The report, Exporting Borders: Frontex and the Expansion of Fortress Europe in West Africa, is co-published by the Transnational Institute and Statewatch.
It examines the EU border agency’s activities in Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania.
The report is based on extensive in-country research and highlights how Frontex’s work in those four states has intensified.
Over the years, the agency’s role has become more explicit and direct, evolving from behind-the-scenes involvement to increasingly overt and direct forms of intervention.
The report situates these developments within the context of a rapidly shifting geopolitical reality in the Sahel, marked by political instability, armed conflict, and a rising resistance to European influence.
The main findings of the report include:
- Frontex has been operational in West Africa prior to a formal mandate, and its role has grown in tandem with the EU’s border externalisation strategy;
- its work in Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal focuses on capacity building, information exchange, and potential direct engagement with border surveillance operations on the ground;
- the agency’s activities have received little legal, political, or journalistic scrutiny, despite posing serious risks to human rights and local sovereignty;
- Risk Analysis Cells (RACs), funded and equipped by Frontex, have been embedded in national border agencies in eight West African countries to collect and analyse dataand that is shared with Frontex for real-time monitoring of migration routes;
- Frontex’s presence is often informal and opaque, bypassing judicial, democratic, and public scrutiny;
- EU support has also included funding for biometric ID systems, surveillance drones, wiretapping infrastructure, and phone-tracking technology – reportedly been used to target journalists, activists, and opposition groups;
- EU border policies rely on a racialised construction of the African migrant as a security threat, conflating migration with terrorism, crime, and instability, legitimising exclusionary and repressive practices;
- migrants in West Africa face routine violations including arbitrary arrest, detention, refoulement, and extortion;
- people who are not migrants are also affected, as increased surveillance and border restrictions impinge upon civil liberties and disrupt trade, livelihoods, and everyday cross-border movement; and
- despite talk of equal partnerships, EU actions often reflect coercive dynamics rooted in colonial histories: instrumentalising aid, imposing visa sanctions, and prioritising EU geopolitical interests over local needs and agency.
