Yesterday, 25 May, marked Frontex’s fifth anniversary. Frontex marked the occasion by holding a conference, European Day for Border Guards, “publicising the work of 400,000 border guards in Europe [and] providing a forum for discussion and the exchange of best practices.”
Here is an interesting and thoughtful post on the Frontex anniversary by Professor J. Peter Burgess:
“… FRONTEX is quickly and quietly evolving into a kind of moral testing ground for Europe. It is here that the airy principles of European construction meet the pavement, where decisions are made about the role of rights and responsibilities in the management of Europe’s most dilemma-ridden challenge: the management of its external borders. Border control is the operational theater where Europe meets its others: other worlds, other human beings, other values. It is here where the aspirations of those who long to embrace Europe, to be European, live under the protection of Europe’s social and economic well-being are confronted with European ideals of tolerance and universal rights. It’s also the place where Europe meets its ‘other’ other: trafficking, smuggling and other forms of cross-border criminality. The coherence with which Europe manages its others in both these forms is one measure of the success of the European project.….”
Click here for the full post.
MIGRANTS AT SEA 