Frontex: 20 years of war on migrants in defiance of rights

As the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex celebrates its 20th anniversary on 26 October 2024, the Migreurop network, in conjunction with its members, organised a public conference on the occasion of the 10th edition of the Festival Sabir(Rome) to take stock of the activities and excesses of the Frontex agency, and of 20 years of war on migrants with no regard for their rights.

Introduction : The agency’s insidious development over the last 20 years (French)
🗣️ Brigitte Espuche – Coordinator of Migreurop

The state of play since 2019: persistent abuses, deadly practices (English)
🗣️ Laura Salzano – Researcher in European migration law and professor of European law, University of Barcelona

The agency’s external action vs civil activism: the case of the Balkans and the African continent (English)
🗣️ Nidzara Ahmetašević – Independent Researcher & Aïda Thiam, Journalist, activist of Boza Fii (Senegal), and member of the civil society

Frontex, judge and jury: the impact of its risk analyses & expansive development (English)
🗣️ Matthias Monroy – Editor of the civil rights magazine Bürgerrechte & Polizei/CILIP and nd.Der Tag

Structural impunity vs control and legal tools (English)

🗣️ Omer Shatz – Omer Shatz, Director of front-LEX, a senior fellow at the Democracy Institute’s Rule of Law clinic and lecturer in international law at Sciences Po. Paris

🗣️ Ruben Robbesom – Policy Advisor to MEP Tineke Strik (Greens/European Free Alliance)

Frontex, symbol of European security-oriented policy: a stronger role in the Asylum and Migration Pact (English)
🗣️ Yasha Maccanico – Statewatch

Conclusion: The agency must be abolished! (French)
🗣️ Stéphanie Demblon, Abolish Frontex