From Europe to America
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is furthering a controversial strategy in managing migration across the EU's external borders. Increased border surveillance, deportations, and collaboration with non-EU countries comprises some of the agency's strategies. Meanwhile, concerns continue to mount over human rights violations, lack of accountability and oversight, and the ever-increasing militarization of border control, as international human rights norms are often at odds with the EU's contentious security measures and migration control strategies.
Intrigued? Find out more regarding Frontex's new plans by reading through this gallery.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is primarily responsible for managing the European Union’s borders.
Frontex was first established as a supplementary resource intended to assist European member states with border control. But its role has become much bigger.
Today, Frontex manages border surveillance, conducts joint operations, facilitates deportations, and coordinates migration management with non-EU countries.
In summary, Frontex can also be described as the real-time operating wing of the European Union’s migration policies.
Having faced widespread criticism for its involvement in human rights abuses and violations of international law, critics have argued that the agency conducts its activities with a lack of accountability and transparency.
Their approach, condoned by the EU, has often been through a militarized strategy. This aggressive approach to immigration control has been questioned by migration oversight organizations.
These concerns have received a standard response from the agency. It prioritizes border security by deterring irregular migration, claiming it operates within legal frameworks.
The analysis of Frontex activities offers an opportunity for Europe’s member states to consider how it can better balance security with the protection of human rights and international law.
The leader of Italy's ultra-right wing government, Giorgia Meloni, is seeking to outsource European border control to non-EU countries on the Mediterranean, risking grave human rights violations.
Meloni, similar to Hungary’s Viktor Orban (pictured), France’s Marine Le Pen, Austria’s Sebastian Kurz, and the Netherlands' Geert Wilders, among others, has taken a strong anti-immigration stance as a central component to her political platform.
The so-called "fight against illegal immigration" is no longer about merely controlling those that come to the borders. The new strategy, of which Frontex is coordinating, is creating partnerships abroad to facilitate the outsourcing of border controls.
This strategy is illegal under international law, as it prevents the right to seek asylum. This right is outlined in Article 14 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the 1951 UN Refugee Convention (and its 1967 Protocol), of which signatories must adhere to.
The focus on what is being deemed as partnerships are essentially economic agreements made with non-EU countries, in which some immigration control is outsourced.
Italy has made Tunisia one of their main partners in this exchange, which has resulted, according to Frontex, in a decrease of 61% of migration flows on the Central Mediterranean route.
Simultaneously, countries like Italy have also criminalized rescue efforts from civil organizations. According to the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, 15 rescue vessels had been detained throughout 2023, this despite some missions being coordinated by the Italian authorities.
Non-profit organizations, such as the NGO Open Arms, are facing repeated detention orders and fines of several thousand euros. Some rescuers have faced jail time.
According to the Missing Migrants Project, over the course of the last decade more than 30,500 migrants have died or are missing in the Mediterranean. The vast amount of deaths is due to shipwrecks, as smugglers often overpack migrants on unsafe boats.
Some migrants have also been killed during attempted crossings. A BBC investigation on Greece alone revealed that the Greek coastguard agency was responsible for the deaths of dozens of migrants. Some were deliberately thrown into the water, others pushed back to sea, with rescue missions denied.
As many attempts to enter Europe are conducted through unofficial channels, the numbers of the dead and missing may actually be much higher.
While the rates of what Frontex calls "irregular crossings" are drastically dropping, falling 42% in comparison to 2023, the strategies for border control are becoming more questionable in terms of legality.
Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has recently asked Frontex for support in asking West African countries to supplement immigration control efforts.
While Spanish authorities argue that this strategy is intended to prevent deaths at sea, critics argue that Spain is seeking to use similar strategies as Italy's to export migration control and use loopholes to evade abiding by international law.
Frontex’s, and therefore the EU’s, main strategies involve: border surveillance and monitoring, joint operations and interventions (including with non-EU countries), deportation and ‘return operations,’ among others. Many of these strategies have come with their fair share of critiques.
Frontex deploys surveillance technologies to monitor the EU’s external borders, which allow for real-time tracking of movements across land and sea borders. In addition to issues surrounding the collection of biometric data and not complying with data protection laws, these technologies can also facilitate extrajudicial deportations.
Border interventions and joint operations, including with repressive regimes, risk not only violence for those attempting to cross borders, but also dangerous consequences for those returned to areas where they are at risk of violence or death, contributing to a cycle of abuse.
One major area of controversy has also been deportation strategies that Frontex has used. Frontex plays a big role in organizing the return of those who are denied asylum, or are accused of entering Europe illegally.
Frontex’s deportation strategy, as outlined in previous slides, includes sending returned migrants to third-party non-EU countries to facilitate migrants’ return. In addition to issues of accountability and oversight, these procedures are dubious in terms of where migrants actually end up and what conditions they are in.
The broader discussion on collaboration with non-EU countries in facilitating deportations, managing borders and migrant flows, and exchanging intelligence information is preventing people at risk of harm from accessing their right to seek asylum.
Partnerships with countries like Turkey, Libya, and Morocco, which have been central to Frontex's strategy, have also been criticized for their impact on human rights. With the impending expansion of this strategy and the inclusion of more non-EU countries, the potential violation of international law is ever growing.
Sources: (Le Monde) (ECRE) (BBC) (InfoMigrants) (Reuters) (Frontex) (Euronews) (MSN) (EuroMed Rights) (CEPS)
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Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is furthering a controversial strategy in managing migration across the EU's external borders. Increased border surveillance, deportations, and collaboration with non-EU countries comprises some of the agency's strategies. Meanwhile, concerns continue to mount over human rights violations, lack of accountability and oversight, and the ever-increasing militarization of border control, as international human rights norms are often at odds with the EU's contentious security measures and migration control strategies.
Intrigued? Find out more regarding Frontex's new plans by reading through this gallery.