Dogs, no matter how we view them, are animals. To force human beings to eat like dogs, and under conditions worse than how a dog feeds, is intolerable. But that is what is going on in “God’s own country” the United States, US. It has been plucking alleged illegal immigrants, or those with supposed criminal records, off the streets.
Some are fished out of farms, offices or homes and treated like dangerous terrorists. But wherever you stand on this issue, the image of such persons in US protective custody being made to kneel with their hands chained behind their backs while eating from disposable plates placed on chairs in front of them, cannot be excused. Even when dogs eat, their limbs are not chained.
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When prisoners of war, POWs, eat, international law forbids their being tortured or deprived of their fundamental human rights. So, to treat immigrant detainees as sub human beings, hold them in buses, overcrowded detention centres and under appalling sanitary conditions, are crimes against humanity. To haul such people and dump them in third countries they may never have been to or, heard about, are Second World War-type forced deportations.
All those who keep silent in the face of such atrocities, including the European Union, EU, which is never tired talking about human rights, are complicit in these abuses.
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A second image that haunts me is that of a Palestinian girl in Gaza who in the vast ruin of the city with death and devastation around her, was studying for examinations she should have taken two years ago. Given the fact that her school has been wiped out, her home pulverised, city turned into a desert, starvation stares her in the face and death is a present danger, I wondered what gave her the audacity to study for an examination that may never hold. What gave hope to a child to study for a future when the present serves her mainly the possibilities of going down under sniper fire, being sent off by a bomb, hunger or disease?
Given the daily massacres, including 1,026 Palestinians murdered in the last three months at ‘humanitarian’ food centres, and 111, including 80 children, dying of starvation, I have often wondered what Palestinian families tell themselves when they turn in for the night. Certainly, it cannot be ‘good night’ because the possibility of being alive the next day is slim. It may be something like: ‘If we see tomorrow, we will embrace; if we don’t, we’ll meet in Heaven.”
But, must life be so brutish? What kind of union does Europe have when it yells at a Russian drone striking an empty barn in Ukraine, but keeps criminally silent as its ally, Israel, carries out the genocide of Palestinians, especially children, the aged and women? The sing-song of the 27 European countries in their union is: “Israel has the right to self-defence.” As if the Palestinians do not have a right to life.
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The United Nations General Assembly had in 2022, requested the International Court of Justice, ICJ to clarify the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation and war in the Palestinian territories.
The ICJ had on July 19, 2024 ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, settlements on them, territory annexation, denial of Palestinians right to self-determination, and its racial discrimination against Palestinians are illegal. It therefore ruled that Israel must vacate all Palestinian territories, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Additionally, the ICJ ordered Israel to make reparations for damages caused to Palestinians, and countries in the world to neither recognise the illegal occupation nor provide any assistance to Israel in maintaining its occupation.
The US rejected the IJC ruling and a month later approved $17 billion additional aid. The EU was more cunning, it did not voice opposition, but continued to support Israel’s occupation and war in the Palestine.
As late as June 2025, the EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, crowed again that Israel is entitled to self-defence. This is a green light for Israel to continue its occupation and genocide.
The EU is deadlier than the US establishment. But this is not immediately visible because the US regimes are rather crude, while the EU employs camouflage.
For instance, the EU has been silent on the forced deportation of immigrants in the US because it identifies with Trump’s aspirations to ‘Whiten’ America by drastically reducing the number of coloured peoples. The EU has indirectly embarked on a similar journey. It does so partly by paying war lords like General Mohammed Hamdan Hemedti Dagola of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, RSF, and General Khalifa Haftar of the rogue Libyan National Army to use force in preventing African migration to Europe. It also pays governments like the Turkish not just to stop migration to Europe but also take custody of those forced back by EU forces, especially those in Greece. Eventually, if its indirect methods do not yield the expected fruits, Europe is likely to adopt the Trumpian model of forced deportations.
Secondly, the EU is aware that Israel is building a new Europe in the Middle East which is why it has seized Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian lands like the Golan Heights which is being expanded.
Another haunting image in my head is that of over 700 Sudanese who had escaped into Libya in the wake of on-going massacres by crazy Sudanese generals, being forced back into boiling Sudan.
Yet another image: that of some of the worst criminals in the US being deported to Africa. The latest are criminals which the US Homeland Security admits are some of its most “uniquely barbaric” being sent to Eswaini, former Swaziland. The new deportees are from Vietnam, Cuba, Yemen, Jamaica and Laos. So, why would African countries accept these men and what are they supposed to do with them? If some have no criminal records, can they be kept in prison? If they do, is it for them to serve out their terms? If this category were to finish serving their terms, would they be freed in Eswaini, returned to USA, repatriated to their original countries or simply set free to roam the universe?
It is confirmed that a number of the deportees are convicted criminals. But they are not the only ones. The US establishment out-sourcing them and, the governments of the receiving countries like South Sudan, are also guilty.
After the Second World War in 1945, the world said it was setting out to build global peace, security, human rights and upholding international law. Now, 80 years later, it has succeeded in building a universe of criminalities where might is right. Not just a dog eat dog world, but one in which dogs have more rights than humans.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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