Attached: 3 images (from Until Everyone Is Free) "WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH FRONTEX? Frontex Is the European Border and Coast Guard, an armed paramilitary that controls the borders of the European Union, executes deportations and supports external actors such as the Tunisian and Libyan Coast Guard in their efforts to prevent migrants from reaching the EU's borders. On 6th October in 2016, Frontex was born in its current form as a response to the so-called refugee crisis, and ever since it has only grown in budget, workforce and power. Because they try hard to cover up the many controversies they are involved in, it is important to shine a light on what Frontex is doing now and what is coming up in their near future. The growth of Frontex has been pushed by various politicians, most prominently Ursula von der Leyen, to show the EU's commitment to harsher and more secure borders. For her last re-election, she promised to upscale the number of Frontex agents to 30,000 by 2027 - instead of the 10,000 that were promised before. So much money has been pumped into Frontex that it has become by far the largest EU agency, having a budget of 1.1 billion euros for 2025 alone. Only 0.23% of this budget went to "human rights"-activities, while 12.1% went directly into deportations. Frontex has had a role in supporting and coordinating deportations from its inception, but in recent years deportation and so-called "voluntary" return have become one of the core tasks of the agency. In 2024, Frontex collaborated on the "voluntary" returns of 35,637 people, an increase of 22,900% in just 5 years. The term "voluntary return" hides an institutional form of blackmail there is nothing voluntary about a person's live being made so miserable that they see no other option than to leave. It is enforced through hostile migration and asylum policies as well as coercion and intimidation. "Voluntary return" serves only the deportatlon regime of the EU: It means less legal hurdles, It Is much cheaper and it can be sold as something positive. This October, the EU Commission plans to expand Frontex's mandate. It would become the main coordinator of detention centers and deportations outside of the EU, where agreements with those countries have been made. The collaboration between Frontex and Europol could also be tightened, criminalising migrants and people working in solidarity with them. Lastly, Frontex will have a central role in the new databases proposed by the EU to gather and store information on all people crossing any border in the EU, often with the help of Al. To house all of these missions, a new headquarter and training center is being built in the middle of Warsaw. This 70,000 m² complex will host over 2000 employees, a 24/7 surveillance center observing all of the EU's borders and a space to develop new border control technology. The EU parliament gave Frontex €250 million euros in order to complete the project by 2028." #Frontex #Europol #MigrantRights #EU #EuropeanUnion #refugees #refugeesWelcome #AbolishFrontex