Frontex drones helped Libya and Tunisia forcibly return at least 33,000 people in the central Mediterranean

Aerial surveillance by the EU’s border agency Frontex over the central Mediterranean has directly led to the interception and return of over 33,000 people to Libya and Tunisia between late 2018 and 2024. The findings, revealed on Tuesday (3 November) by the EU-funded Liminal project, comes as the Warsaw-based Frontex is set to get more deportation powers and greater pre-frontier intelligence gathering capabilities. “In 2021, the year with the most complete data available, detection by Frontex’s aircraft accounted for at least 36 percent of all recorded pushbacks,” according to Liminal. The agency has already allocated €330m for aerial surveillance for 2027 with the European Commission demanding an additional €169m for drones, seaborne equipment and state-of-the-art high-altitude systems. In July, the agency flew its largest drones from a ship at sea, extending the reach and range of the surveillance as part of test pilot with Italy. Money and policy aside, Liminal’s findings also put into sharp relief how the EU over the years has created a system that obscures legal responsibility, turns Libya and Tunisia into EU anti-migrant police proxies and piles increasing pressure onto charity rescue vessels to stop saving people. The legal obfuscation includes helping bankroll and set up Libya's rescue zone, which now regularly sees aggressive Libyan coast guard boats well into areas normally patrolled by Malta. Liminal says they identified 16 cases in which Frontex aerial assets detected a migrant boat but did not directly alert nearby charity ships able to help. The agency broadcasts alerts on public radio frequencies, which can be received by anyone within range of transmission.