Migration, EU cooperation and authoritarianism

Abstract:

On 18 October 2016 the European Commission released its first progress report for its new Partnership Framework with third countries under the European Agenda on Migration. According to the key themes of the framework, the EU will create tailor-made ‘compacts’ with key countries of origin, transit, or hosting of international migrants and refugees. Through the framework the EU wants to enhance cooperation on security and development in order to prevent international movement towards Europe. The main aims of the compacts will be: "saving lives at sea, increasing returns, enabling migrants and refugees to stay closer to home and, in the long term, helping third countries' development in order to address root causes of irregular migration."

Leaving the question of whether such compacts will be effective in curbing international mobility, the question of cooperation with whom looms large. When scrutinizing the countries of cooperation listed in the Partnership Framework – countries in the Sahel, East Africa, and the Middle East – it is clear that the EU is continuing its legacy of working with authoritarian elites to prevent international movement. In the past bilateral cooperation between Italy and Libya, for example, has had extremely harmful consequences.

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