The European Union is surrounded by 78000 km of borders, a number that should doubled if we take account of the internal borders’ expanse of Member States. Since the mid eighties, the states of the European Union have been increasingly reinforcing migration controls not only on their borders but also in countries of migration’s origin and transit areas for migrants. That change makes migration roads more dangerous and obliged the poorest to stay in their situation.

To understand these migration policies’ evolution and consequences, this critical atlas offers us a qualified view on the subject, by presenting some realities usually misunderstood from people in large. Following that purpose, Migreurop gathered information about a reality not only hard to comprehend because of the wide geographical scale it deals with, but also allusive since European Governments try to conceal it.

Each subject explored (about thirty : European visa policy, transit camps, family entry and settlement etc...) is presented in a didactic and illustrated three-pages report in which photos and figures complete geographical maps.

Atlas available in French bookstores or by contacting the publishing firm Armand Colin

Table of contents :

(english translation of the titles)

Part 1

Globalized but hindered migrations

1 Migrants in the world 6

2 Asylum seekers, refugees, displaced people, rejected people...Toward a world with no asylum ? 10

3 The Ecologic crisis, multiplier effect of migrations 14

4 The right to leave, a forgotten right 16

5 The United Nation migrant workers convention 19

Part 2

The international migrations control : toward an increasing protectionism ?23

6 Within European Union : a problematic freedom of movement 24

7 The European visa policy 28

8 Air and port transit visas or how to prevent asylum seeker from reaching European lands 31

9 Liaison officers about to leave 34

10 European neighboring policy : the Moldavian example 37

11 Frontex, an agency in the Europe margins, outside the international law 41

12 Migration policies externalization 45

13 DUBLIN II : orbit the asylum 49

14 Faraway European policy bastions 53

15 The last border, information and immigration control 57

Part 3

Detention at the heart of the immigration and asylum European policies 61

16 To call a camp a camp 63

17 Evolution of open or close camp in Europe and at the European borders 66

18 Camps functioning and modalities 70

19 Close camps in Belgium, between arbitrary detention and punitive insulation 74

20 Human and economic costs for detention of foreigners in the East part of Europe 77

21 South of Europe : the border-camps 81

22 Readmission agreements : a cooperation to send people back better 84

23 In view of the local political stakes, aid for development in exchange of forced returns : the REVA plan in Senegal 88

24 Expulsion costs : the French example 91

Part 4

European policies or reconsideration of fundamental rights 95

25 Buffer zones in Morocco 96

26 Informal camps : in France, the Calaisis example 99

27 Wanderings on the internal and external borders of Europe 102
28 Three millions of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan with no solution 105
29 The Middle-East, main welcoming area for Iraqi refugees 109

30 Chechny migration : a war that never ends 112

31 Death at the border : the roads change but the tragedies remain 116

32 Maritime international conventions reconsideration ? 119

33 Directive on family reunification : a series of backward steps ? 123

34 Isolated minors in Europe : illegal migrants or children in danger ? 126

35 Illegal immigrants in Europe : administrative arbitrary and offense of solidarity 130

36 Migration, globalisation, and transnationalism : which ability to act for the most vulnerable ?

Bibliography 139

The autors 143