This year marks the 20th anniversary of Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency. Over two decades, it has grown into a powerful force with its own standing border guard, conducting militarised missions to block migrants from reaching Europe. Journalists, NGOs and researchers have exposed Frontex’s involvement in illegal pushbacks and human rights violations. Its close ties to the arms industry highlight the increasing militarisation of European politics. During this panel, we’ll explore Frontex’s rise, its role at the borders and its relation to humanitarianism, the influence of the arms industry, and the urgent question: what can we do about it?
About the speakers
Mark Akkerman (they/them) is a researcher at Stop Wapenhandel and for the Transnational Institute (TNI), working on arms trade, the arms industry, its lobby, border militarisation and EU funding and policies in these regards. Active with the international Abolish Frontex campaign and several groups in the peace, no border and anarchist movements.
Polly Pallister-Wilkins is a political geographer and associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. Her research has focused on the humanitarian responses to border violence and mobility injustice, and she is the author of the book Humanitarian Borders: Unequal Mobility and Saving Lives published by Verso and winner of the 2023 International Political Sociology book award.
Josephine Solanki is a project officer with the Transnational Institute’s War and Pacification Programme and part of the Abolish Frontex network. Her research focuses on borders and militarisation. She holds an MA degree in development studies.
Ingeborg Beugel was a correspondent in Greece and the Balkans for many years. She is currently back as a correspondent in Greece, working for De Groene Amsterdammer, among others. In 2021, she made headlines worldwide, first because she was arrested in June of that year along with an Afghan refugee she had taken in. In November 2021, images of the Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis went viral of a press conference he attended with Prime Minister Rutte, after Beugel questioned him about the Greek government’s lies regarding illegal pushbacks of migrants. Because of her work, Beugel is the only foreign correspondent systematically harassed, wiretapped, and intimidated by the Greek authorities, along with her Greek colleagues.
