Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, more than 13 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called ‘the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II’. Breaking with a policy of deterring and containing asylum seekers outside its borders, the EU and its member states rightly responded to the flow of people by creating legal pathways that granted Ukrainian nationals protection and legal status within the Union. While these laudable efforts have undoubtedly saved lives, over a year later it is clear that the measures are the exception and not the rule. The EU has used the war in Ukraine to expand its deadly border regime in Eastern Europe, in particular the role of Frontex, doubling its efforts to keep out those fleeing other wars and conflicts. Moreover, Ukraine, which has acted as the EU’s border guard for nearly two decades, has continued to play this role even as the war rages on.
Continue reading “How Frontex expanded in the wake of the Ukraine war”
6 March 2023 – Abolish Frontex, a grassroots network of over 130 groups and organisations aiming to abolish the EU border guard agency and to end the EU border regime, releases the following statement regarding the recent deaths of people on the move, the Italian government clampdown on rescue ships and its reaction to the shipwreck disaster. 
A Global Day of Struggle against the regime of death at our borders and to demand truth, justice and reparations for migration victims and their families.