Description
The Western Balkan Corridor unfortunately has become a symbol of racial violence and barbaric atrocities against the people on the move. This gruesome subjugation of migrants and their unending plights are intertwined with the institutional racism of the EU border regime, which altogether underpinned the othering of some migrants based on their race and religion. Despite being officially recognized as deserving migrants, Afghans can hardly meet the implied criterion for qualifying and therefore, they overwhelmingly constituted the category of irregular migrants. The externalization and contracting of the EU border regime came into traction for stemming the “undeserving” migrants amenable to the securitization of Europe and for the plausible absolving of the EU for the gross human rights violations of people on the move in the Balkan route. Nevertheless, the Afghan migrants also endure double jeopardy for their susceptibility to racial prejudice and for the systemic right-wing attacks targeting them for their Muslim identity while transiting to Europe. This paper argues how the binary of Europeans and non-Europeans and perceived threats from Muslim asylum seekers to Christian Europe determines as well as legitimizes the racial borders beyond the EU territories and thus, reconstructing the European colonies in the peripheries.
