Tag: Frontex
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New control system: Frontex ends pilot project on facial recognition at EU borders
Until now, only asylum seekers and visa applicants had to hand over their biometric data before entering the EU. With an Entry/Exit System, this will be extended to all other travellers from third countries. Border controls will be significantly delayed…
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EU drones for people in distress: Dropping life rafts for pullbacks?
For the first time, drones are flying on behalf of an EU agency with rescue equipment on board. On the high seas, the actually useful technology could encourage illegal refoulements to countries like Libya. Perhaps the new function will only…
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Frontex and Europol: How refugees are tracked digitally
EU agencies advise increased confiscation and extraction of asylum seekers’ mobile phones and now provide a manual on how to do so. Apps to encrypt or disguise locations are disliked in the report as “countermeasures” to surveillance. Often the mobile…
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WhatsApp to Libya: How Frontex uses a trick to circumvent international law
The EU is not allowed to return refugees to countries where they face persecution. In 2017, the Commission therefore set up a backdoor for refoulement to North Africa. Published text messages now reveal how Frontex is providing aerial reconnaissance for…