#MeToo at Fortress Europe's borders

Refugee women are being sexually abused at the EU border.

Where is the outrage?

by Nidzara Ahmetasevic
8 Sept 2018

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Croatia's riot police officers are seen next to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina in Maljevac, Croatia, June 18,
2018 [Antonio Bronic/Reuters]
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During the first two weeks of August, when most people in Western Europe were enjoying
their summer holidays, volunteers from No Name Kitchen, a group helping migrants in
Bosnia,recorded 17 cases of violence against people on the move at the country's border with
Croatia. (The UNHCR recently reported that their partners in Bosnia and Serbia recorded
over 700 allegations of violence at the borders of Croatia since the beginning of this year.)

In at least five of the 17 cases recorded by No Name Kitchen, the victims were vulnerable
women who were trying to reach safety in the European Union. Volunteers said these
women were treated brutally by the authorities and subjected to sexual violence, racism and
Islamophobia.

Marva, from Afghanistan, told them the group she was travelling with was stopped by police
after they crossed the Slovenian border. She said the officers ordered the women in the
group to remove their niqabs. When she refused to do so and started to cry, a policeman
forcefully removed the garment and threw it on the floor. "Here is not Afghanistan, here is
Slovenia," the policeman allegedly told her. "Here is no Islam."

Fatima, from Iran, had a similar experience, but in Croatia. Her husband and daughter were
beaten up by police officers. She was held at gun point and they were all ordered to walk
back to Bosnia. She said she was scared to death. She thought they were going to kill her and
her family.

Several victims said officers inappropriately touched their bodies, including their breasts
and genitals, during these violent encounters. They said the abuse happened in front of their
children and husbands. The abusers were always in uniform.

Police violence and brutality is nothing new at the borders of European Union. Hungarian,
Romanian, Bulgarian and Greek police officers have long been resorting to violence in order
to keep Fortress Europe "safe". Croatian police joined in this brutality last year, and now
even Slovenian police is abusing people on the move at their borders.

As always, this violence is affecting the women the most. They are not only violently
prevented from finding safety and security in Europe, but also subjected to sexual violence.
And their abusers act with impunity.

No one in Brussels, or in any other European capital, has punished or even condemned
these officers for their treatment of women at Europe's borders - not even in countries led
by women or where leftist, progressive parties are in power.

In the last two years, the #MeToo movement encouraged the world to have a conversation
about sexual harassment and condemn men who use their positions of power to abuse
women. However, the abuse women (as well as men and children) experience at the hands
of border officials at the gates of Europe was never included in this conversation.
European media also contributed to this problem by failing to give a voice to these victims.

On New Year's Eve 2015 many local women reported being robbed and assaulted inCologne,
Germany and authorities said most of the accused were North African, migrant men. The
media was quick to sensationalise the issue and create a narrative which implied European
women are in need of urgent protection from brown, Muslim, migrant men. Authorities
were quick to take action.

However, now that migrant women are the victims, the media is largely silent, and the same
EU officials urging action on the Cologne attacks are looking the other way.

The violence at the borders of the EU is a message to all migrants - and everyone who is not
a citizen of Fortress Europe - that they are not welcome, not even when they are running
from wars, persecution, authoritarian regimes, poverty or the devastating effects of climate
change. It doesn't matter that Europe is responsible for many ills that are forcing these
people to leave their homes and seek safety in foreign lands.

:iberals in the EU are still refusing to acknowledge this loud and clear message sent out by
their official representatives. They congratulate themselves on their "humane treatment" of
migrants, and refuse to acknowledge the human rights abuses taking place at their doorstep.
They hypocritically condemn the US administration for separating families trying to cross
US borders, but talk nothing of the abuse of migrants at Europe's borders.

Is the violence migrants endure in Europe any more acceptable than what happens in
Trump's America? In "liberal", "progressive" Europe human beings are being physically and
sexually abused at borders, threatened and kept in camps indefinitely. Children are often
left alone, unprotected, and deprived of an education and a future.

What the EU border police is doing to vulnerable women, men and children is a crime and it
cannot go unpunished.

If Europe does not act now, it will soon become a place where violence against "the other" is
acceptable. This has happened many times before in recent history, and humanity at large
suffered its consequences. Europe should learn from its past mistakes, and this time make
sure it's on the right side of history.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.