Migration Policy As A Tool Of Capitalist Exploitation

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Current Discussion EU Iran Middle East Migration

Contribution by Rachel Hurley Roche

With the assassination of Ali Khamenei and subsequent war being waged on Iran by the United States and Israel, many people in the Middle East are faced with displacement. The war has quickly expanded to include many other countries in the Middle East such as Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar with isolated strikes also hitting Turkey, Azerbaijan and a separate conflict also taking place between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Already bourgeois media is speaking of a new ‘unprecedented’ migration crisis.¹ In many cases this is only understood as a crisis from the viewpoint capital, rarely do those directly affected get due consideration. The prospect of an extended war undoubtedly presents the working class of the Middle East and wider region with a difficult situation and many will rightfully opt to seek refuge. However, with the increasingly restrictive migration policy of the European Union this is becoming more difficult.

In the first seven days of the conflict currently taking place between Iran and Israel/USA anywhere from 300,00-500,000 persons are estimated to have become displaced.² It is challenging to gain an accurate understanding of the true figures in times of war due to censorship, clandestine crossings, and chaos within local authorities. Of those displaced over 100,000 are estimated to have fled Tehran in just the first 2 days of the bombing campaign against Iran, most of which are internally displaced.³ Those recently displaced join the 24.3M displaced and returnees from 2025 across the Middle East.⁴

In 2015 over 1 million migrants made their way towards Europe.⁵ The Majority of these refugees were Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghani fleeing the devastating wars and ensuing humanitarian crises in their respective countries. This inward flow was designated by the EU as a major crisis, and was considered to be a matter of urgency. Many EU member states closed or militarised their borders with many refugees being attacked by security forces or organised militias. Both Bulgaria and Hungary erected fences along their borders, in the case of Hungary it was after deporting migrants to the Austrian border while in Slovenia migrants were repelled through the use of police violence.⁶⁷⁸⁹ This was condemned by other member states as not being in the spirit of the principle of freedom of movement within the EU. However, there was no definitive action taken to prevent some member states from doing this. As usual, the ‘values and principles’ of the European Union were nothing more than an illusion. The policy of the EU toward the massive increase in refugees seeking asylum in Europe was one of deterrence, marred by significant failure to ensure basic facilities for refugees in their arrival country. The issue the EU would then struggle with was how to prevent migrants from entering Europe in the first instance.

In March 2016, an agreement was signed between Turkey and the European Union. Turkey agreed to tighten their border security at its shores, and also to accept the return of all migrants who had entered Greece from Turkey. In exchange for this Turkey was rewarded with over 6 billion euros, reinvigoration of Turkey’s EU accession talks, and visa free travel from Turkey to the Schengen area was also permitted.¹⁰ As a result of the EU reneging on some of the conditions of the agreement, Erdogan threatened to “open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses.¹¹ Just before the end of the month the first “return” of migrants from Greece to Turkey took place.¹² Turkey clarified that they planned to deport most of these returnees to their home countries from which they had fled. This effectively closed the crossing from the middle east to Europe. As a result, the central Mediterranean sea reemerged as the most popular route into Europe, and would also prove to be the most deadly.

In 2016 Italy signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN recognised Libyan government to stem the flow of migrants via the central mediterranean route.¹³ These agreements allow Libyan stakeholders (comprising the coastguard, internal authorities, as well as incorporated gangs and militias) to intercept migrants at sea, detain them in Libya arbitrarily and indefinitely, and take actions deemed necessary to prevent illegitimate people smuggling in the south of the country.¹⁴ This is facilitated by Italy providing funds, training, boats, equipment, and technical assistance.¹⁵ These memorandums are complemented by the signing of several miscellaneous accords between the EU and African nations, particularly Libya, active since 2017.¹⁶ Migrants are intercepted by the Libyan coastguard at sea and any rescue missions are prevented.¹⁷ Once detained the prisoners on board are brought to Libya, where they are now deemed to have entered illegally and thus can be detained on the basis that they have committed a crime. Detainees in Libyan facilities report extortion by authorities (including gangs and militias) as well as the use of rape, torture, and murder of detainees.¹⁸ Due to the fact that many migrants are trying to evade the Libyan coastguard for fear of what awaits them, combined with the de facto exclusion zone designated by Libyan authorities where others cannot intervene in an emergency, the central mediterranean route is the most deadly migrant crossing in the world. Since 2014 over 26,474 migrants have died via drowning, sickness, violence, and harsh environmental conditions attempting to cross the Mediterranean.¹⁹ A significant number of these are children, and between 2015 and 2025 this was equivalent to one child dying every single day for a decade.²⁰

Today, the EU is continuing to advance deterrence and 3rd country based policies against migrants and refugees, the latest of which is the EU Asylum and Migration Pact(EUAMP).²¹²² (Read the KKE contribution to the teleconference of the European communist action against the EUAMP here). In Ireland, the EUAMP was lauded as a welcome solution to restore harmony and order to the migration system, and a united European effort to take the power back from people traffickers.²³ This is decidedly untrue, which has been clear from the outset. Already, migrants cannot apply for asylum outside of the country in which they wish to apply, and due to laws regulating the carriage of passengers on aircraft they cannot leave their country without a valid passport and visa for their country of destination.²⁴ For many migrants this results in an impossible situation, and their only remaining option is to rely on the services of smugglers and traffickers. The EUAMP imposes further restrictions on migrants and harsher penalties for so-called “irregular entry” including on airlines as well as the migrants themselves.²⁵ This makes it more challenging to reach the borders of the EU in the first place, and even more challenging to gain entry and apply for asylum. As has always been true, the more restrictions imposed the more likely people are to be forced to rely on people smugglers.²⁶ As a result the more money smugglers can charge, the more profit they can make, the more people they can offer their “services” to again and again. Whether migrants arrive at the borders of the EU alive or not is of little importance to them.

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on March 7 said that it is the sole responsibility of the United States and Israel to accept the migrants and refugees which will be created from their imperialist intervention in Iran.²⁷ This is neither a realistic nor a compassionate solution as it is framed. In capitalist society migrants are treated as either a commodity or a burden, depending on the needs and interests of capital at a given time. When labour shortages harm the plans of the capitalists they seek to enfranchise more migrants to the workforce, and when migrant labour is no longer needed they claim that it is time to close the borders and that we must protect our nation.²⁸²⁹ We are now entering a period of increasing reaction where the latter position is becoming more widespread.³⁰ The working class is an international class and often migrants are the most exploited strata of workers. They are also the direct victims of imperialist war and intervention which has grown massively since the victory of the counter revolution in 1991.

Many so-called Communist and Workers parties are again sleepwalking toward opportunism and reaction on this issue, bending to what they understand to be the viewpoint of the working class (in reality it is a bourgeois viewpoint). These parties are totally intoxicated with the divisive propaganda of the ruling class. It is the responsibility of communists to articulate the causes for the so-called migrant crisis while also acknowledging that people migrate in line with their material interests and their need to survive. Communists have a responsibility to organise migrant workers with particular attention to their special conditions and precarity, while also strengthening the fight against the racist narratives of the ruling class, that are infecting the working class and in turn sowing disunity and weakening the struggle for workers power.

Migration Policy As A Tool Of Capitalist Exploitation

Sources:

Most Popular

Housing Policy In The DDR

End Complicity On Campus

On The Capture Of The Sumud Freedom Flotilla

Workers Are Not Machines: Solidarity With The Working Class of Greece

Notes On Russia and the Imperialist War

Statements

Workers Are Not Machines: Solidarity With The Working Class of Greece

From Occupation To Extermination; The Ground Invasion of Gaza.

On The Designation Of Palestine Action As A “Terrorist” Organisation

The Struggle Of The People Against Imperialism Must Be Strengthened!

Solidarity With The JCV And The PCV