European Communist Action on World Refugee Day

On the occasion of World Refugee Day, June 20, we, the member Parties of the European Communist Action (ECA), express our solidarity with refugees, displaced persons and migrants throughout the world and reaffirm our commitment to struggle against the anti-people policies of the monopolies and their governments that force millions of people to leave their homes.

Forced migration is not a natural phenomenon. It is a product of the capitalist system, which generates wars, poverty, inequality, environmental destruction and political oppression. Millions of people are driven from their countries not by choice, but by necessity.

Imperialist wars and interventions continue to devastate entire regions. The conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and other parts of the world, the economic sanctions imposed by imperialist powers, and the plundering of countries through unequal economic relations create unbearable living conditions for the peoples. At the same time, environmental catastrophes intensified by the capitalist pursuit of profit deprive millions of people of their livelihoods.

The European Union, NATO and the bourgeois governments bear heavy responsibility for these developments. While presenting themselves as defenders of human rights and humanitarian values, they organize imperialist interventions, support reactionary regimes when it serves their interests, and impose policies that deepen social misery in many parts of the world.

At the same time, the same forces that contribute to creating refugee flows are building new barriers against those forced to flee. The militarization of borders, pushbacks, detention camps, deportations, agreements with so-called safe third countries, and the externalization of border controls reveal the true face of the EU’s migration policy.

The EU’s migration policy is not guided by humanitarian concerns but by the needs of capital. Refugees and migrants are treated as a source of cheap labour power to be admitted, excluded or deported according to the requirements of profitability and labour market demand. Through precarious legal statuses, discriminatory regulations and the constant threat of deportation, migrant workers are subjected to intensified exploitation. This policy is used to place pressure on wages and working conditions and to divide the working class along national, ethnic and religious lines.

The ECA rejects all attempts to pit local and migrant workers against one another.

The enemy of the workers is not the refugee or migrant, but the capitalist system that exploits all workers regardless of nationality. We oppose xenophobia, fascist and racist forces that seek to direct popular anger against migrants. We intensify the struggle against liberal and social-democratic forces that attempt to whitewash the EU, absolve it of its responsibilities and conceal the real causes of migration while defending the capitalist system that produces it.

The so-called European labour market also intensifies migration within Europe itself.

Millions of workers are compelled to leave their countries in search of employment, regardless of whether international agreements are in place, while capital benefits from unequal economic development between countries and from the free movement of labour under conditions determined by monopoly interests. This process contributes to depopulation, brain drain and social dislocation in many countries.

The growing inter-imperialist rivalries and unprecedented militarization currently promoted by the EU and its member states will further increase refugee flows in the coming years. The enormous resources devoted to armaments at the expense of social needs create new dangers of war and displacement for the peoples.

We therefore reaffirm our commitment to fight against the barbaric policies that create refugees and migrants while simultaneously denying them their rights and dignity.

We declare our solidarity with refugees and migrants and demand:

- Respect for international law based on the Geneva Convention on Refugees, human rights and the right to seek asylum;

- The provision of travel documents to ensure safe passage and protection for refugees and migrants;

- The abolition of forced deportations, arbitrary detention and all forms of collective expulsion;

- The closure of detention centres, refugee camps and the so-called return hubs that violate human dignity and fundamental rights;

- Equal rights for all workers regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion or migration status;

- Full access to work, housing, healthcare, education and social protection for all, including for children and unaccompanied minors;

- The abolition of anti-migrant legislation, discriminatory labour regulations and all measures that facilitate the super-exploitation of migrant workers;

- The abolition of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, the recent unacceptable regulation on deportations, the Dublin Regulation and all anti-people migration policies of the EU;

- The dismantling of Frontex and all mechanisms of repression directed against refugees and migrants.

Imperialist interventions and war, capitalist profit-driven resource extraction, inequality and climate change, create conditions that force people to flee their homes, depriving millions of people of the possibility to live in peace, security and dignity in their own countries. Only the struggle against capitalism can eliminate the root causes of forced migration.

World Refugee Day must be more than a date in the calendar. It must provide an increased focus on the need to abolish the capitalist system that creates forced migration and refugees.

In the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the ECA member Parties commit themselves to strengthening the common struggle of the workers and peoples against the EU, NATO and the power of capital, for socialism-communism: a society without exploitation, wars, oppression and forced displacement, where all people can live and flourish in dignity.