EU EXTERNAL PARTNERS: Frontex Denies Involvement in Pushbacks and Defends €400 Million ‘Expansion’ Tender ― Thousands Pushed Back to Niger from Algeria Libya and Tunisia ― Discussions on Closer EU-Egypt Co-operation on Migration ― NGO Report Reveals Pu…

• The executive director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has denied allegations of the agency’s involvement in pushbacks and defended the need for €400 million of surveillance equipment.
• Alarme Phone Sahara has reported that nearly 20,000 people have been pushed back to Niger and abandoned in the desert by EU-funded authorities in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.
• The EU and Egypt have met to discussing increasing their co-operation in stopping irregular migration to Europe.
• A new Human Rights Watch report has revealed pushbacks and pullbacks of Syrian refugees by Cyprus and Lebanon.
• The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has increased its aid to Libya amid a rise in refugees from Sudan.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has launched calls for tenders totalling around €400 million for equipment, including drones and other surveillance technology. The calls appear to indicate an expansion of Frontex’s drone operations, with the intention of large-scale and consistent use of the equipment for border surveillance. One of the calls for tenders that was issued in June reveals that the agency intends to spend €184 million on drones over four years compared to the €275 million that it spent on pilots over eight years. “We use these tools to monitor irregular migration routes and detect cross-border crimes such as smuggling,” Krzysztof Borowski from Frontex, told DW. “They are particularly useful because they provide real-time video feeds,” he explained. Elsewhere, during a recent session of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the executive director of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, denied allegations that the agency was involved in pushbacks and human rights violations at Europe’s borders. “We have never, never conducted pushbacks. There is no report about that,” he said. Damien Careme MEP criticised the lack of significant change under Leijtens’ leadership, pointing to ongoing reports of violations in Albania, Bulgaria and Greece. “Very little has changed since you took office in December 2022,” Careme said.

According to a recent NGO report, the Algerian authorities have been deporting a large number of people in ‘brutal’ conditions. The report, by the NGO Alarme Phone Sahara (APS), has revealed that, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia are increasingly trying to block trans-Saharan migrant routes with the result that almost 20,000 people have been pushed back to Niger. “I’m from Burkina Faso. I worked in Algeria. It was in Algeria that I broke [my leg]. I fell from the third floor. The Algerian police came and took me to hospital for treatment. I was in hospital for two months. They took me for deportation. They brought me there [the desert near Assamaka, border of Niger] so that I return to Burkina Faso,” said one of the deportees. APS has called for the “abolition of deportation and migration control agreements between the countries of the Sahel-Saharan region and the members of the EU in favour of a policy based on the protection of life, rights, security, human dignity and the free movement of all people on the move”.

On 30 August, approximately 40 migrants were reportedly expelled from the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax and abandoned near the border with Algeria. In recent months, rights groups have reported an increasing number of such forced expulsions from Tunisia and its neighbours. The latest expulsion came a few weeks after Tunisian President Kais Saied vowed to crackdown further on irregular migration. “Tunisia welcomes its African brothers and is committed to treating them humanely, but it will not allow any irregular migrants to exist on its soil,” he said on 9 August. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) said that it had found shelter for some of the people who had been abandoned close to the Tunisia-Algeria border. “Our teams found 28 people in catastrophic humanitarian condition, without any water or food,” the NGO said. Seven women, three of whom were pregnant, and two children were among the 42 people who were reportedly displaced and abandoned in the desert border region.

On 9 September, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson had a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. They discussed ways to deepen EU-Egyptian co-operation on migration, including tackling irregular migration, promoting legal pathways and supporting the human rights of migrants and refugees. Johansson told reporters in Cairo that the European Commission was close to signing a work agreement between Egypt and Europol, and described Egypt as a “real strategic partner for the EU and for stability in the region”. She also praised Egypt for its efforts to curb illegal migration and for its treatment of migrants and refugees, especially those fleeing civil war in Sudan. Johansson’s view of the situation in Egypt was not shared by a number of civil society organisations which have reported “major and multiple human rights violations of Sudanese refugees by Egypt, including arbitrary arrest and detention and cases of refugees being deported back to Sudan”.

A new NGO report has warned of both pushbacks and pullbacks of Syrian refugees from Cyprus and Lebanon. The report, by Human Rights Watch, alleges that EU aid sent to Lebanon to regulate migration by sea has been used to fund practices that violate human rights. “Cyprus has regularly pushed back Syrian refugees to Lebanon as early as 2020, which Human Rights Watch documented; repeatedly proposed to hold joint patrols with the Lebanese navy to stem any onward movement of irregular boats (…),” the report stated. “By preventing Syrian refugees from leaving to seek protection elsewhere, and then forcibly returning them to Syria, Lebanon violates the fundamental prohibition on returning a refugee to face persecution, while the European Union helps pay the bills,” said Nadia Hardman from Human Rights Watch.

In Morocco, 45,015 people have reportedly been stopped from irregularly migrating to Europe and 10,859 have been rescued at sea since January 2024. “In 2024, Morocco continues to face an increasing migratory pressure as a direct outcome of the prevailing instability in the Sahel region and porous borders,” said the Ministry of the Interior.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has increased its aid to Libya amid a rise in refugees from Sudan. According to a recent UNHCR press release: “As a result of the worsening crisis in Sudan, an increasing number of refugees are fleeing to Libya. Some 97,000 individuals have now sought refuge in the country since the beginning of the conflict”.

On 7 September, Libya’s coastguard intercepted 64 migrants bound for Europe on a boat off the northwestern town of Sirte and returned them to shore. According to Euronews, the Sirte coastguard posted pictures on Facebook showing dozens of migrants, including women and children. It added that it had set fire to the boat after the migrants disembarked to prevent its re-use by traffickers.

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