The moats of Europe
Border security forces have always used bodies of water as a way to deter migrants but it is often more sinister than that. I have been debating whether itβs worth writing this because I keep thinking that this is common knowledge but then again it might not be. Migration is a topic that I care about very deeply so I am one of those people who actually goes and reads the reports from organisations who monitor and report on the struggles of migrants. It is for this reason that I decided I should write this post because it might reach someone who doesnβt know of this practice. The weaponisation of the natural world against other humans never went away. We may have been separated from the natural world by capitalism but the natural world was integrated into capitalism and is still a means for the ruling elites to protect their interests.
Rivers are often used as borders for separating nations so my comparing them to moats for protection should comes as no surprise. They are often integrated into the securitisation of borders along with other digital technologies that we are all more familiar with. The insidious part of this is that while digital tech is more frequently used to monitor the border, rivers have become a weapon to deter migrants from coming back. Let us take a look at the moats that surround fortress Europe. The Drina river is the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) and Serbia which has become a dangerous obstacle for migrants traveling the Balkan route in the last few years. In August 2024 12 people died when their boat capsized on the river. Itβs difficult to find up to date statistics for how many people have died in the river but according to sources it ranges from 40 to 65 people over the last few years. The real number could be much higher due to the lack of reporting and people being pushed to more remote regions to cross the river. The Sava river that forms a border with BiH and Croatia has also seen its fair share of deaths with 3 migrants dying in December 2025 when their boat capsized. Croatia has recorded at least 10 death on the river over a period of three years. Finally we need to look at the most dangerous border crossing in the world, the Mediterranean sea. The Missing migrants program estimates that just over 35,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014. These are not just numbers but people who had family and friends. They had dreams of a better life but due to the weaponisation of the natural world they were died trying to realise these dreams.
A recent report by Border Violence Monitoring Network(BVMN) discusses the infrastructuring of nature as a deterrent. In the report for the Croatia and Bosnia border there is a section where they gathered testimonies from migrants who were caught by Croatian border guards and forced to cross the river back into Bosnia. This is known as a pushback which is illegal. People are often beaten and stripped of their belongings before being forced to cross the river. In the case of one group consisting of a family with two children ages 4 and 2 as well as a father who is blind had to cross a river. They managed to cross with the help of two other men but said they could have drowned had they not had help. When it comes to the Mediterranean things get much worse as the EU is funding the Libyan Coast Guard and in doing so using them to intercept migrant boats before they reach the EU. This then funnels them back into the slave and detention industry that has been created since the fall of Gaddafi.
These sorts of actions could be a deterrent for some but are also a way for authorities or the state to kill people who they deem as undesirable. They are able to do this as there is enough ambiguity around drowning in rivers or in the Mediterranean that nobody can accurately say that it is part of the operation plan. If you step back and take a look at the whole system them you can see that this is the desired outcome because deterrence has been proven to not work. The discourse around migrants in the EU right now is driven by far right parties who dehumanise them which in turn prevents people from caring about this. The capitalists sit in their fortress while their policies destroy the world outside and when the people come knocking at the gate they enslave or kill them