“… not a fortress Europe, but a well-guarded house, with more secure external borders and clear rules on who is entitled to enter” European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas
The European Parliament has adopted the New Pact on Migration and Asylum (EU Migration Pact). Despite the claims by the European Commission Vice President, this is no ‘guarded’ house but signals a greater fortification of an already impenetrable fortress. These inhumane measures will expand the digital surveillance at Europe’s borders and further embed the mass criminalisation of migrants.
The EU Migration Pact
Migrants’ Rights Network is a member of the Europe-wide Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) which has been warning about the devastating consequences of the Pact on migrants’ rights. The agreement is based on the notion of shared responsibility which frames migrants as a ‘problem’ to be managed. At its heart, the measures state that the EU’s 27 countries will be required to either take in thousands of migrants from “frontline” countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, or provide extra funding or resources instead. Alongside our European partners, we are distressed that the cruel package of reforms has been adopted, despite the threat it poses to migrants’ rights across the continent.
The Pact consists of four main parts:
- Secure external borders: reinforce Frontex’s role in ‘managing’ borders, expanding Eurodac asylum and migration database, border procedure and returns, crisis protocols and action against instrumentalisation (this is when member states will be able to deviate from key safeguards when they claim a third country is pushing people to their borders (which the Pact calls “instrumentalisation of migration”)
- Establishing fast and efficient procedures: introduce clearer asylum rules, guaranteeing people’s rights, EU standards for refugee status qualification, preventing abuses
- Create effective system of solidarity and responsibility: embedding ‘shared responsibility’ amongst EU countries in managing claims and sharing operational and financial support, and preventing secondary movements
- Embedding migration in international partnerships: preventing irregular departures, fighting migrant smuggling, cooperation on readmission, and promoting regularise pathways
In practice, this means the use of intrusive technology including surveillance and drones, in addition to the mass collection of people’s data which will be exchanged between police forces across the EU. Notably, this includes changes in the Eurodac Regulation. Eurodac is an EU database that stores the fingerprints of “international protection applicants” and migrants who have arrived irregularly. This will mandate the systematic collection of migrants’ biometric data including facial images which will be retained in massive databases for up to 10 years. This data can be exchanged at every step of the migration process and made accessible to police forces across the European Union for tracking and identity checks purposes. This means biometric identification systems will also be used to track people’s movements.
Increased cooperation between the EU and UK
As Europe increases the fortification of its borders and heightens structural violence against people from the Global South, it’s important we understand the links this has with border policies here in the UK. The UK’s departure from the EU does not mean that cooperation between border forces has diminished. Far from it.
In the last few years, there have been several cross-border operations targeting migrants crossing the Channel as part of plans to increase ‘cooperation’. In December 2022, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK issued a joint statement calling for an EU-UK cooperation agreement to address irregular migration in north-western Europe. In March 2023, the UK agreed to provide more than €500 million in funding to France over three years to increase the number of officers and patrols on the French coast. This included adding new technology like drones as well as the operation of a new command centre and detention centre in northern France.
On 18 February 2024, a working arrangement was reached between the UK Home Office and Frontex, the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency. It forms part of wider EU-UK cooperation to target migrants and will see the UK Border Force be trained in Frontex tactics, collaborate on the development of border technology (including expanding on drone deployment and airborne surveillance) and share “best practice” on returns and “border management”. Shortly after this announcement, Border Force officers and drones began to be deployed to the EU’s borders to “help stem the flow” of irregular migration. In return, Border Force can obtain live intelligence mapping migrant movements across the EU and smuggling networks across the continent. This comes alongside an agreement to “crack down” on trafficking groups in Turkey and a £3 million funded centre to coordinate operations to cut off boats and share intelligence.
Digitisation and surveillance of racialised people are developing rapidly in the UK too. Drone usage, watch towers and AI tech has reportedly increased to monitor small boat crossings. Alongside border surveillance, the Home Office is currently developing a ‘Biometric Matcher’ platform, which will allow police and immigration officers to conduct biometric searches across fingerprints and facial scans held on a vast joint database. This platform could enable the monitoring and tracking of migrant communities at an enormous rate.
Data relating to the digitisation of borders and use of technology such as drones has been difficult to obtain, particularly by FOI. This lack of transparency is particularly troubling given the link between increased technology and violence towards migrants. The Border Violence Monitoring Network states the growing importance of surveillance and AI technologies, including drones and biometric identification systems, which are being used to automate processes of identifying and tracking the movement of migrants, including in pushback operations. This results in enforced disappearances at external EU borders.
This is why we stand against digitisation and militarisation of borders, both in the UK and across the world. The EU Migration Pact sets another dangerous precedent in the move towards greater border violence towards racialised people, and we must understand its links with the UK context. There can be no migrant liberation in a world with greater surveillance and fortified borders.
Pact proposals will be formally adopted after the European Council endorses them, before June 2024. The new legislation is expected to come into force and be fully operational by June 2026.
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