The move follows the EU parliament’s new guidelines in which illegal migrants can be held in detention centres for up to 18 months before being expelled.
In a televised speech in Venezuela on Wednesday, Chavez said the guidelines showed “signs of fascism” and said countries would have to “build concentration camps” to hold immigrants.
Actually, we already keep people in detention camps, and neo-nazi parties are on the rise accross the EU – with the most alarming developments in Italy, where armed fascist gangs have been terrorising gypsies, immigrants and leftwing student activists.
“Any European country that applies this directive … well we won’t cut off ties but it’s simple, at the very least, our oil will not reach these countries,” he said.
Venezuela sends few immigrants to Europe but Chavez’s comments will support regional allies such as Bolivia and Ecuador who have thousands of citizens living in European countries such as Spain.
Chavez’s comments were echoed by Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, who also said on Wednesday that the new legislation was “racist.”
“We, too, could say that we are going to expel those who have looted and stolen from us, those who imposed policies of hunger and misery, those who exported illness, exploitation, discrimination,” Morales, himself an indigenous Aymara Indian, said.
I think he’s just being sarky, or at least I hope so; Bolivia is one of the countries I have in mind for seeking asylum if the fascists ever take over the UK. Anyway, we’ve already seen a high level of active grassroots opposition to the appalling treatment of asylum seekers, now comes the formal diplomatic pressure to match – and I must say, it’s nice to see the bully nations of the West on the receiving end, for once, of some well-deserved sanctions.
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