Both agencies have a history of acting beyond the law to prevent people from migrating to Europe, with little to no repercussions.
If Europol's new director follows suit, the Europol regulation's recent reform may shield them from adequate oversight.
Read more, from Romain Lanneau: buff.ly/dXxZbaR
Collage of Europol building, jail cell bars and Catherine de Bolle's eyes in colours of black green and orange in the backdrop. A box of text reads: will europol’s new director put a stop to the agency’s unlawful practices? signs point to no.
Europol is hiring a new director to replace Catherine de Bolle.
At the same time, Frontex's former director faces a French court for complicity in crimes against humanity.
Image description: A hand holds a wad of euros in front of an ocean scene. Text reads, "Revealed: EU funding backed an attack on a humanitarian search-and-rescue ship The so-called Libyan coast guard fired on SOS Méditerranée’s ship in August 2025. IrpiMedia has since traced the money that enabled the episode—back to an EU program with millions in hidden funds."
A factsheet outlines the details of the EU program, called Support to Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya, or SIBMMIL. It explains that this is the program that funded the Houn 664: a vessel of the so-called Libyan coast guard that caused an estimated €194,000 in damage to the humanitarian ship. Ominously, there is no publicly available information on 44% of the total budget—equating to €27.1 million in hidden funds.
€27.1 million in hidden funds by the EU. Does that sound right to you?
Read more about IrpiMedia's investigation and find the full report, "Financing the Violence", produced in collaboration with SOS Méditerranée, here: buff.ly/d6RXTHY
UK prime minister Keir Starmer looms behind a timeline mapping the steady decline of rights under his party since 2024. The pictured examples include the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group, sweeping reforms to policing to increase use of biometrics analysis and AI, and the recent arrest of Qesser Zuhrah, the youngest of the Filton 24. The full timeline can be found at the link.
The UK Labour Party came to power in July 2024 promising change and an end to 14 years of the right-wing rule seen under the Tories. Instead, it has since entrenched some of the Tories’ worst overreaches—and added some more of its own.
Read more and view the timeline here: buff.ly/bwvxM5p
Sorry @tobyvogel.bsky.social we had some site issues this morning, but the link should work now. Otherwise you can find the new issue listed here: www.statewatch.org/outsourcing-...
5/ Along with Egypt, the issue contains the EU's detailed "action files" for several other countries, too:
• Tunisia
• Mauritania
• Afghanistan
• The Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Route
Read the issue, compiled by @freylindsay.bsky.social, here: buff.ly/GLl4T8B
4/ Egypt and Europol working on exchange of personal data
Spotted in the latest Action File for Egypt, it appears that an agreement for personal data exchange is in the works, something that should have rights activists extremely concerned. We’ll be following this one up for sure.
3/ Expanded use of Article 25a sanctions
EU member states seem keen to use visa sanctions more against countries deemed ‘insufficiently’ in their deportation cooperation. The Commission, happy to oblige them, is now suggesting other areas of cooperation the sanctions could be used for.
2/ Other documents cover:
The future Frontex governance structure
We’re slowly getting more details. Even though the agency has been implicated in many incidents of abuse against people on the move, it appears the EU is anxious that it doesn’t get too constrained by the new governance and oversight
1/ The 15th issue of the #ExternalisationBulletin is out now.
This month's bulletin includes a document that is almost laughably horrific. In it, the Council Presidency implores the EU’s main border externalisation committee to *mention* human rights more when dealing with non-EU partner countries.
In our latest blog post, co-published with @statewatch.bsky.social, Luca Rondi exposes the 'blackmail' at the centre of @frontex.bsky.social's push for 'voluntary' deportations from Europe.
The piece was originally written in Italian for Altreconomia.
🚨🎧🛟 New episode coming soon! 🌊🎧🚨
Keep an eye on your podcast/YouTube feeds for episode 87!
In the meantime, be sure to check out our last episode with Frey Lindsey from @statewatch.bsky.social 👇🎧
Solidarity ✊
For the future of Frontex the Council of Europe discussed deployments in Ukraine, drone defense duties, self-deportations and much more. We have a much better suggestion: #AbolishFrontex
Read the latest bulletin by Statewatch about the EU's internal discussion on border politics 👇
The 14th issue of the #ExternalisationBulletin is out now.
This month’s bulletin contains details about the EU's newest plan for 'degressive’ reintegration support, other means of ‘incentivising’ self-deportations, and twenty newly-obtained Council documents.
Find the issue here: buff.ly/dmMS8AK
Will you help us improve our work?
We've put together a survey on our work in 2025 to understand what you got out of it and how we can improve.
It should only take you a few minutes, but it will be a huge help for us!
Fill it out here: statewcloud.gn.apc.org/index.php/ap...
News clipping of a guardian article with the headline "EU's deportations plan risks ICE-style enforcement, rights groups warn" above an image of people crowded together in a boat while a white police officer stands by.
A black and white print of Alamara Khwaja Bettum, a woman with long brunette hair, brown eyes and skin-tone, and a grave expression, is overlaid with an orange print of a police barricade. A quote from her reads, "Increasing surveillance, policing, and racial profiling will only fuel racism and a far-right agenda—not reduce migration. If accepted, these proposed measures will undermine the most basic of civil liberties to disastrous ends, which is the real threat we should be focused on addressing."
We joined 87 other organisations in a statement condemning the EU's proposed Deportation ("Return") Regulation, because increasing surveillance, policing, and racial profiling will only fuel racism and a far-right agenda.
The statement: buff.ly/FbcfD1I
The @theguardian.com article: buff.ly/Xu3a1sd
A red-printed hand holding out several hundred euros is overlaid with the green-printed wake of a boat. Above this, a text box reads "The EU's “new and innovative solution” to migration. Is it a rights-based solution? A response to the many statements from campaigners? No. The document we obtained shows EU policy-makers want to ressurect an old idea: paying non-EU states to intercept and detain people at sea, before they can reach European shores."
Unsurprisingly, the EU's supposedly “new and innovative solution” to migration is a re-packaged and previously rejected one.
Read more in the article by @freylindsay.bsky.social: buff.ly/yGtueHB
Quote from Romain Lanneau, "Technologies are becoming ever-present in the asylum and immigration system. Often, law enforcement and immigration authorities experiment with unreliable systems at the cost of migrants’ rights. Understanding what technologies are used and what redress are available is becoming indispensable." Information about the event appears in a text box below the quote.
Register now for the upcoming event, AI in the Field of Asylum and Immigration Law, to hear more from Statewatch researcher Romain Lanneau.
Host: ERA Academy of European Law
Dates: 9-10 March 2026
Location: Online
More details and registration info:
buff.ly/Tjoqhkx
We've just published a document that details the EU's disturbing plans to expand cross-border travel surveillance.
The changes include using travel data for new purposes, such as immigration control, and bypassing important safeguards.
Read more: buff.ly/N8iffJW
Are the EU's border policy plans similar to the US?
Listen in as Statewatch journalist Frey Lindsay shares the answer on Lagos Talks radio.
Want to help change the direction? Follow our bulletin, Outsourcing borders, here: buff.ly/8qfXgJa
Speaker: @freylindsay.bsky.social
Spray-painted words "Caution! Spies operate in this area" are overlaid in a risograph style with a green microphone. Below this, text explaining the news is placed next to another spray-painted image depicting a person in a suit with a television for a head.
UK: A recent court case has exposed Nick Gratwick as a private spy hired by UK police.
The Undercover Research Group (URG) has been investigating Nick for many years, and now their new report details his activities throughout the late 1990s - early 2000s.
Read it here: buff.ly/kVFwYza
Quote from State watch Director, Chris Jones, that reads: "The power of states to surveil, monitor, harass and repress is being globalised. This is being done through digital infrastructures by obscure, secretive and technocratic organisations. Meanwhile, people's rights remain trapped by national borders, making it extremely difficult to seek redress and remedy for wrongdoing, or even simple errors."
As state powers of repression are globalised, so too must our resistance, advocacy and collaboration.
We released our research, Networks of [in]security (NOIS), as a living resource to help us do that.
Read more and get in contact: buff.ly/MbWx0na
3/ With more states being connected to watchlisting systems, new information-sharing networks being put in place, and more governments with an authoritarian bent coming to power, transnational repression seems likely to continue.
Unless we work together to oppose it.
Read more: nois.statewatch.org
2/ It is typically less-than-liberal and authoritarian regimes behind this behaviour—but they are far from being the only culprits.
For example, no one would be surprised to hear that EU states have used regional watchlisting systems to bar pro-Palestine activists from entering their territory.
A visual overview of the caption text, showing a collage of images: a speaker wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh with a "police do not cross" sign behind, both in front of a tall fence, and a security camera with an eye pasted over the lens above two people holding placards about Palestine.
1/ Governments are increasingly engaging in transnational repression: reaching across borders to silence dissent from afar.
This can include assassinations, illegal deportations, abductions, digital threats, Interpol abuse, and family intimidation.
3/ Real protection means listening to people on the move, creating spaces for dignity and self-determination, and resisting the machinery that turns migration into a security threat.
Until then, people will continue to face extreme harm.
Read more: buff.ly/zMl3FIV
2/ Info Park makes it clear: border externalisation, like the “migration management” complex it is a part of, is not a neutral administrative tool.
It is a political project of exclusion.
It cannot be fixed with better monitoring or more audits.
Above a black print of a barbed fence, a demonstrator holds a placard that says "open the border". Above the image, text reads: the EU migration pact will increase existing harms in Serbia and all along the Western Balkan route. It will mean more cruel tactics of policing and pushbacks, more bureaucracy and digital controls, and a further closure of civic space."
According Info Park, an organisation in Belgrade, Serbia, people on the move along the Western Balkan route face a cycle of of detention, transfers, and endless reattempts.
The EU's new pact on migration will only worsen these brutal realities.
And if you haven't yet, sign up to our dedicated mailing list to receive the next issue directly in your inbox: buff.ly/PqTARAJ
The 12th issue of the #ExternalisationBulletin is out now 🚨
This edition covers:
• Efforts to expand Frontex’s mandate
• Growing concerns over the EU’s digital border systems
• Threats to undermine EU's new migration "solidarity" system
And more, here: buff.ly/GK3RMMW
