This morning from the No Border Camp in Utrecht, Stop the War on Migrants held a picketline at the nearby branch of the German electronics company Rohde & Schwarz (Ptolemaeuslaan 900). With a large banner with the text ‘Abolish Borders’, noise and flyers, it was made clear that the company must stop making money from border control and security. Rohde & Schwarz supplied, among other things, surveillance technology and border control scanners paid for by EU countries to the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia and Libya.
In recent years, for example, the company supplied radios for patrol vessels donated by Italy to the Libyan coast guard for border control. This coast guard is known for committing violence against refugee boats trying to cross from Libya to Malta or Italy. Often informed by the EU border control agency Frontex about the location of boats, they are towed back to Libya. There, refugees disappear into the notorious detention centres.
Rohde & Schwarz supplied Tunisia with body scanners, border control authorities were trained by the German police in their use. In Tunisia, violence against refugees, both at the borders and in domestic racist attacks, is a common phenomenon, fuelled by the authoritarian president Saied and European pressure to keep refugees away from the EU’s external borders.
“We are here today to make Rohde & Schwarz hear that it must stop profiting from violence against refugees”, says Luca, spokesperson for the action. “The European policy of increasingly shifting border control to countries outside Europe results in an increase in violence and human rights violations, while it strengthens authoritarian regimes in countries such as Libya and Tunisia.”
Rohde & Schwarz also supplied communication equipment for border control to Italy and Australia, among other things. The company took part in an industry day of Frontex, which has been heavily criticised for involvement in pushbacks for years. In addition, Rohde & Schwarz collaborates in the military field with shipbuilder Damen, a global major supplier of border patrol vessels.
