Drones, cameras and electric fences increasingly used to control the EU borders

Drones, thermal imaging cameras and devices detecting heartbeat belong to technological tools, which are increasingly used by European border services or police to stop migrants from crossing borders or to repel them when they do it.

The excretion of migrants without granting them the possibility of applying for asylum is unlawful EU, which obliges the authorities to consider asylum applications regardless of whether the migrants have identity documents, or whether they entered the country legally.

Despite this, Member States intentionally stop the migrants from reaching the external borders of the Union."The routes are increasingly difficult to overcome.The Balkan trail is really intensively studied using technology, "said in an interview with The Guardian Simon Campbell, off-road coordinator.

Militarization of the borders of Europe has been growing since 2015.when the number of arriving migrants was the highest.The popularity of populist narratives in politics and fear around the issue of migration have contributed to the return towards new technologies.The EU has invested in strengthening the borders, allocating 34.9 billion to financing the management of borders and migrations in the budget for 2021-27, while putting aside the issues of creating safe passages and honest asylum processes.

The modernization of supervision technology coincided with increasing the financing of Frontex - the EU Border Guard and Coastal Agency.In the years 2005–2016 the budget of the Frontex agency increased from EUR 6.3 million to EUR 238.7 million, and is currently 420.6 million EUR.The technology used for the supervision of the EU borders in the Balkans has been largely financed from EU money.

The key to the expansion of the Frontex agency and to the implementation of its growing ambitions and mandate is the agency's technical approach to controlling borders implemented through continuous development and implementation of the latest technologies and equipment.The defense, security and IT gained on this.

This is a trend visible all over the world - the boundaries are becoming more and more militarized due to electric fences and barbed wires, as well as by using helicopters and drones, watchtowers and technologically advanced systems, including sensors, cameras, penetration radars and carbon dioxide probes,which are able to examine huge areas.

Frontex w ostrzu krytyki: Z jakimi problemami mierzy się europejska agencja ochrony granic?

Frontex is the only EU agency that has its headquarters in Warsaw.

Drony, kamery i ogrodzenia elektryczne coraz częściej używane do kontroli granic UE

European Union fortress

According to "Guardian", in 2014-2017, thanks to the EU funding, Croatia bought 13 thermal imaging devices for 117 338 euros, which can detect people from a distance of more than a kilometer, and vehicles from a distance of three kilometers.

In 2019.The Croatian Ministry of the Interior purchased four long-range drones of ERIS-III for EUR 2.3 million.They are able to identify people up to 10 kilometers in daylight and just below four kilometers in the dark.They fly at a speed of 130 kilometers per hour and rise to a height of 3500 meters, while transmitting data in real time.

The Romanian border guard has heartbeat detection devices and 117 thermal imaging cameras.Last spring, she added 24 vehicles with the thermovision function to her border safety forces at a cost of over 13 million euros.

Hungarian investments in migration management technology are protected against public control thanks to the 2017 regulations., however, the lack of transparency and practice of pushing migrants was criticized by other EU countries and the European Court of Justice, which led to the suspension of Frontex operations in Hungary in January this year.

Frontex oskarżany o łamanie praw człowieka. Sprawą zajmie się Parlament Europejski

Frontex recently suspended his activity in Hungary due to the judgment of the CJEU, which stated that Budapest had broken EU immigration law.

New technologies and violence at the borders

The wider use of technology meant that migrants can no longer hide in the dark when attempted to cross the border.In return, they decide to cross early in the morning when they think that thermal imaging cameras are less effective.

According to the BVMN report from 2021., improved border control technologies led to the severity of violence by guards.As stated, the technology used in repulsion of migrants "contributed to easier carrying out racist and repressive procedures".

BVMN gave an example of an 18-year-old Algerian who reported that the police beat him and suffocated his own shirt while trying to cross the night from Bosnia to Croatia.The teenager also said that he saw monitoring drones.

BVMN, which archives hundreds of reports on violence, draws attention to the correlation between the use of new technology and the increased number of aggressive attacks from the guards.In February last year, eight Romanian border officers beat two Iraqi families with sticks, shocking two men, one of whom held his 11-month-old child.They stole their money and destroyed the phones, then took them back to Serbia.

Frontex denied any connection between the increased financing of new technologies and the violent reactions of the guards in the Balkans.An increase in the number of applications is attributed to other factors, such as increased illegal migration and spread of mobile phones, which is to facilitate the registration of incidents.

An additional problem is the lack of conscious consent of the refugees for the currently functioning supervision system.The technologies used are so complex that even the staff serving them does not have knowledge that allows the assessment of ethical and practical implications.

Petra Molnar, deputy director of the Refugee Law Lab, said The Guardian said that excessive emphasis on technologies leads to dehumanizing over the boundaries of migrants.

"It is much easier to sell several drones or many automated technologies, instead of dealing with the causes that force people to migrate ... or make this process more humane," she said.