The walls of Europe: Who benefits from a Union filled with fences?

Mora Salazar was a household firm that bought fences for houses and small companies. In 2006, Spain employed the companies of Mora Salazar to put in a razor wire on the border partitions of Ceuta and Melilla. Now the corporate is a multinational company renamed European Safety Fencing, with workplaces in Brussels and Berlin and enterprise in additional than 30 borders all over the world.

“When the Socialists get into the federal government, I take away them. If the conservatives are reelected, I put them again. I’ve already taken them down and put them up 4 occasions and every time I get three million euros”, the proprietor of this firm admitted.

The businesses that make revenue from the fences of Ceuta and Melilla accumulate greater than 120 revolving doorways, together with a dozen former authorities ministers from the Widespread Celebration (PP) and Socialist Celebration (PSOE). Spain doesn’t disclose the full expenditure on these partitions “for causes of nationwide safety.” This investigation analysed 188 public contracts for these two fences price 133 million euros.

The biggest growth within the enterprise of border fences in Europe came about after Viktor Orbán’s choice to wall off Hungary’s border with Serbia in 2015, amid the “refugee disaster'”. Estimates counsel that Orbán has spent greater than €2 billion to construct that wall. Among the many firms that benefited essentially the most is metALCOM Zrt, whose major shareholder is Zoltán Bozó, a businessman and member of Fidesz, Orbán’s occasion, as revealed by the media Index.hu.

Orbán’s choice produced a domino impact and different European nations rapidly adopted go well with. Calais, a small historic city in France and a vacation spot for migrants attempting to succeed in the UK throughout the English Channel, is presently surrounded by 65 kilometres of fences outfitted with the newest know-how, together with state-of-the-art drones, night time cameras, and step and CO2 detectors to find migrants by their breath.

Greece, the gateway to Europe for jap migratory routes, has an allotted price range of 819 million euros in European funds to additional strengthen its border till 2027. In whole, the 27 nations that make up the EU are presently fortified with 1,800 kilometres of partitions.

“The erection of fences will not be an sufficient resolution to stop irregular migration,” stated the Slovenian Minister of the Inside in a questionnaire despatched by the crew in control of this investigation. The elimination of the border fence between Slovenia and Croatia led to an ideal controversy: Slovenia granted 7 million euros for the elimination of the fence to Minis, the identical firm that put in it in 2015.

Minis “didn’t have a single worker one 12 months earlier than the profitable tender, and was based mostly on the similar tackle as an area department of the then-ruling occasion”, says a consultant of Transparency Worldwide Slovenia. The contract was awarded with out a public tender.

European governments see individuals on the transfer as a safety drawback and prioritise funding for partitions over socially pressing investments. “Have you ever seen the highway right here? We’re ready years for a brand new one, however the wall was constructed immediately”, stated an aged lady from Bulgaria –one of many poorest nations within the EU– who lives in Matoczina, on the border with Turkey.

Border partitions are double-edged weapons. The opposite facet of the enterprise is performed by each smugglers and authoritarian governments bordering Europe. On one hand, mafias elevate their charges to move migrants in more and more harmful and violent situations.

Alternatively, the growingly militarised partitions enable the weaponisation of migrants by governments and dictatorships starting from Turkey to Morocco, Belarus and Tunisia. These regimes are conditioning their increasing management/affect of the opposite facet of the border in trade for cash, diplomatic assist and different concessions from the EU.

Alberto Alonso, Rocío Márquez, Emma Esser, Fernando Anido, Marta Ley, Laura Martín, Ángel Villarino, Alba Solla, Juan Aguilar, Ana Rojas, Marta Nevot, Nicolás Ribas, Ana Álvarez, Ekaitz Cancela, Emilia García Morales, Joseba Torronteras, Pablo Fernández, Sara Ortega, Patricia Macías and Álvaro Bravo took half on this investigation.

👉 Unique article on El Confidencial

This text is a part of “The Europe of the partitions”, an investigation carried out by El Confidencial and 4 different European media on the fences that encompass the European Union. This investigation was a runner-up for the European Press Prize 2023. The republishing of this piece was kindly granted by the European Press Prize. Go to europeanpressprize.com for extra glorious journalism.