Gerard Gender Securitization and Transit
Over the past few decades, there has been a rise in the number of refugees leaving Africa to seek political asylum in Europe. This, in turn, prompted the European Union to put in place measures to deter the efforts of these refugees, due to ‘security concerns’ as cited in their securitization program. These refugees come from as far as Somalia to Malta, a member state of the EU, through Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, and then across the Mediterranean (Gerard and Pickering 344). While in these countries, refugees are prone to extensive structural violence that often goes undocumented.
The EU has shifted its border security from the south of Europe to North Africa in a bid to curb immigration of illegal refugees. This new change has been achieved by partnering with North African states such as Libya and through bilateral treaties between EU countries and these countries. As a result, there has been an increased rate of refugee transition to Malta through Libyan shores. Before reaching the EU and securing protection, these ‘transit’ refugees suffer systematic violence in the various countries they have to pass through. Although academic studies on the matter have no actual empirical data to support this, they have linked more women to violence as opposed to the number of men (Gerard and Pickering 342). In Libya, the refugees enjoy some level of protection. The other countries in between do not have treaties to protect the refugees, thus, the observed violence in the route.
In summary, due to the upsurge of refugee migration to EU member states, the union has put in place measures to help protect them from numerous cases of violence. The result has been increased time in the refugee travel, exposing them to more systemic violence in countries that do not have the treaty to protect them. This violence is gender-linked as it has been observed to affect more women than men.
Work Cited
Gerard, Alison, and Sharon Pickering. “Gender, Securitization and Transit: Refugee Women and the Journey to the EU.” Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 27, no. 3, 2014, pp. 338-359.
