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”
18 September 2023 – Abolish Frontex, a grassroots network of over 130 organisations and groups, strongly condemns the reaction of the European Union to the current migration situation on Lampedusa. The 10–Point Plan presented by European Commission president von der Leyen during her visit to the island on Sunday 17 September, at the invitation of Italy’s far right government, …
Continue reading “Lampedusa: no to Frontex, no to migration cooperation with Tunisia”
While a number of complaints have been lodged against Frontex before the EU’s courts in different procedures (e.g., annulment, transparency, failure to act), the action for damages in casu, was the first of its kind concerning human rights responsibility of Frontex and had all the ingredients to prompt the General Court to finally clarify a …
Continue reading “Shielding Frontex – On the EU General Court’s “WS and others v Frontex””
Piraeus Metro Station – 6 pm 1 September 2023 – On Wednesday 14/6/2023, off the coast of Pylos, a fishing boat capsized, resulting in the death of more than 600 people. Testimonies of survivors revealed that hundreds of women and children were trapped in the hold of the fishing boat. The involvement of the Hellenic …
18 August 2023 – From Monday 21st to Sunday 27th of August, the No Border Camp will take place in Groningen. Hundreds of international activists come together for a week for actions, meetings, workshops, discussion and culture as part of the struggle for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all. The No Border …
Continue reading “21-27 August: International No Border Camp in Groningen (The Netherlands)”
