Divest Borders, a student-led campaign group, are lobbying universities to divest from organisations that are complicit in the UK’s repressive border regime. 

A student movement has uncovered an uncomfortable truth about the universities they attend: they invest in large corporations that financially gain from supporting the border industry, including British Airways, TUI, G4S, Serco, Accenture, and Mitie. 

Divest Borders has accused these companies of perpetuating the heinous acts of violence and neglect inflicted upon migrants at the UK border. 

According to the group, the commodification of the border industry has given it the tools to enforce more austere, militaristic measures. The industry is now so lucrative that the organisations that provide the resources and services are highly influential in the development of draconian migration policies.

Given that they are highly reputable institutions, universities also give border industry companies a ‘social licence to operate’.

So are universities using the tuition fees of their students, many from overseas, to contribute to the maltreatment and suffering of other migrants at the UK border?

The inhumane practices of the border regime

The blanket term ‘Border Violence’ is used by Divest Borders to refer to the emotional and physical violence that migrants endure in an attempt to prevent them from crossing the border. 

Numerous incidents have led to human rights groups claiming that the regime has been militarised since organisations have had an economic incentive to support the border industry. Border control guards are permitted to act violently towards migrants with impunity.

According to accounts from those protecting the rights of people fleeing war and famine, migrants are often subjected to physical abuse at the border and along essential routes to the border, sometimes resulting in death. Sexual violence towards refugee women and girls, particularly in camps, is also very much prevalent.

In Calais, guards have also been reported taking away migrants’ food, shelter, and possessions in an attempt to reduce morale. 

The negligence of migrants’ safety puts their lives on the line. ‘Pushback’ operations used by patrol boats are used to block migrants from reaching land, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands in the Mediterranean and the Channel. And now safe routes are being eliminated, migrants are extremely vulnerable to traffickers. 

But survivors of border violence are still not safe. 

Even if migrants successfully reach the other side of the border, they face strict and invasive border surveillance systems, where they have their every move tracked. They are forced to provide huge amounts of personal data without being told how it will be used or shared, and they have their phones confiscated immediately.

Once in the UK, they’re at risk of being detained and face the incessant threat of deportation. Thousands of migrants are held in detention centres every year, where they are forced to live in the worst conditions imaginable. Again, they are subjected to negligence, physical and sexual violence, racial and xenophobic abuse, and are often refused medical care.

This depraved system has been found to be responsible for the deaths of detainees, and yet they are rarely ever properly investigated. In September 2019, Oscar Lucky Okwurime, a black Nigerian detainee, was found dead in his cell. The inquest deduced that Okwurime was killed as a result of substandard medical care, but the Home Office were accused of undermining investigations into his death and deporting witnesses before they could provide evidence.

Withstanding the current system

We must hold the Government and the border industry accountable for this inherently violent system, which disproportionately targets non-white minorities and those who don’t have the means to financially benefit the country.

The Home Office’s ‘Hostile Environment’ policies deliberately attempt to make the lives of migrants as difficult as possible. For example, those who cannot provide the required documents, i.e. ‘illegal immigrants’, are banned from using essential services like the NHS, do not have the right to work, and cannot rent accommodation. 

The first step in creating change is to resist the Hostile Environment policies. The system relies heavily on the support and cooperation of the general public, so our resistance is a powerful tool for minimising its influence. Campaigns such as These Walls Must Fall and Unis Resist Border Controls are currently carrying out some really important work to reform and eventually overhaul the system. 

Also, by tarnishing the reputation of the companies that invest in the border industry, and trying to break up their relationship with the state, we have a chance of minimising border violence. If the Home Office and the border industry no longer have the resources or support from these companies, it will reduce their power to enact such repressive measures.

To effectively take action, Divest Borders encourages us to:

• Stigmatise involvement in the border industry, increase the social/reputational cost of taking on these contracts

• Incentivise investors to move away from the industry by explaining the risks associated with continued investment 

• Fracture the relationship between the border industry, the government and public institutions such as universities 

• Build support and coalitions to resist.

To find out more about Divest Borders’ campaign aims, visit https://peopleandplanet.org/divest-borders. 

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