When Frontex was established in 2005,
European policy-makers considered that the agency was meant to support
surveillance at the EU’s external borders in cooperation with neighbouring states.
Asylum was not part of its prerogatives. It is only after being criticised by
many politicians, MPs or MEPs, and NGOs that a few progresses were made in
2011.
However, the European Council has kept prioritising the allocation of
greater powers and controlling means to the agency over the protection of
fundamental rights. While the narrative on Frontex has been softened if not
sanitised to sound like the agency is operating to “save lives”– especially
following the Lampedusa tragedy in October 2013, the reality has shown that, throughout
the years, the more intensive the border controls, the greater the death toll
at the EU’s borders is: below 1,000 deaths per year in the mid 2000s; over
2,000 since 2011.
Read the Brief by Migreurop
