrontex referendum showed how Switzerland co-finances and co-administers Frontex. It raised public awareness of Switzerland’s responsibility for violence, misery and deaths at the external borders of the Schengen area. The revelations of the last weeks underlined what has been around for a long time: Frontex does not rescue, but is complicit in violence at Europe’s external borders. Frontex has no sea rescue ships in the Mediterranean, but observes from the air how people drown. Frontex systematically informs the so-called Libyan coast guard about boats that are sailing from Libya in the direction of Italy. The coast guard intercepts refugees and forcibly returns them to Libya. A similar picture can be seen in the Aegean Sea: Frontex provides the Greek commandos with information about border crossings, which they use to enforce their violent pushback regime. Frontex is the backbone of this policy – the agency does not strengthen human rights, but considers migrants as a threat and leads a real war against migration. As a Frontex member, Switzerland is also complicit.
A referendum from the bottom up
Because neither the big parties nor the big migration/human rights organizations opposed the Frontex expansion, a referendum from the bottom emerged. It was activists and grassroots organizations around the Migrant Solidarity Network who took the referendum and carried it to the end – many of them are excluded from the vote itself. As an extra-parliamentary, anti-racist movement, they made the referendum possible in an extraordinary final spurt and intervened in the political discourse over the last three months: numerous events, demonstrations and other actions took place. European supporters visited Switzerland and networks of resistance were strengthened locally and nationally.
Retrospect: Scandal after scandal around the European border agency
In the time between the referendum and the vote, hardly two weeks passed by without a new scandal about Frontex becoming public: Various media investigations prove that Frontex is systematically involved in pushbacks and deliberately covers them up. Legal complaints against Frontex are piling up, the EU Parliament voted against the discharge of the Frontex budget. On April 29, Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri resigned.
At the same time, Frontex supporters continue to claim that the agency can be improved. But this is window dressing: not only the systematic human rights violations show this, but also the planned expansion. The current reform has cemented the structural problems, the lack of control and transparency of Frontex, not improved them.
Frontex divides the world and hierarchizes people
Concerns about national or European advantage fueled by the Yes campaign now lead to the racist result of Frontex perpetuating inequalities between North and South with surveillance and force. The expansion of Frontex protects a colonial world order that violently discriminates and deprives people from outside Europe of their rights.
Current wars, but also climate change, economic crises and the ongoing pandemic require global solidarity and sustainable policies for all. Migration cannot be controlled with military isolation and Frontex – the last 20 years have shown that. It is time for a paradigm shift: the Frontex system has failed. Instead, what is needed is an anti-racist dialogue, anti-colonial resistance and spaces of solidarity for eye-to-eye relations.
The resistance continues. Migrant voices need to be heard.
Migration is a fact, not a threat. People will continue to leave countries and seek prospects in Europe. At the same time, the fight against the deadly EU migration regime also continues. The network of numerous grassroots groups and organized collectives throughout Switzerland and beyond is an asset. Global and anti-colonial perspectives on migration became visible and gained new momentum. NoFrontex lives on at many levels: through critical exchange on the freedom of movement, lived solidarity or organized antiracist resistance.