7 May 2024 – The Finnish and Italian governments last month presented a plan on “countering instrumentalization of migration and migrant smuggling” to the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, calling for “innovative ways” to address the issues – including by increased cooperation between the EU and NATO. The “non-paper” (pdf) argues that the EU and NATO …
Continue reading “Finland and Italy want more military involvement in migration control”
15 December 2023 – On 18 December 2023, International Migrants Day, activists across Africa and Europe taking part in the Abolish Frontex International Action Day will draw attention to the havoc wreaked on African countries by the EU’s obsession with stopping migration and demand an end to Frontex’s engagement on the continent. Recent investigations revealed …
In advance of the upcoming action day, we talked to the Civil Fleet podcast about Frontex’s wrongdoings on the African continent, the problems with border externalisation, and why the EU border regime needs to be abolished. Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or directly here.
19 November 2023 – The European Commission wants to agree “new anti-smuggling operational partnerships” with Tunisia and Egypt before the end of the year, despite longstanding reports of abuse against migrants and refugees in Egypt and recent racist violence endorsed by the Tunisian state. Material and financial support is already being stepped up to the …
The European architecture for border surveillance has been continuously expanding in an attempt to detect, deter and repel refugees and migrants. For those who manage to enter, they are biometrically registered and screened against large-scale databases, raising serious concerns on privacy violations, data protection breaches and questions of proportionality. Recently Euromed Rights launched a new …
Continue reading “AI in border control and surveillance: Current and future implications”
In 2006 Frontex deployed Hera, its first joint operation outside Europe, in an attempt to intercept migrants travelling by boat from Senegal to the Spanish Canary Islands. This made an already dangerous journey even more difficult and included the involvement in illegal pushbacks. Since then, the EU has intensified its efforts of turning African countries …
[German/Italian/French/Arabic below] English Dear Abolish Frontex supporters, In 2006 Frontex deployed Hera, its first joint operation outside Europe, in an attempt to stop migration from Senegal to the Spanish Canary Islands. This made an already dangerous journey even more difficult and included the involvement in illegal pushbacks. Since then, the EU has doubled down on …
[Taken from the Instagram of the Frachcollective] 20 October 2023 – Yesterday, 45 detained people on the move entered into a hunger strike protesting their detention at the Slovakian-Hungarian border town Medved’ov. Mostly Kurdish people from Iraq and Turkey, as well as people from Afghanistan, are detained since weeks, some for months, without any information …
Continue reading “Solidarity with uprising in Medved’ov migrant detention center (Slovakia)”
The European Union’s border agency, Frontex, facilitated the deportation of nearly 18,000 individuals from EU territory during the first half of 2023, marking an unprecedented peak. This surge in removals, executed through both scheduled flights and “voluntary” return procedures, demonstrates a 60% upswing in deportations compared to the corresponding period in 2022. Read the full …
Continue reading “Frontex: deportations at record high in first half of 2023”
2 October 2023 – On 5 September Frontex awarded new framework contracts for manned aerial surveillance flights on land and coastline to the companies CAE Aviation (Luxembourg) and European SAO (Malta). Under this contract they will fly scheduled and unscheduled flights from a base airport on request, “to report objects and events of interest to …
Continue reading “New Frontex contracts for aerial surveillance flights”
