(Brussels) – “The EU is working harder to keep migrants and refugees at all costs out” of its borders, “by threatening the originating or transit countries with reducing aids to development or withdrawing trade agreements if they do not cooperate with repatriations”. This has been denounced by Bob van Dillen, an expert at Caritas Europe, who, in a piece posted at caritas.eu, reveals the weaknesses of the EU “Migration Partnership Framework” presented on June 7th. The combination of “positive and negative incentives” that cuts funds from structural development programmes “will only damage the people the EU should protect, in the long run”. The EU insists that it is a way to “protect human rights and take care of the causes of illegal migration”, but the problem is “unsafe migration”, which should be fought by increasing “penalties against traffickers” or creating legal access, “forced migration” with effective foreign and security policies but not with funds given to regimes that are guilty of breaching human rights and force people to flee, van Dillen states. The “not in my back yard” policy does not help save lives, it only makes deaths less visible”. The way to go is “to double up efforts to put an end to wars, stop selling weapons, invest to improve people’s living conditions”: not “protect borders, but protect people”.