Appeal for support

November 2015

Dear friend / colleague,

For some months, developments in the news and the movements of solidarity have highlighted the failure of European policies on migration, which Migreurop has long exposed. Our growing activity costs money. In order to strengthen our financial independence, we are turning to you.

Our network of militants and researchers was founded in 2002, when individuals and organisations united when the Sangatte camp in Calais was ‘closed’ to argue that Calais was a trap for exiles prevented from crossing borders to demand asylum and build a better life, and that this location, so symbolic for militants in France and northern Europe, resembled others on the edges of the European Union, in Greece and Morocco (round the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla).

The first task Migreurop set itself was to make public the increasing use and the different forms of the detention of migrants in Europe. Ever since its first edition, our ‘Map of Detention Camps in Europe’ has shown that this key EU policy impacts beyond the borders of the member states. The recent creation of ‘hot spots’ in Greece and Italy, with the expected development of counterparts in Turkey and Niger, illustrates the continuation of this harsh reality.

On 19 November 2005, Migreurop was formally established as an association. It now comprises 46 organisations and 53 individuals in 17 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. It relies on small team of paid staff (2.5 fulltime equivalents) – small considering the extent of its activities and reach – and the work of dozens of volunteers. Migreurop carries out numerous tasks of analysis, research, publication, informing and mobilising the public and elected representatives in three ways:

  1. Collection and analysis of information on matters that may be difficult to grasp, because they are hidden, and because of the geographic scale of the phenomenon.
  2. Creating tools to look critically at the migration policies of the EU, and to make these available to militants in notes, reports, maps, exhibitions, documentaries, Migreurop’s internet site, social networks, and popular and academic articles and longer works.
  3. Acting on an African–European scale to mobilise against European policies on immigration and asylum.

This body of expertise and activity is built up by Migreurop members: researchers and militants who, in their organisations and activities, act alongside people who are seeking to exercise their fundamental rights and who are endangered by the militarisation of border control. Migreurop’s publications (reports, maps, Atlas of Migrants in Europe etc.) reflect that activity and support our demands.

The political stance and the militant character of our organisation, which does not wish to base its activity on public funding, which is becoming harder and harder to obtain or renew, makes our budget fragile. This is why your support is necessary. The extent of our activity in 2016 depends on the success of this Appeal

Emmanuel BLANCHARD,
president, on behalf of the Administative Council of Migreurop

Attachment: Appeal for support and donation form.