European migration policy hardened in the ensuing years. Some arrivals are now automatically excluded from refugee status. There are plans to return those whose applications fail more quickly, and the European Union has paid other countries to prevent boats carrying migrants departing in the first place. The policy is as advantageous to Europe as it is exploitative. It permits migration at great personal risk, strips migrants of rights upon entry and turns them into instruments for reproducing a racialized and exploitative economic order.