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Frontex's European blackmail over migrants’ ‘voluntary’ returns

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11 March 2026

With a 2.2% increase in so-called 'voluntary' returns over the last six years, and a budget in excess of €1 billion, Frontex is fast becoming the protagonist in Europe's border control policy

By Luca Rondi, journalist at Altreconomia. Translation from Italian by Elena Milani. Editing by Emilija Krivosic. Originally published in Italian on 1 May 2025.

"I walk the streets and I feel ashamed. Everyone knows I didn't make it and that I couldn't even pay back the money needed to pay for my trip to Europe.” Nuha sighs as he describes a difficult daily life in Sukuta, a Gambian town about twenty kilometers from the capital, Banjul. “I don't have a stable job, and even though many years have passed, I often think back to the day I was repatriated,” he says. “I hadn't committed any crime: only once did I not pay for a bus ticket, but I returned to my country with handcuffs on my wrists.”

In November 2019, after five years living between Italy and Germany, Nuha was deported to the Gambia on a flight operated by Frontex, the EU Border Agency. Over the last ten years, 1,158 other Gambian citizens, like Nuha, have been sent back with Frontex’s assistance.

"They suffer greatly," Bakary Camara tell us. Camary is the medical director of the Tanka Tanka psychiatric hospital located in Sukuta, the city where Nuha now lives. "They are often admitted here for mental health problems and drug addictions developed in Europe. It's not easy to start over."

A failed strategy

From the Gambian perspective, the EU’s obsession with returning irregular migrants is particularly noteworthy. Since the end of former President Yahya Jammeh's dictatorship in 2017, many young people have decided to leave one of Africa’s smallest countries.

The increase in emigration has had a significant impact on the economy. In 2022, the United Nations Human Development Index ranked Gambia 174th out of 191 countries. The $513 million sent by Gambians abroad to their families in 2023 (so-called remittances) accounted for 21.9% of the country's gross domestic product. A crucial part of the economy.

This is also why President Adama Barrow was harshly criticised when he signed a returns agreement with the European Union in 2018. "When a person is deported, not only is the money they sent home lost," explains Yahya Sonko, a Gambian activist who has lived in Germany since 2015, "but also the development of local businesses. From Europe, I provide jobs for 15 people in my hometown."

Protests forced Barrow to step back and resulted in a standoff with European institutions. The EU has since threatened the country with tighter visa restrictions as punishment for their lack of cooperation on returns, the most recent occasion being in July 2024.

"This is unacceptable blackmail and a waste of money for Europeans," Sonko observes. "Sending someone back costs a lot, and that doesn't mean they won't leave again once they return. It's a harmful and useless policy."

In terms of numbers, the EU’s returns strategy has completely failed. In the third quarter of 2024, for example, only 28,630 out of a total of 112,055 people who received a so-called “expulsion order” in the EU were actually repatriated. This equates to one in five. “A percentage that is far too low,” underlined European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she presented, in early March, the new Common European System for Returns. The proposal introduces faster procedures and has one undisputed central actor: Frontex.

Frontex’s windfall

"I remember well the officers who accompanied us on the plane," Nuha continues. They were from Frontex, the agency now led by Hans Leijtens from the Netherlands. In 2025, Frontex marked its twentieth anniversary and has been allocated a staggering €1.1billion budget by the European Commission, a budget unmatched by any comparable institution. It is forty-two times larger than that of the European Cybersecurity Agency and ten times larger than that of the European Environment Agency. Of this significant amount, only €2.5 million is devoted to human-rights-related activities, while as much as €133 million is allocated for returns, an increase of 42% compared to 2024.

“In the new Regulation proposed by the Commission,” explains Silvia Carta, advocacy officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), “the central role of the Agency clearly emerges, and a further increase in funding for return operations is foreseen.”

Frontex's activity in this sector is nothing new. Since its inception, it has collaborated with Member States, supporting them by covering flight costs and pre-departure activities. However, it has carved out an increasingly important role since the new 2019 regulation. Frontex officers are now being deployed in non-EU countries, creating additional opportunities for cooperation.  As a result, Frontex has now become a key player in the sensitive task of cooperating with local authorities in those countries.

Frontex leads on ‘voluntary’ returns

There are, however, two main barriers to the EU’s decision to push returns, or rather, deportations[1]. The first is the stratospheric costs. The expulsion of an individual from Italy to “nearby” Tunisia, for example, can amount to up to €4000 per person and that is just for the chartering of the plane. The second is the agreements with the countries of origin. Much like in Gambia, many of these countries are often reluctant to accept such agreements.

Faced with these challenges, the Warsaw-based agency and European institutions are increasingly turning to so-called “voluntary” returns. The advantage of ‘voluntary’ returns is two-fold: they do not require the involvement of the countries of origin because the person supposedly cooperates, and the journey is cheaper because it takes place on a scheduled flight. Today, more than half of the people leaving Europe do so "voluntarily," with Frontex spearheading this initiative.

Frontex has provided support for so-called “voluntary” returns since as far back as 2019 with data showing a significant increase in its activity in recent years. In 2019, the agency collaborated with nine member states to return 155 people. By 2024, this had increased to 35,637 people from 26 EU member states, a 2.2% increase. The number of destination countries has also grown significantly; 117 countries compared to just 41 countries six years ago. Frontex currently supports voluntary returns to 74% of countries outside the EU. In Africa, only Eswatini and Malawi are missing from the list.

“Brussels' strategy on this type of repatriation is ambiguous. The new Regulation provides for an embrace of voluntary returns but leaves national authorities with the option of implementing incentives for people who 'cooperate' with their own deportation by agreeing to participate in assisted repatriation programs," Carta from Picum explains.

“A form of blackmail that stems from the shortening of the re-entry ban into European territory and from the financial support offered.”

For Frontex, this assistance is provided under the auspices of a so-called Reintegration Programme. The short-term support includes €615 for voluntary repatriations and €205 for forced returns. The long-term support provides indirect assistance for one year ranging from healthcare coverage to support in starting a business.  A €1,000 or €2,000 incentive is also on offer depending on whether the main applicant's return is voluntary or forced, with an additional €1,000 provided for each family member.

This endowment is managed by six NGOs selected through a public tender to operate in 38 different countries around the world. The NGOs include: Caritas International Belgium, Women Empowerment, Literacy and Development Organization (WELDO), IRARA, European Technology and Training Centre (ETTC), Life Makers Foundation Egypt, and Micado Migration. While 867 repatriated citizens were supported under this project in 2022, the number increased by 1.4% (12,676) in 2024. The main nationalities were from Turkey (2,750), Iraq (2,469), Georgia (1,472), Gambia (1,162), Nigeria (816), Pakistan (794), and Bangladesh (620).

"These forms of assistance are often ineffective for those returning to their home countries because the use of the funds is highly problematic," explains Rossella Marino, a professor at Ghent University in Belgium who completed a PhD specifically on reintegration projects in Gambia.

“They are extremely useful, however, to the European institutions, because they frame,  through a positive and acceptable narrative, namely that of helping people who return, what is in fact a neo-colonial approach ultimately aimed at controlling mobility.” Marino emphasises how the repatriation ‘machine’ involves numerous actors on the ground. "All these activities consolidate the presence of European institutions in that territory, but above all, they help prevent returnees from leaving. This process also occurs through the digitalisation of all information."

Funded by the European Commission and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the digital platform Reintegration Assistance Tool (RIAT) was developed precisely for this purpose. Through this platform, cases from the Frontex programme are constantly monitored and cooperation between Member States is improved.

There is also the issue of responsibility with respect to Frontex's role in returns and whether the agency holds responsibility for events that take place prior to the return. What happens, for example, if the expulsion order justifying the person's return is unlawful? Who is responsible? Or what if, in the case of voluntary departures, the person is not in a position to make an informed decision? This aspect is crucial. "Frontex takes advantage of the fact that responsibility for everything that happens before repatriation falls solely on the Member State. But this isn't the case," explains Laura Salzano, lecturer of EU law at the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona who has been studying these issues for years. "The Agency must assess on a case-by-case basis whether the expulsion is lawful or not: its own Regulation, Article 80, requires it to do so."

All of this also concerns Italy greatly, which, alongside Romania, is at the bottom of the European rankings for voluntary returns. In the ten years from 2015 to 2024, 4,059 people were returned through this programme, totalling a €35.5 million investment from Italy’s Ministry of the Interior[2]. In 2024, all 290 assisted return cases, 42% of which involved irregular migrants, were managed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

In recent months, however, detainees in Italian repatriation centres (CPRs) have increasingly reported intense pressure to sign up to what are called "voluntary departures." An IOM official, who prefers to remain anonymous, confirmed that the organisation he works for does not initiate voluntary returns from CPRs.

Frontex is stepping in with its Reintegration Programme, which now appears to be a priority for Italy as well. Everything is managed by the police headquarters, with monitoring taking place on case-by-case basis. The cases of those who agree to leave the country immediately are then referred to Frontex HQ. Frontex’ reach therefore now extends to Italian detention centres. Whether Albania is next remains a question.

"Six years later," Nuha concludes, "one of the things that hurts me most is not being able to hug my wife and daughter before leaving: they made me leave through the back of the police station, and she tried to follow the car, but they lost her. She was crying, screaming, and so was our daughter. This is the last image I have of Europe."

Notes

[1] Within EU policy language, “return (or returns)” or is a sanitised term for deportation (or deported individuals) or removal. Even the so-call “voluntary” returns can involve forced or coerced removal from a territory. For this reason, we refer to all territorial removals as deportation.

[2] According to data provided to Altreconomia by Italy’s Ministry of the Interior.

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