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The European Commission transferred more than 500 million euros to mass migration catalyst organizations Save the Children, Development Alternatives Incorporated, Catholic Relief Services, and Mercy Corps between 2021 and 2024, according to a response to a recent inquiry filed by AfD MEP Petr Bystron.
For decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been darlings of the American Deep State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In 2024, the aforementioned NGOs received $1.7 billion from the U.S. government alone. After President Donald Trump decapitated USAID, many NGOs are now struggling to survive (see here, here, here, and here).
“Why does the EU finance American and British NGOs? The EU should serve its member countries, not fund the ideological agenda of foreign countries, mostly with German taxpayers’ money,” MEP Bystron told Border Hawk.
Save the Children: Everyone Can Be Italian
In the Mediterranean, Save the Children collaborated with human traffickers to smuggle migrants from the Libyan coast into Italy.
Il Giornale reported thatGillian Moyes, a rogue captain running the Vos Hestia for Save the Children, boasted in a WhatsApp message in June 2017: “Haha! The lesson learned is that you shouldn’t take 1,000 people. I was strongly tempted to talk to the traffickers’ boats and tell them not to send so many at once.”
This was not humanitarian aid, but an attack on the sovereignty of Italy. Therefore, Italian authorities detained 21 NGO activists for “aiding and abetting illegal immigration.”
However, charges against Save the Children were dropped by an Italian court in April 2024. Save the Children celebrated the decision, demanding the EU create a rescue channel for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
The EU commission claims to support the border protection agency Frontex, but by funding an NGO that has collaborated with human traffickers it is undermining not only its mission of securing the borders of its member states, but the existence of its own people. This is a perfidious double standard, as taxpayers are funding an institution that was never directly elected.
In the first quarter of 2021, the year the EU funding was unleashed, Save the Children helped over 8,500 migrants in Southern Italy settle in Europe.
Recently, Save the Children called for naturalization of 900,000 non-European minors. This demand would turn many of the migrants, who entered Italy illegally, into Italian citizens, protecting them from deportation.
Development Alternatives Incorporated: Election Interference in Nigeria
Under the project “EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria,” Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) seeks to train local media to “combat hate speech and disinformation.” DAI also seeks to strengthen media regulators in Africa.
Calling for tighter media control in Nigeria, which is known for systemic corruption, is remarkable. According to the World Press Freedom Index, Nigeria ranks 122nd out of 180 countries. Peter Obi, a leader of the opposition Labor Party, criticized the government for regularly arresting citizens for posts on social media, raising concerns about EU-backed censorship.
In his speech at the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticized the EU for its attacks on free speech. As Mr. Vance spoke these words, the EU was funding an American NGO to promote similar forms of digital control in Africa.
This is not the first time DAI has been accused of meddling in foreign countries: In December 2009, DAI subcontractor Alan Gross was arrested in Havana for providing Jews in Cuba with illegal communication equipment. After his release, Gross sued DAI and USAID and received $3.2 million in damages. The verdict fueled accusations that DAI was operating as a government front organization to subvert foreign countries.
According to their own website, DAI was founded in 1970 by two former employees of the State Department and USAID – a typical sign of a government cutout. These government ties paid off handsomely for DAI. From 2013 to 2022, USAID financed the NGO with $3 billion, according to White House advisor Mike Benz.
Catholic Relief Services – a Church of Profit
From 2018 to 2021, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) implemented the EU project Curing the Limbo. According to the EU’s website, the program cost €4.9 million and aims to “integrate marginalized groups of non-European migrants” in Greece.
A YouTube video published by the Vatican-run organization teaches migrants how to apply for social welfare. This example shows what the EU Commission seems to understand as “integration” – Europeans pay twice for their own replacement: first, by funding foreign NGOs, and second, by funding welfare checks for foreigners.
State Department documents prove that CRS has been a tool for regime change for decades.
A declassified U.S. embassy cable from Addis Ababa to Washington, dated April 10, 1986, complains that the U.S. was unable to “influence or change” the Ethiopian government.
Luckily, the cable continues, this all changed when relief organization like CRS and Save the Children stepped in: “To the chagrin of the Politburo hardliners, scores of official and NGO Americans are moving all over the country, not only observing relief programs but also gathering information on a variety of important subjects (such as resettlement, villagization, local government, the military, etc) and making valuable contacts with individuals and institutions, both governmental and non-governmental.”
A declassified CIA circular from February 25, 2003 – just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq – noted that governments channel a “significant portion of their humanitarian funding” through NGOs.
In contrast to UN agencies, NGOs have demonstrated a much higher risk tolerance in stabilizing countries after wars. Allegedly, Save the Children and Caritas, an umbrella organization of which CRS is a member, suffer from chronic underfunding.
The arguments in this CIA document make clear: CRS is not about altruism, but about power and influence, backed by the Deep State.
