EU border agency Frontex’s aerial surveillance over the central Mediterranean led to the forced return of over 33,000 people to Libya and Tunisia between 2018 and 2024, according to findings by Liminal. The Warsaw-based Frontex is set to get more deportation powers and greater pre-frontier intelligence gathering capabilities.
“In 2021, the year with the most complete data available, detection by Frontex’s aircraft accounted for at least 36 percent of all recorded pushbacks,” according to Liminal.
The agency has already allocated €330 million for aerial surveillance for 2027, with the European Commission demanding an additional €169 million for drones, seaborne equipment and state-of-the-art high-altitude systems.
In July, the agency flew its largest drones from a ship at sea, extending the reach and range of the surveillance as part of a test pilot with Italy.
Money and policy aside, Liminal’s findings also put into sharp relief how the EU over the years has created a system that obscures legal responsibility, turns Libya and Tunisia into EU anti-migrant police proxies and piles increasing pressure onto charity rescue vessels to stop saving people — EUobserver informs.
In June of this year, the European Parliament approved amendments to the European Union’s migration rules. Under these amendments, Member States may deport irregular migrants to centres established outside the territory of the EU.
