The European Union is preparing to give its border agency, Frontex, sweeping new powers to remove migrants outside Europe, in one of the most far-reaching changes to the bloc’s migration policy in years, according to Euro News.
Under reforms due to be presented by the European Commission on Tuesday, Frontex will be able to help transfer irregular migrants from one non EU country to another. The agency could, for example, support North African authorities in returning Central African citizens to their home countries before they try to reach Europe.
EU officials, speaking to Euronews anonymously, said the change reflects a simple calculation: “The more people you return before they reach Europe, the less you have to return after.”
Frontex currently helps EU states return rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin and patrols the bloc’s external borders. The new rules would extend its role well beyond European territory.
The agency would also take part in deportations from “return hubs” in third countries, which EU governments may establish under a recently approved law. Five member states are negotiating the first such hub, expected to open in 2027. Migrants whose asylum claims or right to remain in the EU have been rejected could be held there before being sent home.
Critics say the reform would turn Frontex from a border support agency into a deportation force operating far from Europe’s frontiers. Josephine Solanki, a researcher at the Transnational Institute, said it was “no longer only an agency supporting EU countries at their borders”, but “a deportation agency”.
Civil society groups are calling for stronger oversight, warning that Frontex has already faced allegations of rights violations inside Europe. They argue that expanded powers must not come at the expense of migrants’ fundamental rights.
Any Frontex operation in a third country would still require an agreement with that government, similar to existing arrangements with Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia. The EU is negotiating a new agreement with Senegal, while a Frontex liaison officer covering Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia was appointed in 2023.
The package also includes a rapid response force for sudden mass arrivals and an online unit to monitor social media for signs of large scale movement. The measures follow last July’s incident in Ceuta, when around 90,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave.
Frontex is also expected to receive 12 billion euros under the EU’s next seven year budget, double its previous allocation.
