Abolish Frontex activities at World Refugee Day

In several countries actions and other activities were organised on and around World Refugee Day, 20 June 2025, following the call for actions to ‘Abolish Frontex and stop the expansion of Fortress Europe‘. A short impressium:

Belgium

The Belgian Abolish Frontex group organised a walk without borders in the European quarter in Brussels, on the theme of ’Who benefits from crime? An investigation led by artists who brilliantly rose to the challenge while deciphering the inner workings of the militarisation of borders and its victims.

“The constant anti-migration measures adopted by the European institutions, under the insistent fallacious pretext of ‘security’ measures, are trying to suffocate us in order to normalise and pretend that rampant militarisation is essential. But who is behind all these misleading declarations? It’s obvious that, as always, there are winners behind the speeches that insist on the absolute need for defense and this arms race.

Our question : who profits from this crime? 
An investigation was carried out with the help of renowned inspectors and the exceptional presence of Oursoula Von der Linceuil, diplomats, lobbyists, Carinas volunteers and the Frontex director. A meticulous investigation was carried out in the streets of Brussels to the sound of brass bands, accompanied by singers, music and dance. 
With the participation of the artists Johara Belhmane, Kevin Lerat, Matthieu Thonon, Marie-Laure Vrancken and Raoul Les Mécaniques.
The ballade lasted 3.5 hours and ended in front of the European Parliament, where speeches allowed us to draw collective conclusions. Our way, to show our support for the people who try to reach Fortress Europe.”
Germany

In Berlin there was a poster action on the German financial contribution to Frontex (posters are available here) Website) and a critical bike tour about border profiteers in Berlin. In Aachen ‘Abolish Frontex’ was painted on the street for the visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. And in Bonn there was an Abolish Frontex picnic against borders.

Italy

In Italy, with a press conference, an internal workshop and a launch event, Refugees in Libya and Alliance with Refugees in Libya started a new campaign ‘Stop Memorandum Italy-Libya‘ against the automatic renewal of the infamous memorandum on migration cooperation between the two countries. The campaign also includes the demand to ‘Stop Frontex sending coordinates of refugee boats to Libyan criminal militias’.

The Netherlands

In The Netherlands the action day coincided with the lead-up to the NATO Summit in The Hague, where NATO members agreed to drastic increases in military spending. There were several actions and other activities regarding this summit, including two workshops on border militarisation, Frontex and the role of NATO at the Countersummit and the NeeTo action camp.

 

 

The Madleen Declaration

20 June 2025 – Abolish Frontex co-signed the Madleen Declaration, put forward by the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, which ties together crises of border violence and refugee deaths at sea, extractivism and fossil fuel dependence, militarism, Big Tech and corporate power, the genocide in Palestine, and environmental destruction in the Mediterranean – and argues urgently for a transformative social, environmental and political alternative.
“In place of war and genocide, we demand a free Palestine.
In place of racialised and deadly borders and blockades we demand free movement.
In place of destructive and polluting rearmament programmes and aid budgets being torn apart, we demand wages and housing and humanity.In place of tech billionaires’ dreams of mass surveillance and control, we demand that humanity’s technological capabilities are harnessed towards increasing, not restricting our freedom.
In place of climate and environmental destruction and extraction we demand a just transition, the restoration of our natural world, and cheap clean energy for all.”

Read the complete declaration on the website of The Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy.

Abolish Frontex and Stop the Expansion of Fortress Europe – Call for 20 June (World Refugee Day) international action days

27 April 2025 – Abolish Frontex, a grassroots network of organisations and groups working to end the EU border regime, calls for actions on and around World Refugee Day (Friday, 20 June 2025). While the EU keeps expanding its border infrastructure and increases deportations with the growing involvement of Frontex, which is directly funded by the European Commission, the lives and rights of people on the move are under constant attack. We need to keep protesting and resisting. 

Continue reading “Abolish Frontex and Stop the Expansion of Fortress Europe – Call for 20 June (World Refugee Day) international action days”

New dimension in border surveillance: Frontex wants to send millions in technology into the stratosphere

7 April 2025 – The EU border agency wants to close a “gap” between aircraft and satellites with high-flying platforms. Spain is already using the technology against migration over the Atlantic. A test flight over the Mediterranean will take place this summer.

Frontex wants to fly so-called High Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS) in the stratosphere in future, thereby closing an alleged gap between aircraft and satellites that are already used for border surveillance. In 2022, the EU had already launched a three-year research project for a total of €7 million to integrate the systems. This also looked at their suitability for border surveillance.

With the end of the project approaching, Frontex organised a so-called HAPS Industry Day at its headquarters in Warsaw on last Thursday. There, manufacturers were able to promote the possible use of their pseudo-satellites for migration defence and demonstrate their capabilities.

Read the complete article on the website of Matthias Monroy.

[EN/ES/FR/IT] This Pact kills!

[Spanish/French/Italian below]

10 April 2025 – Nothing to celebrate! 

Transnational Action Day against the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum

Everywhere, the same logics of oppression are strangling us. From Belgrade to Athens, from Rome to Brussels, governments stifle the most precarious, destroy solidarity and oppress those who refuse to bow down. They impose a world where survival is a daily struggle, where borders kill and where people are criminalized.

On 10 April 2024, the EU Parliament adopted the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum despite the fierce opposition of many of us. The Pact is a tool to organize and legitimize a cruel system of tracking, filtering, exploiting, detaining and deporting people. It intends to isolate, invisibilize, precaritize, and criminalize people arriving to Europe; it is de facto abolishing the right to move and to asylum in Europe.

This Pact kills solidarity. This Pact kills rights. This Pact kills people.

Continue reading “[EN/ES/FR/IT] This Pact kills!”

On Frontex’s unaccountable responsibilities in Pylos state crime

A lot has been written about the denial of rescue, negligence and life-threatening actions of the Hellenic Coast Guard that constituted the state crime of Pylos. More than 600 people were drowned due to the direct actions and omissions of the responsible agents of the Greek state. The shipwreck of Pylos is one of the deadliest in the contemporary history of the Mediterranean, and the deadliest incident, which was directly caused by the actions of a state actor, since WW2 in Europe in time of “peace”. While the Greek state’s agencies that are responsible must be held accountable, European authorities and in particular Frontex’s involvement in this state crime must also be called into question and held responsible for their actions and omissions.

Read the full statement here.

Neither forget nor forgive. Freedom of movement! – World day of action against the border death regime and to demand truth, justice and reparations for migration victims and their families

Full call in English – Francais – Español – Italiano – عربي

27 January 2025 [message from Comméraction] – On February 6, 2024, a major transnational mobilization marked the 10th anniversary of CommemorAction. On February 6, 2025, we aim to further amplify this mobilization in support of the families of those who have died or disappeared during migration.

On February 6, 2014, more than 200 people departed from the Moroccan coast and attempted to swim to the Tarajal beach in the Spanish colonial enclave of Ceuta. To prevent them from reaching “Spanish soil,” the Guardia Civil used riot control equipment, while Moroccan soldiers stood by, allowing people to drown in front of them. Fifteen bodies were recovered on the Spanish side, dozens more went missing, and the survivors were pushed back, some of whom perished on the Moroccan side.

For more than thirty years, the direct or indirect violence of border regimes has continued to cause death and disappearances along migratory routes. Shipwrecks occur in succession, often marked by the lack of assistance and, at times, the active involvement of coast guards and Frontex. The number of people disappearing without a trace, either at sea or in the desert, keeps increasing. Meanwhile, efforts by authorities to search for and identify bodies are often hasty and fail to involve the families affected by these losses.

For more than thirty years, families and loved ones, associations, and all those fighting for equal mobility rights have continuously demanded truth and justice for these victims. They have highlighted the responsibilities of racist migration policies, worked to expose these responsibilities, and supported families and loved ones in their painful search for the missing and identification of victims.

Starting in 2024, the Commemor-Action network launched a website to compile mobilizations held annually on February 6. The platform also aims to highlight the collective, coordinated, and shared dimensions of these actions. These mobilizations reflect the unwavering commitment of associations, collectives, and, above all, families seeking truth and justice.

We call on all social and political organizations, secular and religious groups, victim families’ collectives, and citizens worldwide to organize protest and awareness-raising actions on February 6, 2025. We invite you to use the logo above, alongside your own logos, as a symbol of the connection between all the different initiatives. Please share information about your initiatives with us (preferably before February 6) to help make the collective mobilization visible through the Commemor-Action website.

To endorse this call, you can write to: Email: globalcommemoraction[a]gmail.com
Facebook Group – Facebook Page – Past Commemor-Action Page

Migrate to live, not to die! They are people, not numbers!
Freedom of movement for all!

 

Deportations: New role for Frontex as EU pushes for more “voluntary” returns

13 January 2025 – In August 2023, Bulgarian and European Commission (EC) officials met to discuss a “targeted assisted voluntary return project” as part of the Commission’s Pilot Project in the country.

The “Pilot Project for fast asylum and returns procedures” had been launched in Bulgaria and Romania a few months prior to create “ad hoc solutions” to some of the issues preventing the two countries from finalising their accession to the Schengen area.

Some of these “solutions” included the continuation of pushbacks against people on the move. Balkan Insight revealed the widespread – if not systematic – pushbacks at the EU’s eastern and south-eastern borders in February last year.

Another “solution” was the implementation of “an updated AVR [Assisted Voluntary Return] programme in Bulgaria, with the deployment of additional Frontex return counsellors and technical assistance from the Commission,” according to a document obtained by Statewatch through an access to documents request.

Read the whole article by Hope Barker and Anas Ambri on the website of Statewatch

Open Letter: Frontex’s 20th anniversary should also be its last

26 October 2024

Dear Ms. Ursula von der Leyen,

October 26 will mark the 20th anniversary of Frontex, the EU’s border agency. It should also mark the last.

Frontex is a deadly failed experiment. It has made countless people less safe, eroded the values and ideals the European Union claims to hold dear, and provided a backdoor into government for corporate power. 

Continue reading “Open Letter: Frontex’s 20th anniversary should also be its last”

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