• Serbia: a changing landscape of securitisation with health and humanitarian consequences

    Chloe Marshall-Denton, PhD, Humanitarian Advisor, Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) Belgium; and Andrea Panico, Humanitarian Affairs Officer, MSF North Balkans mission / November 2023 On 16 March 2023, EU Commissioner Ylva Johanson and European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) Director Hans Leijtens were pictured at the Serbian-Hungarian border with Frontex officers and Serbian authorities. The high-profile visit to Serbia, a non-EU country neighbouring Hungary, Croatia, and Romania, marked an important shift: Frontex, which had previously withdrawn from the Hungarian side of the border, is rapidly expanding its presence across non-EU Balkan states, including Serbia. By April 2023, 140 Frontex officers had reportedly been deployed to Serbia; their presence shared between the southern border with…

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  • Contested Borderscapes – Violence at Europe’s external and internal borders The dehumanization of migrants in border-control operations and its effects on people and policies

    Violence at Europe’s external and internal borders – The dehumanization of migrants in border-control operations and its effects on people and policiesAndrea Panico and Elena PresttProgetto Melting Pot Europawithin the publication “Contested Borderscapes Transnational Geographies vis-à-vis Fortress Europe”download → https://aoratespoleis.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/contested-borderscapes-1.pdf   1. DEATHS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA The most visible result of the absence of an adequate governance of migration flows is the never-ending tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea.As EU member states have not been able to ensure an efficient program of safe passage for people fleeing from conflict, prosecution and extreme starvation [1], for them the only way to reach Europe is crossing the Mediterranean on extremely over- crowded…

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