A-Infos (en) Barricada* #20 - FUCK THE IOM!

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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  > by Leon, Barricada Collective
Actions against the IOM. printed in Barricada #20 The IOM was
founded in 1951 to counter the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees. (UNHCR). It has always been highly controlled by the
USA, and was created to control migration in the interest of capital. It
began during the Cold War and focused on moving well known
scientists, artists, and any of the elite class still stuck in east Europe
and relocate them in the west. It also monitored and assisted the
movements of capitalist friendly military forces and helped hinder
liberation forces unfriendly to capitalism in various developing
nations caught in Cold War realpolitik.

The Cold War may be over, but the needs of capitalism have changed
little. The IOM now focuses on controlling the movement of workers
around the world, "relocating" them into countries in need of cheap
labor, and helping to "repatriate" them when a member state of the
IOM is no longer in need of migrant workers. Capitalism's needs have
spread to the entire world, and the IOM exists to control the flow of
labor, based on needs and costs, using borders and race as its tools
to keep workers around the world under control. But the IOM plays
itself off as a humanitarian organization whose goal is to assist
migrant workers and refugees.

The IOM now has 91 member states, 19 regional sub-offices, and
over a hundred field offices and representatives which act as warning
systems for migration. The IOM reports to the USA and the EU share
information and recommend policies. Where their is migration, the
IOM is recommending hostile immigration policies, training boarder
police, sharing information and new technologies, showing border
police where secret illegal border crossings are, plan and build border
posts, refugee camps, and detention centers, spy on migrants and
migration assistance organizations, and go so far as to set up border
policies should a new regime come to power or a new border be
created. The IOM claims to have "assisted" over eleven million
people. In 2000 alone they claimed to have repatriated or resettled
over 450,000 people. But rarely are any of these people moved
voluntarily. The only option for people the IOM are intending to move
is to go voluntarily or else they will be detained and moved forcefully.
Recent countries the IOM has "repatriated" refugees include Timor,
North Iraq, Kosovo, Angola, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and
Sudan. Where on e could argue that repatriated people of Timor or
Kosovo could make since considering their conflicts have calmed
down to a degree, the other listed countries have improved little, or
just gotten worse.

The IOM portrays itself as humanitarian, and often uses NGO's to
gather information or control the migrants, but it acts in the interest of
its "customers", the member states. In Turkey and Ukraine, the IOM
gathered information of common illegal border crossing areas and
handed the information over to the countries border police. It has set
up other agencies under the guise of helpful NGO's, only to deport
the refugees it claimed to help. The IOM has set up workshops and
education classes in countries such as Kyrgizistan, Tadjikstan, and
Kazakstan on topics like the prevention of illegal emigration, and how
to crack down on false document making.

The IOM has negotiated a 60% discount rate with airlines to
repatriate immigrants and refugees, creating a big business for some
airlines, such as Lufthansa and Air France.

The flow of sex traffic, where women are deceived into forced
prostitution to service rich men in wealthy nations, has skyrocketed
into a major international crisis. However, only 0.16% of all people
repatriated by the IOM were victims of sex trafficking schemes. Yet,
the IOM has outposts in countries such as Macedonia and Azerbaijan,
which the IOM admits itself as major boarders where women are
moved through to the west for prostitution, and has done little to stop
or apprehend any of these bastards moving women, but has done
plenty to stop illegal migrants from traveling west for work.

The IOM is regulating migrant workers such as Ecuadorians to Spain.
In an attempt to curb the flow of workers without papers from
Ecuador to Spain, the two countries and the IOM all signed
agreements. The wealthy land owners of Spain told the Spanish
government how many farm hands it needed annually. This number
was then split up through countries Spain had made agreements with,
such as Ecuador. The Spanish government, after the suggestion of
the IOM, called for all Ecuadorian workers to register with the
Spanish immigration police, where they would be flown back to Quito
Ecuador, to be given legitimate papers for legal employment in Spain.
There new passports and legal documents were given out (all
suggestions by the IOM), and workers were either sent back to Spain
through the IOM or stayed in Ecuador. When the Ecuadorian
economy collapsed, and massive street demonstrations erupted all
over Ecuador, the IOM helped to name and locate many indigenous
people, who were a great number of protesters. With the use of the
giant computer in the Shengen Information Center (which is a giant
database of all foreign workers in Europe), the IOM, sorted through
the data base and sent Ecuadorian police all the information they
could to track down dissidents. Meanwhile, the IOM was helping to
build highways in northern Ecuador to the Colombian border under
the request of the Pentagon. The IOM is also training Ecuadorian
border police, and helping them get north to the Colombian border.
Both the pentagon and the IOM insist this is to help protect the flow of
migration between the two countries, and has nothing to do with the
USA's plan Colombia.

In Europe, the No Border Network called for international actions
against the management of migration as a whole, and in particular the
IOM, from October 11 to 13.
"Migration is a fact, its autonomy could and still cannot be regulated
as states and transnational organizations would wish for. Migration is
a consequence of economic exploitation, political repression and war,
but also of the legitimate interest of people to find better or different
living conditions." No Border Action Network.

Actions against the IOM occurred all over Europe. On the first day of
actions, 70 people occupied the IOM office in Berlin. They declared
the office closed, offered the IOM workers to help move out their
equipment, and hung several banners out the windows. In Warsaw,
Poland, people targeted a large market where many foreigners (from
east of Poland) are. They focused their propaganda around the
upcoming mandatory visa changes into Poland due to Poland's entry
to the European Union. During the second day, activists occupied an
empty railway worker's quarter in Bologna in order to open up an
autonomous international migrants welcome center. The building
used to house up to sixty people, and the center could house
migrants of their own free will, instead of at the hands of the IOM. In
Sangette, the humanitarian red cross camp will shut down on by
December 3. The IOM will hand over the camp to a private
organization. The IOM announced that the first shipment of
repatriated afghans was to leave later in the week. Protesters
gathered at the red cross camp, which was surrounded by police in
riot gear. They were not aloud entrance into the camp. Many refugees
joined the demonstration after giving their fingerprints to police in
order to leave. Later in the day a group of people dressed like aliens
(as in from another planet) tried entering the compound, but were
denied entrance by French riot police. There were also
demonstrations and actins in Helsinki, Vienna, Dover U.K., Paris, and
Belgium. For more info go to www.noborder.org ors. The union then
had the
nerve to proclaim "Victory! Victory!" as if much was actually won. The
union has said that this agreement is a stepping stone and that more
will be won in three years, but for every janitor still struggling three
years is an eternity.

When the "victory" was announced janitors once again filled tThe IOM
portrays itself as humanitarian, and often uses NGO's to gather
information or control the migrants, but it acts in the interest of its
"customers", the member states. In Turkey and Ukraine, the IOM
gathered information of common illegal border crossing areas and
handed the information over to the countries border police. It has set
up other agencies under the guise of helpful NGO's, only to deport
the refugees it claimed to help. The IOM has set up workshops and
education classes in countries such as Kyrgizistan, Tadjikstan, and
Kazakstan on topics like the prevention of illegal emigration, and how
to crack down on false document making.


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