The EU Returns Agency: The Commissions’ Ambitious Plans and Their Human Rights Implications

Abstract

The effective return of irregularly staying migrants is identified as an overriding objective in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, while return operations are the fastest-growing activity of Frontex. Since the 2019 amendment of its Regulation, the agency has received a significant augmentation of its mandate and capacity in pre-return and return-related activities. This way, Frontex takes a centre-stage role in the Commission’s plan to intensify returns. This article fills the relevant gap in existing literature, updating our knowledge on the latest legislative developments in EU return operations and answering questions related to their human rights implications at a time when the scrutiny over Frontex is at its peak. The article discusses the human rights risks of these operations and the effectiveness of the available safeguards. This article is the product mainly of legal doctrinal research, i.e. the analysis of the relevant EU law and legal literature, along with civil society and institutional reports and other empirical documentation. At the same time, it also looks at quantitative data on the agency’s return activities from 2004 until 2019.