# taz.de -- Migration policy and arms industry: The business with high-tech borders
> Radar, „intelligent“ border posts, biometrics, surveillance: to keep
> Africans away, any means is right.
IMG Bild: The fence at the spanish exclave Ceuta obviously doesn't stop people
Three fences, supported by seven-meter high sandwalls, lead through the
desert. Anyone who approaches captures underground motion sensors,
surveillance cameras or one of the 50 radar systems at surveillance towers
or on patrolling jeeps. All information goes directly to a control center:
14,500 kilometers of fiber-optic cables secure the fast data connection,
3,400 border guards are permanently in use.
The European armaments group EADS, now Airbus, delivered this border
protection of the luxury class to Saudi Arabia in 2009. For around 2
billion euros, she set up the 900 kilometer border with Iraq as an
antiterror wall, in the complete package from the need to determine the
training of the border guards by German federal policemen.
The officials received their fees from the German Association for
International Cooperation (GIZ), which received Saudi money from EADS.
Federal Minister of Development and GIZ was at that time the FDP politician
Dirk Niebel, meanwhile Cheflobbyist of the armor forge Rheinmetall, one of
Germany's leading manufacturers of border installations.
Already with the fences around the Spanish enclaves in Morocco – Ceuta and
Melilla – the European Union has pushed forward with its outer borders to
the African continent. With the EU-Turkey deal, the EU migration shield
reached the next stage: the Turkish wall to Syria is equipped with
self-shooting systems, which shoot at an approach of 300 meters, made by
the emerging Turkish armaments company Aselsan.
## The enemy is driving bus
Now the EU is expanding its fortress down to the equator. From Central Asia
to Central Africa, it wants to invest in the „robustness of the states“,
according to the latest EU strategy paper for its common foreign and
security policy. In the EU neighborhood there are „turmoil“, the
„overlapping of uncertainty“ the EU must counteract.
In the Frontex-Africa Intelligence Report 2015, the neighboring continent
is presented as a region full of dangers. Frontex agents had visited the
bus station in Agadez, the historical trading center in Niger. Through this
bottleneck in the desert everything goes from West Africa through the
Sahara to the north: goods, traders, migrants. Mostly by bus: Over the past
years, overregional bus lines have sprouted up across the globe, a boom
business.
For EU agents, bus operators are enemies: „People in Agadez regard
themselves as service providers. Attempts to combat this growing industry
could provoke local protests, „the report said. Then the airline Turkish
Airlines, which offers low-cost flights between main African cities and
Istanbul, is targeted. It is to blame that not only Syrians, but also
Congolese, Nigerians or Cameroonians on the Balkan route advanced to
Europe. Frontex CEO Fabrice Leggeri opens the risk analysis for 2016,
pointing to „1.8 million cases of illegal border crossings to Europe“.
This should be over now. In September, 26 African intelligence workers and
border guards were summoned to the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. The
Africa-Frontex secret service community has been operationalized. The
Africans are to transmit migratory data on a quarterly basis. With the
immigration authorities of Nigeria and the Cape Verde, Frontex has already
concluded a partnership agreement with the taz. Others will follow. The aim
is to „analyze“ all migration movements from Warsaw.
## High technology and biometrics
The EU's key technology is Integrated Border Management (IBM) developed by
the European Union and applied for the first time in the Balkans. These are
„intelligent“ borderposts, which allow passers-by with the right papers to
pass easily and quickly despite all technical safety precautions, and whose
computer databases are networked with all relevant authorities: immigration
authorities, security authorities, customs.
Through modern turnstiles the biometric passport is drawn. The on-chip data
is matched with global databases such as Interpol to track down potential
terrorists or counterfeit ID documents. With the help of dogs, heartbeat
meters, air-borne scanners and X-ray systems, border guards in trucks
should be able to detect blind passengers.
„Integrated management promotes the prevention of illegal migration and the
fight against all forms of smuggling,“ says an internal strategy paper of
the EU Commission on the negotiations with Nigeria, the taz. To this end,
funds from the Emergency Relief Trust Fund for Africa can also be used.
German development cooperation helps. In Burkina Faso, the German GIZ
provides „expert advice on the development of an integrated border
management policy“. In Mali, she advises „on the revision of the national
border policy“, the Federal Government said in response to a small request
from the Linkspartei. In Chad and Mauritania, GIZ also supports the
equipment and training of border guards and the construction of border
stations.
## Operation Seahorse
All other ways to cross a border are now rigorously sealed with
insurmountable kilometers of fence installations and monitored from the
air. The European Union border watchdog is called the Eurosur: since
December 2013, drones are looking for refugees, supported by geostationary
satellites over the Mediterranean. Boats on the coast, wagons in the
desert, migrant migrants – all this can be tracked live on the monitor at
the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw.
A smaller satellite monitoring system, „sea horse“, operates Spain with
Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Currently, a system is being set up with Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt.
According to the EU, Eurosur cost 338 million euros. A study by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation assumes a minimum of 874 million, including
development costs.
Since 2002, the EU has also invested EUR 316 million in the research of
border technology. Leading armaments companies had access to EU funding:
Airbus Defense and Space (previously EADS), Thales from France, BAE Systems
from the UK, Italian company Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Spanish company Indra,
German Fraunhofer Institute and Israeli companies. They equipped the EU's
external borders in Bulgaria and Hungary with the latest technology: a
super-precise air system from Airbus, which detects even the smallest
objects from a distance of 220 kilometers. There is not even a fly through.
## VW, Mercedes, Airbus
Lobbying organizations in Brussels such as the „European Organization for
Security“, led by former Thales manager Luis Rebuffi, the „Aerospace and
Defense Industries Association of Europe“, chaired by Mauro Moretti, also
Head of Finmeccanica, and Thinktank „Friends of Europe“ workgroups. For
example, the „Smart Intelligence Borders“ headed by the French corporations
Safran and Thales, and the „AG Border Surveillance“ led by the Italian
electronics company Selex. Through technology partnerships, these are
indirectly linked to leading companies
Billion for border protection
German national police officers form Tunisian border guards, the Bundeswehr
sends speedboats and armored trucks. For 2017 Germany has supported mobile
monitoring systems with ground reconnaissance systems. 5 night surveillance
systems, 25 thermal imaging cameras, 25 optical sensors and 5 radar systems
delivered by Airbus, paid by the German federal government. Tunisia gets
its high-tech limit for free.
By 2020 more than EUR 6 billion has been earmarked for the protection of EU
external borders. 2.8 billion come from the EU's internal security fund,
1.7 billion from the EU's Border Research Program. Approximately 1.5
billion are estimated for Frontex and Eurosur. In addition, there are
financial giants: Libya 66.5 million euros, Mauritania 16 million, Lebanon
14 million, Tunisia 23 million, according to a study by the Dutch NGO
„Stoppt Waffenhandel“.
At the beginning of December, the Federal Cabinet decided to send up to 20
officials to Niger. Interpol trains border policemen in Mali, Morocco,
Mauritania, Niger, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Chad – financed by Germany.
There are nine high-tech border stations between Niger and Nigeria, the
Federal Foreign Office paying three, the European Union the remaining six.
## „Basically all states“
„The market in Africa is certainly interesting, because there is a need,“
says an airbus spokesman for taz. Access is difficult, however, because of
the lack of „responsible local business partners who meet our high
standards“. It would be easier to supply individual products such as radar
technology or cameras.
„As users of border security systems, we believe that in principle all the
countries that are faced with the problem of illegal border crossing are
eligible. Talks in this direction also take place in individual African
states, „says a spokesman for Rheinmetall der taz. But it is „too early to
talk about concrete projects“. „Airbus will be a member of the Airbus
Group, and we will be pleased to announce the launch of Airbus.
A Dutch offshoot of the French armaments giant Thales equipped the Egyptian
navy with radar technology worth 34 million euros in 2015. Airbus recently
delivered a monitoring draft to the Bundeswehr contingent at the UN mission
in Mali. The Italian company Leonardo-Finmeccanica supplied 15 monitoring
helicopters to the Algerian border troops. Airbus boasts on its website
that it has delivered its Spexer radar specially developed for border
surveillance to three West and North African countries.
The world-wide total turnover with border technology is to increase from 15
billion euro in 2015 up to 29 billion in 2022, predicts the market research
enterprise Frost & Sullivan. At present, American and Israeli companies
still dominate this division. Europe's leading armaments companies want to
catch up – in Africa. As a sales market, Africa is virtually limitless.
15 Dec 2016
## AUTOREN
DIR Fabian Grieger
DIR Simone Schlindwein
## TAGS
DIR migControl
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR Rüstungsindustrie
DIR Grenzsicherung
DIR Biometrie
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR migControl
DIR migControl
DIR MigrationControl
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