One of the disadvantages of current representative democracies is the discrepancy between the agenda of the regular citizen and the agenda of leaders and political elites. As the practices of direct democracy lose ground to the dominant-elitist decision making system, people's interest in the fairness of state policies decreases, and criticisms of governing actions are usually isolated and more symbolic than mobilizing.

Romania's foreign and defense policies of the last decade are the result of such a representative system, in which the population is alienated from decision making, rather than represented. Even though this model of democracy based on alienation, manipulation and militarist propaganda is also practiced successfully in Western states in Europe and across the ocean, Romania represents an extreme example of false democracy through the total lack of public debates, referendums, critical civic stands on important foreign policy decisions. The opening of U.S. military bases on Romanian territory, the participation in the war in Afghanistan, the support for the U.S. intervention in Iraq, the secret CIA detention centers, etc. -- the public's opinion was not consulted in any of these cases, and the attempts from the progressive part of civic society, the few pacifist organization and the informal groups of anti-war activists to form a visible public opposition to the dominant discourse failed because of a lack of solidarity. The "euro-atlantic" propaganda launched by the press in Romania has contributed greatly, over time, to Romanians' tacit acceptance of U.S. imperial ambitions, of the war against "Islamic terrorism", and of the criminalization of anti-war resistance (it is enough to remember the mass media abuse before the NATO Summit in 2008, when almost every alarmist news report mentioned the dangerous Western anarchists who were expected in Bucharest) -- the military adventures of the Romanian government thus become generally accepted, considered normal manifestations of "national interest" even though they are completely removed from public interest.

Upon joining the European Union, Romania pledged to help actively ensure the security of the Eastern border of the fortress, by means of surveillance through advanced technologies and the detection and deportation of non-Europeans without proper papers to their countries of origin. But few Romanians know about the involvement of Romanian border police in the expeditions of the European agency dedicated to the hunting of illegal immigrants -- FRONTEX.
The Regulation passed by the Council of the European Union on October 24th 2004 established the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union -- FRONTEX, which since 2005 is based in Warsaw, Poland, and employs over 200 experts -  http://frontex.europa.eu. The main goal of the agency is to ensure the security of the external borders of the EU through assistance and logistical support for the member states, professional training of border guards, and organization of deportations flights, but also through so-called joint-operations to prevent unwanted immigration, far away from the borders of the Union. These operations take place most often at sea and consist of the capture of boats carrying tens, even hundreds of refugees or workers from Africa and Asia, who are then arrested and deported to their countries of origin, or at best placed in detention centers, in inhumane conditions, where even cases of torture have been reported. In the last year, FRONTEX has put into practice a new strategy of immigration control -- the sabotage of immigration attempts directly in countries of origin, on the West coast of Africa (in Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde), but also on the Libyan border, permanently monitored by Agency ships. In cases when only some of the refugees in a group are captured by FRONTEX teams, the rest either are able to escape returning to destination or are declared disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean, the Aegean Sea or the Mediterranean Sea. In July 2008 alone, the official number for people who have died in an attempt to cross the European Union border was 185 persons ( http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/2006/01/june-2008.html). However, these statistics have no impact on European policies. The European Union persists in hunting down illegal immigrants, with Frontex operations prioritized over any potential common actions at European level focused on prevention of the motives that lead people to a desperate flight West and North to countries other than their own, necessary and urgent actions that would support local development in terms of the infrastructure, agriculture and industries of developing countries.

One of the latest FRONTEX missions – Poseidon, is still taking place on the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey, close to the Lesvos Island, and aims to capture Turkish and Afghan immigrants and then place them in the Pagani detention center on Lesvos. The Romanian border police have participated in this common hunt at European level between August and September 2009, which has resulted so far in the arrest of over 150 de immigrants, the efforts of our guards having been recognized by Frontex:  http://www.ziuaconstanta.ro/rubrici/eveniment/frontieristii-romani-laudati-la-frontex-galerie-foto-84976.html. That was one of the very few cases in which the Romanian media has mentioned this European agency in general, and the story was brief and not published nationally. Usually, the authorities avoid disclosing to the public Romania's involvement in such missions. And the public is rarely informed about how the security of European border is being ensured. In the majority of European countries the missions of the Frontex agency are monitored, debated and criticized, while the very way in which the Union selects its immigrants from African and Asian countries is questioned by activists, human rights supporters, and non-governmental organizations. Countless anti-Frontex protests have happened and continue to happen in France, Spain, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Belgium and other countries, and the gestures of solidarity with criminalized immigrants are bringing together diverse social groups. But in Romania, a country that until recently was a constant source of "illegal" immigrants to Western countries, a country where until recently people stood in never-ending line in front of consulates, a country whose people have been and continue to be discriminated in the West based on ethnic criteria, we are not discussing almost at all Romania's participation in the European missions of refugee captures and in the selective European migration policy, we know very little about the daily expulsions of Asian workers from Romania, and we don't know much about FRONTEX either, let alone the less than orthodox methods that they use for ensuring the security of the Eastern border. One explanation would be the ignorance of the press, but there is also the low level of participation and pressure shown by citizens. Even though Romanians have shown on several occasions that they are capable of spontaneous gestures of solidarity with immigrants (for example, the events in front of the Chinese Embassy from last year), the interest in foreign policy decisions and in Romania's military and police involvement in the world is quite low, and here there is only timid and sporadic critical thinking on these topics. For the same reason the title of this article can stir controversies and misunderstandings - international military and security institutions have the trust and the tacit support of Romanian people, so why should we need to be protected from them...?

The wars "against terror" send thousand of refugees to Europe every year, the staggeringly large subsidies from the EU budget that are pumped into the agriculture of Western countries contribute to a continued increase in the exports to African countries and, in effect, to the elimination from the market of local producers who cannot compete with cheap European prices and flee to Europe where they become "illegal" immigrants. The duty of a politically aware European (and thus, Romanian) citizen is to question the policies of the Union that produce these realities, to help, as much as possible, non-European immigrants around him or her, and to look for alternatives to the European model of migration management.

Below you can watch a short video about Frontex missions produced by refugee rights activists before the No Border camp in Lesvos:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOuFo5egBqE&feature=player_embedded#t=83

Original article (in Romanian) published on  http://www.apatrid.net