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https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/making-money-eu-migration-policies-libya-180102100915057.html
Already in Gaddafi's era, the police, military and smuggling sectors were thoroughly interconnected, to the point that many people caught in that system were unable to distinguish between them. They were, and still are, all kidnapping, brutalising and robbing people trying to reach Europe.
This is one reason why the European political narrative on combating smugglers is problematic: The union has in effect, been collaborating with the very people they claim to be combating.
What is more, for the last 15 years, the need for smugglers' services has been inversely proportional to the availability of legal migration paths.
The smuggling industry has boomed in North Africa in parallel with the massive expansion of European border control in the 2000s. In the process, the EU gradually closed legal work, education and humanitarian migration paths and launched militarised border control operations like Triton, Sophia, and Poseidon.
As a result, migration has been relegated to ever-more dangerous routes and more profit-oriented and cynical operators. In that sense, the European politicians have been creating the most favourable conditions possible for the smuggling industry.
Making money from 'migration control'
Ultranationalism and racism are not the only driving forces behind the European militarisation of border control. The EU's perceived need to invest in upgraded control measures has boosted the border control industry which has made billions out of selling equipment and services to curb migration.
The externalisation of European border control to North Africa has precipitated the creation of a highly profitable subsidised export market for Europe's arms, security and IT industries.
Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of actors have viewed border control as a lucrative market and have lobbied for its expansion. Companies such as British BAE Systems, Italian Leonardo (formerly Finmeccanica), French Thales and Airbus, US Boeing and HP have been actively competing for border security contracts.
The export of control equipment like IT databases, drones, fighters, jeeps, biometric tools, ships and radar equipment may not appease racist and nationalist circles in Europe, but it does make a lot of money. The international market for such technology is estimated to be worth $56bln by 2022.
Also involved are the stockholders and credit regimes associated with international banks, investment firms, and hedge funds which provide and circulate the capital underpinning the European border control industry.
In the 2000s, for instance, Italian Finmeccanica played a crucial role supporting the externalisation of "migration control" to Libya through contracts for border systems, vessels, aeroplanes, drones and helicopters.
These contracts, along with the international legitimacy derived from having closer relations with the EU, helped Gaddafi consolidate power and pushed refugees into a deeply exploitative system. The brutality they suffered was just as bad as the one we hear of today but was far less covered by the media, as it had limited access to the country under the Gaddafi regime.
It was credit institutions that facilitated such contracts. In 2010, for instance, more than two dozen such companies guaranteed Finmeccanica a five-year revolving credit line worth $2.8bln.
This was coordinated by BNP Paribas and UniCredit, but also included Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, JP Morgan and others.