The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, which “assists” European countries in “border management, control and security”, is 20 years old tomorrow

~ from Contre Attaque ~

Frontex is a tool for European countries, with an outsized budget of 845 million Euro in 2023. The objective is to strengthen the repressive and ultra-security policy with massive weaponry: drones, radars, satellites, thermographic surveillance, biometric controls, sound cannons. Nor does the European agency does not intend to stop there in terms of equipment. This summer, calls for tenders worth 400 million Euro were issued for equipment, in order to “improve the detection of boats in the Mediterranean Sea and better combat illegal immigration”.

In addition to the staggering budget devoted to this agency, the work of Frontex agents is undermining the lives of individuals. For this anniversary, the Abolish Frontex collective wants to focus on lives and not candles, with 20 reasons to abolish Frontex:

1. 29,442 people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea since 2014.
2. Frontex communicates the position of migrant boats to Libyan militias, who abduct people at sea and force them to go to torture camps.
3. Frontex has coordinated the expulsion of more than 104,000 people since 2006.
4. Frontex coordinated deportation flights during which people were tortured.
5. Frontex is complicit in the outsourcing of border control to countries on the African continent , for example through the Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community network, which has more than 30 African states among its members.
6. Frontex has recruited an army of border guards capable of owning and using handguns, and aims to have 10,000 guards by 2027.
7. Frontex is complicit in illegal and dangerous “push-back” operations, a method of forcibly pushing a boat back at the risk of capsizing, from Greece to Turkey. Since 2020, there have been more than 2,000 such incidents.
8. Frontex cooperated with national border guards in Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece, who pepper-sprayed and beat people with sticks at night and chased them through forests with dogs.
9. Frontex has increasingly close ties to the arms and security industry, often attending industry lobbying meetings and using its own growing budget to purchase equipment.
10. Frontex facilitates the acquisition by EU countries of surveillance and border control technologies and products by acting as an intermediary between Member States and defence and security companies.
11. In its “risk” analysis reports, Frontex portrays immigration as a threat that must be stopped and contained, rather than as a natural process that must be facilitated.
12. Frontex and EU-Lisa operate a biometric-based border control infrastructure, interoperable immigration and police databases that infringe on privacy and human rights, such as the right to seek asylum.
13. Frontex is playing an increasing role in stimulating research funding for new security and border control technologies, including controversial AI applications, in cooperation with academia and the private sector.
14. Frontex has signed multi-million euro contracts with Israeli arms companies Elbit and IAI for surveillance flights over the Mediterranean. It uses drones that have been touted as “combat-proven” after being used against Palestinians.
15. Frontex, in coordination with the European Commission, can oblige EU Member States to strengthen their capacities and practices in terms of security and border control.
16. Frontex has taken advantage of the war in Ukraine to expand its operational area to Moldova, where it targets migrants under the initial guise of helping refugees flee Ukraine, and is preparing for future operations in Ukraine.
17. Frontex has signed a cooperation agreement with the UK, regardless of its inhumane migration policies, which have seen the number of people drowning double in 2022.
18. Frontex failed to save the lives of more than 600 people who drowned in the Pylos shipwreck in June 2023.
19. Frontex intentionally ignores human rights violations committed by Bulgarian border guards, such as shooting migrants, stealing their personal belongings, forcing them to undress and swim back to Turkey.
20. Frontex is a key player in the EU border regime that has killed more than 60,620 people since 1993.

It should be added that the former director of Frontex is Fabrice Leggeri from France, now an elected far-right member of the European Parliament, and the subject of a complaint for complicity in crimes against humanity. In short, Frontex kills, expels, and hunts migrating people on land and at sea and participates in crimes against humanity -– arbitrary detentions, murders, torture, complicity in rape. Frontex should not exist and a reception policy should be put in place in European countries: they are clearly capable of it.

As a reminder, in 2022 when Russia declared war on Ukraine, an unprecedented wave of Ukrainian exiles was welcomed with dignity , quickly and unconditionally throughout the European Union, including more than 65,538 Ukrainians in France. The lying speeches justifying the impossibility of welcoming “all the misery in the world” fell. This scarecrow constantly waved by the extreme right is not the problem: the problem lies in the policies that have made the non-European exile an enemy.

This discrimination allows the designation of a scapegoat responsible for all evils and against which action must be taken. The rise of racist speech in the media and the political field attests to the need, for the camp of the wealthy, to divert attention, to prevent any more complex reflection on the place of humanity in society.

We must put an end to this xenophobic, racist and inhumane policy for which lives are worth less than other lives. An action campaign is launched for the week of September 30 to October 6. Abolish Frontex proposes in particular to send a postcard to the Frontex headquarters in Poland. They also invite individuals and collectives to organise themselves to fight and denounce this murderous EU border regime.