Exclusive: The EU plans to allow Frontex to expel migrants before they arrive in Europe

With new rules, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency will be able to transfer migrants between third countries, extend its activities outside Europe and facilitate deportations from return hubs.

The European border guard agency Frontex is expected to be given new powers allowing it to return irregular migrants from one non-EU country to another, further extending European migration policy beyond the bloc's borders, according to several European officials who spoke to Euronews on condition of anonymity.4

The reform that the European Commission is due to unveil on Tuesday will grant Frontex enhanced operational powers outside the territory of the Union, a development that is expected to provoke a backlash from civil society organizations.

Currently, Frontex officers can assist national authorities in returning irregular migrants from EU countries to their countries of origin, as well as patrol the bloc's external borders and coastlines.

With the new rules, the Warsaw-based agency will also be able to support third-country authorities, such as North African governments, in returning Central African nationals to their countries of origin before they even attempt to reach European shores.

"The more people you send back before [they arrive in Europe], the fewer you have to send back afterwards," a European official told Euronews.

Frontex officers will also be authorized to participate in deportations from these return centers, which a recently approved law allows EU countries to establish in third countries. Five European governments are currently negotiating the creation of the first center, which is expected to become operational in 2027.

Migrants whose asylum applications or requests for residency in the EU have been rejected and who are housed in these centers are ultimately supposed to be returned to their country of origin. Frontex's involvement could prove crucial in organizing these final transfers.

An "eviction agency"?

"It is no longer just an agency that supports EU countries at their borders. [...] It is an expulsion agency, operating further and further from the actual border of the European Union," said Josephine Solanki, a researcher at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute think tank, at a press briefing before the reform.

Several NGOs and civil society organizations are calling for any extension of Frontex's mandate to be accompanied by strengthened monitoring and accountability mechanisms to protect the fundamental rights of migrants. They believe the agency has already been accused of human rights violations during its operations in Europe.

However, any cooperation with a third country will require a specific agreement with the state concerned, similar to the "status agreement" already concluded by Frontex with several non-EU countries, including Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia.

These agreements authorise the deployment of Frontex agents tasked with specific missions, including joint operations and rapid border interventions in the territory of partner countries.

The EU is currently negotiating an agreement with Senegal. In parallel, a Frontex liaison officer for Senegal, whose expanded mandate also covers Mauritania and The Gambia, was appointed in 2023 as part of informal "working arrangements".

Create a rapid response force

The reform also provides for the creation of a rapid reaction force, intended to be deployed in the event of a sudden and massive arrival of irregular migrants, as well as an online monitoring unit tasked with monitoring social networks to prevent large-scale movements.

The goal is to avoid situations like the mass entries into Ceuta last July, when approximately 90,000 migrants forced their way across the border between Morocco and the Spanish exclave.

The European Commission's Vice-President for Security, Henna Virkkunen, and the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, are expected to present the reform on Tuesday, at the end of the weekly meeting of the College.

Frontex is also due to receive 12 billion euros as part of the next seven-year EU budget, double its previous allocation.