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Fact Sheet: Political Walls Today

USA

• The border between the U.S. & Mexico is the most frequently crossed border in the world. 250 million people cross each year. 56 million cross each year at the San Diego-Tijuana border alone.
• There are 12 million illegal immigrants in U.S.A.
• In 2006, President George W. Bush signed The Secure Fence Act. Fences had first begun to be erected in the 1990's in US - Mexican border towns.
• Friendship Park, San Diego. In 1971, First Lady Pat Nixon rededicated the park as an affirmation of friendship between the US & Mexico. It had been the birthplace of the US-Mexican border in the 19Th Century. Now an impenetrable fence on the beach divides the two countries.
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had all environmental laws protecting sensitive areas waived to build the fence along its border with Mexico.
• Before 1994 there were no migrant deaths reported in the desert in Arizona - since then 4,000 bodies have been found and likely many more unrecorded. The construction of border walls and fences are funneling people, forcing them into taking extremely dangerous alternate routes into the US. These desert crossings have a parallel to the drownings of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa in order to reach Europe.

EUROPE

• Walls were built around Ceuta & Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, in 1999. They were financed by the EU and are guarded by Morocco in exchange for development aid.
• The walls there force migrants to take more dangerous routes through Libya and across the Mediterranean, resulting in drowning from capsized boats, inflatable boats shot at and sunk, suffocation in containers, etc.
• At least 13,250 persons have died in their desperate attempt to find a safe shelter in Europe since 1993.
• There are dozens of detention centres for migrants throughout the EU.

ISRAEL

• In Sept. 2000, the Camp David Accord collapsed. This prompted the beginning of the Second Intifada.
• Israel began fence construction in 2002.
• Only 3% (15 miles) is an actual 30 ft. concrete wall, mainly in urban areas in order to take up less space. The rest is a series of fences with high tech sensors and monitoring devices which need 50 ft. trenches on either side for security. They take up more land. All monitored by Israel from bunkers.

Some of the Walls Constructed since 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall)

Morocco - Polisario front
Morocco - Spain
Israel - Occupied Territories
USA - Mexico
North Korea - South Korea
India - Bangladesh
Botswana - Zimbabwe
Saudi Arabia - Yemen
Saudi Arabia - Iraq
Cyprus
Thailand - Malaysia
Pakistan - Afghanistan
Ireland - Peace walls
Uzbekistan - Tajikistan
Iraq - Kuwait
United Arab Emirates - Oman
United Arab Emirates - Kuwait
India - Kashmir
Georgia - Abkhazia
Padua, Italy - between migrant area & the rest of the city.