The European coastguard and border guard agency turns 20 years old on this 26 October 2024 . It’s a sad anniversary for an agency that has been widely blamed for decades for direct and indirect violations of the rights of people on the move . An agency whose aim is to ‘protect’ Europe’s borders, with no regard for the lives and safety of those who try to cross them. An agency that is the symbol of a deadly border regime and the standard-bearer of repressive and ultra-secure migration (…)
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Frontex’s 20th anniversary should also be its last
Open Letter
26 October 2024
Dear Ms. Ursula von der Leyen,
October 26 will mark the 20th anniversary of Frontex, the EU’s border agency. It should also mark the last.
Frontex is a deadly failed experiment. It has made countless people less safe, eroded the values and ideals the European Union claims to hold dear, and provided a backdoor into government for corporate power.
When Frontex was found to be complicitin systematic and serious human rights violations in Greece – by none other than the (…)Tunisia is Not a Place of Safety for People Rescued at Sea
Joint Statement
In view of the rampant human rights violations against migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Tunisia, especially those who are Black; Tunisia’s lack of an asylum system; the Tunisian government’s crackdown on civil society, judicial independence, and the media; and the impossibility of fairly and individually determining nationalities or assessing the protection needs of migrants and asylum seekers while at sea, it is clear that Tunisia is not a safe place for the disembarkation of (…)
One year on from the start of the crisis, violations of migrants’ rights continue in Tunisia
Joint statement
More than a year after the President of the Republic of Tunisia’s statement following a meeting of the National Security Council linking the presence of migrants to "a plot to alter the demographic composition of Tunisia", systematic violations and racist and xenophobic campaigns targeting sub-Saharan migrants in the country continue unabated.
The policies of successive governments have continued to bow to the dictates of the European Union in the externalisation of its borders, delegating (…)161 Civil Society Organisations call on MEPs to vote down harmful EU Migration Pact
Joint declaration
Amidst warnings from over 50 Civil Society Organisations, EU lawmakers reached a political agreement on the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum in December. The agreement is a continuation of a decade of policy that has led to the proliferation of rights violations in Europe. Moreover, it will have devastating implications for the right to international protection in the bloc and greenlights abuses across Europe including racial profiling, default de facto detention and pushbacks. On April (…)