{"id":35199,"date":"2026-08-07T14:18:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efectocolibri.com\/?p=35199"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:56:45","slug":"pushing-back-against-the-normalisation-of-brutality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efectocolibri.com\/en\/pushing-back-against-the-normalisation-of-brutality\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Back Against the Normalization of Brutality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Op-ed by Nine, Co-Founder and Director, Garabtaag<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI am in a complete security crisis. A person can survive poverty, but no one can survive without safety. If I work, I risk going to prison. If I don\u2019t work, I face starvation. If I go outside, I live in fear of being caught.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My phone pings. It\u2019s a message from Amir, a queer refugee, recalling how one year ago today, he was sent to a detention center in Malaysia after being rounded up in an immigration raid on his workplace. \u201cIt was not just a prison, it was a place where people were punished,\u201d he says. \u201cThe torture I experienced there still affects me at times.\u201d He recalls being beaten for not understanding Malay; he needed medical treatment after his release. None of what he shared came as a surprise: it aligned with the reports that have emerged from Malaysian immigration detention centers for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His UNHCR<\/a> documents weren\u2019t worth much in a country that never signed the UN Refugee Convention<\/a>. But documents should never act as a barrier to rights and dignity. Consider the case of Rahim, a migrant worker in a Kuala Lumpur establishment. When immigration officers raided the house he lived in, he didn\u2019t have his passport – because it had been sent to the immigration department to process his visa renewal. But legal status did not protect him: the same institution that held his passport detained him for two weeks, during which time he, too, was beaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This violence is ever present for certain populations: refugees, Global South migrants, holders of \u2018weak\u2019 passports, low-income workers. It becomes normalized, even as other populations easily breeze past it. The violence that Amir experienced is not over yet: \u201cI am in a complete security crisis. A person can survive poverty, but no one can survive without safety. If I work, I risk going to prison. If I don\u2019t work, I face starvation. If I go outside, I live in fear of being caught.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the first International Migration Review Forum<\/a> (IMRF) in 2022, the obstacles to securing a human-rights-based approach to migration have only multiplied. Though people have migrated since long before passports or borders were imposed, governments the world over are pouring enormous resources into deterring, punishing, and excluding people on the move \u2013 while major factors that propel migration are largely unaddressed. These include conflict, genocide, climate crises, and a global economic system that perpetuates structural inequalities, deepening the Global North-South divide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenges are multiple and interlinked. Among them is the persistent visa apartheid, fuelled by racism and classism, that sets migrants on course for riskier journeys at a high cost, all too often resulting in the loss of life. The climate crisis, while threatening our collective future, disproportionately impacts lower-income, Global South countries. The pursuit of wealth through environmental exploitation continues to take precedence over meaningful action to reduce emissions, while international migration pathways are slow to develop for those displaced due to climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Profitability of Bordering Practices<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A great deal of money meanwhile flows directly from the labor exploitation of migrants, facilitated by formal migration pathways which make distinctions between different categories of non-citizens, creating a two-tier system and depriving those on the losing end of rights and autonomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In transit and destination countries, populist politicians \u2013 deeply invested in nationalist, xenophobic and carceral narratives \u2013 scapegoat those who were born elsewhere, even proudly sharing images of violent interventions by security forces. Then there are the tech corporations which profit from expanding surveillance and enabling discriminatory actions. The heads of these corporations \u2013 whose power is growing to match their unprecedented levels of wealth \u2013 increasingly signal their allegiance to these same political leaders, collaborating on ever more dangerous interventions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In transit and destination countries, populist politicians \u2013 deeply invested in nationalist, xenophobic and carceral narratives \u2013 scapegoat those who were born elsewhere, even proudly sharing images of violent interventions by security forces.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Creeping Carcerality<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Migrants are treated as threats by default, even one which requires a military presence. And although the Global Compact for Migration maintains that migrant detention should be \u2018a measure of last resort\u2019, the practice continues in countries around the world. Human rights violations occur behind locked doors while political points are scored and private profits are made. Criminalization of solidarity is also on the rise, with civilians being prosecuted for attempting to deliver life-saving aid to migrants that states refuse to take on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From \u2018citizens-only\u2019 initiatives to physical harm, politicians and policymakers have to a large extent succeeded in normalizing the notion that human rights do not apply to non-nationals, particularly those with irregular migration status. But the threats faced by migrants today represent a close-up of the threats faced by everyone. Mission creep is underway, from the expansion of surveillance powers to rollbacks of long-won human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must recognize that it is not only the threats that are interlinked: we are collectively interlinked, too. Attempts to divide us based on nationality and immigration status serve to obscure the factors that threaten humanity as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reversing the Trend of Dehumanization<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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We need to collectively advance to a point where it is no longer unusual or radical for migrants to have a say in the policies that impact them more than anyone; and where human rights are not cherry picked based on a person\u2019s documentation or lack thereof. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There are alternatives to this punitive, rights-averse status quo: positive initiatives which have been taken in various countries, by governments and by civil society \u2013 including, crucially, migrant-led groups. We need to collectively advance to a point where it is no longer unusual or radical for migrants to have a say in the policies that impact them more than anyone; and where human rights are not cherry-picked based on a person\u2019s documentation or lack thereof. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing together these concerns, the Spotlight Report on Global Migration 2026<\/a> calls for migration frameworks that are not built around extraction or exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n