With three years of access to the controversial European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex, this series investigates how Europe guards its borders. Across four episodes, it follows the agency’s new director, border guards, politicians, activists, and survivors. Can Europe protect its borders while also upholding human rights? Using the series ‘The Gates of Europe’ as a starting point, we discuss the featured individuals and the dilemmas they face. From the director of Frontex to survivors, politicians, and civilian aid workers – their perspectives coexist, yet they rarely see or hear one another. Tonight, they come together to place the series in a broader context.
About the speakers
Tomas Kaan is one of the directors of The gates of Europa. He works as a filmmaker and director. Tomas combines documentary and fiction filmmaking in his work, blurring the lines between these genres. He has a background in history, which he studied in Amsterdam and Berlin. In 2012 he won the ‘Mediafondsprijs’ for his documentary We are 18. Ten years later he was nominated for a Golden Calf for his tv-series Human Playground.
David Yambio is a human rights defender. He is the co–founder and spokesperson of Refugees in Libya. He works as a forum member of the European Philanthropic Initiative for Migration (EPIM). David was displaced from birth and lived in refugee camps across several countries in Africa, including Libya where he endured severe dehumanization and inhumane treatment. These experiences of forced exile shaped his commitment to defend human rights of refugees on both side of the Mediterranean.
Hans Leijtens is the Executive Director of Frontex since 2023. Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. He promised the European Parliament to make transparency a priority, and he wants to combine border management with fundamental rights. Prior to this position, he was the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and Chairman of the International Board of Auditors for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Tineke Strik is member of European Parliament for ‘PRO’ since 2019. In Parliament she works on the portfolios Asylum and Migration (internal and external), Rule of Law and Human Rights. She teaches at the Radboud University as a Professor of Citizenship and Migration Law. In the past she was a member of the Dutch senate for ‘GroenLinks’ and a member of the European Council.
Melanie Fink is an Associated Professor of European Law at Leiden University. Her research is on administrative justice in the automated state, accountability and access to justice, especially in European Union (EU) border management, and the interplay between EU constitutional law and the regulation of digital technologies. She completed her PhD on legal accountability in European Border management.
More about the directors
Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel directed The gates of Europe together with Tomas Kaan. Eefje and Els are both journalists and filmmakers. In 2021 they released their highly rewarded documentary Shadow Game, a storytelling of the different experiences of young refugees, merged into one universal story. In this documentary, they followed the young refugees for three years on their journey through Europe, from Greece to Servia, from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Netherlands.
