DeepL Translation

The imperialist EU governments are calling the influx of people from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta a “wake-up call” to further militarize the external borders, as if the refugees were the enemies of the workers and the masses. This “wake-up call” serves only to sow chauvinism and fear; it aims to divide the working masses internationally. Even the existing laws are a disgrace, as they are directed against people fleeing war, poverty, climate disasters, and oppression.

The new European Pact on Migration and Asylum has been in force since June 12, 2026. It provides for stricter controls at external borders and shorter asylum procedures. The goal of the EU Migration Pact is inhumane. In practice, the pact leads to people being deported more quickly. The right to asylum is effectively being abolished. At the same time, reports of illegal and violent pushbacks are mounting: people are being sent back or deported in violation of the rules, or—often with the use of force by Frontex—imprisoned in camps. Asylum procedures are becoming shorter and stricter. Refugees and their lawyers have virtually no chance of receiving legal assistance and less time to tell their stories. The pact makes it possible to detain refugees, including children, during their asylum proceedings. Locking up people who are forced to flee war, violence, misery, and environmental disasters is scandalous. Instead, ICOR-Europe must fight for the right to flee, on an anti-fascist basis, as ICOR has repeatedly stated in its resolutions.

The events in Ceuta are also so repulsive because Europe’s entire asylum system has once again led to fatal accidents: On July 31, approximately 100 people died at Europe’s borders. The Dutch Minister for Asylum Affairs, Van der Brink (Christian Democratic Party), said that human traffickers were to blame, but the root cause is the mass-hostile imperialist world system, of which he is a representative.

We must fight these reactionary governments and their fascist accomplices, who exploit the hopes of 70,000 people for a better life to stoke anti-refugee sentiment. And they want to use this opportunity to force the Spanish government—which defends certain progressive positions—to change course.

No repressive measures—not even the EU pact—can prevent people from wanting to flee war and misery and seek a better life. If controls at Europe’s borders are further tightened, it will result in more people drowning in the Mediterranean or being forced to eke out a cruel existence in concentration camp-like facilities. But as long as the profit-driven economy reigns and the imperialists ensure that it is difficult or impossible to live in ever-larger parts of the world, people will flee.

The ruling class and their governments in Europe are doing everything they can to stoke fear among the people—fear that they will lose their existing gains. But it is the capitalist monopolies that instruct their governments to attack the gains of the working people. ICOR must stand up for the unity of the working class and against the divisions that racists and fascists seek to sow in order to divert attention from the struggle. For when we expose the roots of racist ideas, we find not some supposedly innate human trait like intolerance, but big capital in all its ugliness. Capital seeks to continue enriching itself unhindered. It enriches itself through the labor of workers in Europe and through the plundering of other countries. Big capital can only do this unhindered if it pits the working population—regardless of nationality—against one another. That is why we must consciously view and organize the common struggle for the interests of workers and laborers as an international struggle.

You cannot convince people with numbers alone, but the figures are clear: According to the UNHCR, for example, there were 262,974 refugees in the Netherlands as of January 1, 2026. The population there is 18.2 million. The number of refugees amounts to less than 0.015% of the population. Worldwide, approximately 117 million people will be forced to flee in 2025, of whom about 68 million will have to remain in their home countries.

ICOR-Europe should advocate for the right to seek refuge, just as we have always done. In my opinion, it is necessary to more aggressively challenge the divisive and chauvinistic policies of the monopoly parties and to promote the joint struggle with migrants and refugees as a positive, internationalist cause.

In the Netherlands, Rode Morgen, of which I am a member, has the slogan: “No one should have to flee anymore, but everyone must be welcome everywhere.” This looks toward the future, toward a classless society to which we aspire. To achieve this, we need a revolutionary social transformation—an international socialist revolution that puts an end to imperialism and unjust wars, a revolution that eliminates famine and environmental destruction worldwide.

So let’s strengthen the ICOR!