oiip

28.05.2024
17:30 - 19:00

oiip
Währinger Strasse 3/12, 1090 Wien

Link to the summary

Over the course of the last few years the externalization of the border protection of the EU has become a mainstream. European migration policy largely frames migration as a security threat. With the new EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum externalization of migration and border control turns into legal obligations. Consequences for rights of people on the move and on the societies that are subjects of externalization are huge.

Austria has been active in border regime externalizations and policing in the Balkans for decades. Austria’s preferred method in strengthening externalization structures is to build strong connections with politicians in the region, in exchange for presumed assistance in the uncertain and slow-moving European integration processes, accompanied by the strengthening of the economic ties and investments in the region. Based on a new study by Nidzara Ahmetasevic and Klaudia Wieser focusing on Austria’s interventions with a focus on Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina the panel aims to discuss the practice of externalization and its effects. As the study shows, an approach to externalization applied by EU and also by Austria has led to shifting the focus away from establishing structures that meet the needs of people on the move and basic human rights – including the right to asylum or simply the right to freedom of movement – to combating smugglers, presented as the biggest challenge for the states, borders, and migrants.

Moderation:
Vedran Dzihic
Senior Researcher oiip

Panel:
Nidzara Ahmetasevic
Independent Researcher and Journalist

Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz
Asylum coordination

Klaudia Wieser
PhD Candidate, University Vienna, founding Member of Push-Back-Alarm Austria

Federica Zardo
Senior Researcher, FWF Post-doctoral Fellow, University for Continuing Education Krems

In cooperation with the University for Continuing Education Krems.

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