As an activist volunteering my time to work directly with migrants and displaced individuals along EU borders, I've observed with growing unease the European Union's deployment of technology in disturbing new ways to crack down on migration. Drones patrol borders, high-tech fences stretch for miles, and biometric scanners capture intimate details of people on the move. In the name of security, the EU has unleashed a technological tide to systematically deny access and push migrants back to uncertain futures. What does this tech-led crackdown foretell for the future of human rights in Europe? As the migrant crisis continues with no resolution in sight, technology seems to offer irresistible solutions for EU leaders seeking to stem the flow of newcomers. But at what cost to our shared humanity? I fear we're entering a new era of border control where our digital identities define and limit us. The future has arrived, and it's a dark one in the shadows of Europe.

EU's Tech-Led Crackdown: How New Border Technologies Threaten Migrants

The EU has heavily invested in high-tech border security—drones, biometrics, AI, you name it. As someone concerned with human rights, it's alarming to witness these technologies systematically being used to crack down on migrants and push them back.

Frontex (the EU border agency) is increasingly deploying drones and satellite data that can detect groups of migrants from miles away. Once located, the information is shared with authorities who in most cases forcibly turn migrants away. Some drones are even outfitted with night vision and infrared cameras, leaving migrants with nowhere to hide.

Biometric screening has also become a standard at many EU borders. This is not just limited to fingerprints, facial scans, and even voice recognition are used to quickly identify and process migrants. The data is stored in EU-wide databases like Eurodac, allowing authorities to detect if migrants have attempted crossing into other EU countries. For migrants, this means constant surveillance and fewer opportunities to seek asylum.

While increased security is a reasonable endeavor, these technologies pose serious risks to privacy and human life when misused. They make systematic pushbacks and violence all too easy, with little accountability. Technology itself isn't the issue—it's how they're applied. While technology should have facilitated migration rather than hinder it, the EU has chosen the latter path, a slippery slope towards a dystopian future of mass surveillance and erosion of human rights.

Drones and Surveillance Systems: Constant Monitoring From the Skies

Imagine living under constant surveillance, with drones and high-tech security systems tracking your every move and preventing you from crossing a border. Between 2014 to 2020, the EU spent over $4 billion on advanced border security technology. There's no sign of slowing down, as Frontex holds the highest budget among all EU agencies, with 5.6 billion euros allocated for the 2021-27 budget period.

The EU deploys fleets of drones to patrol borders day and night. High-resolution cameras spot migrants from miles away, tracking them as they traverse harsh landscapes. Motion sensors, night vision, and thermal imaging can detect individuals in the dark or dense foliage. Some drones are even equipped with speakers to issue commands from the sky.

Once located, border agents are dispatched to intercept migrants and forcibly push them back. Hundreds of testimonies are recorded every month of violent pushbacks of migrants who were spotted by drones and thermal cameras. This "virtual wall" has led to dangerous situations where migrants take riskier routes to avoid detection, often with tragic outcomes.

This nonstop monitoring shows a callous disregard for migrant lives. Exhausted families fleeing conflicts and hardships are treated like criminals on the run. Do mothers and children seeking refuge deserve to feel like they're in an endless game of hide-and-seek with the authorities? There must be a balance between security and humanity. Drones shouldn't have free rein to deter migrants at all costs. Regulation and oversight are desperately needed to curb the abuse of these tech systems.

Biometric Data Collection: Storing the Bodies and Lives of Migrants

If you are a European citizen, your fingerprints, facial scans, and other personal details are stored in massive databases. This data is used only to verify your identity when traveling or applying for documents. But if you are a migrant, this data is shared and used for completely different purposes.

Once biometric data is collected from a migrant, it's hard to know where it ends up. Interpol, security agencies, and private companies may gain access, building profiles of people's locations, travels, and behaviors. The implications for migrants are chilling. Biometric screening is used to identify and intercept migrants, facilitating pushbacks at borders before they can claim asylum. Their data are stored indefinitely, following them even if they eventually gain legal status.

Migrants are often unable to consent to data collection or understand how it's used against them. No one's identity and body should become a tool for exclusion and control. This rise in biometric data collection poses a clear abuse of human rights, privacy, and dignity. The EU should rethink its harmful expansion of migration policing through technology.

Systematic Pushbacks Enabled: When Technology Meets Discrimination

There's a human rights crisis unfolding right on Europe's doorstep, though you might not have heard much about it. Migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the EU are being forcibly and violently turned back at its borders without due process, in a practice known as "pushbacks."

Over the last year, I have engaged with hundreds of people on the move at different European borders. Speaking with them, I've been struck by how many had attempted crossing borders, only to be violently detained and expelled without access to asylum procedures. It has been disturbing to witness how "smart" pushbacks have become, enabled by tools like drones, night vision cameras, sensors, and databases. The systematic and indiscriminate nature of these operations raises serious concerns over human rights violations.

Once spotted by drones, migrants report being beaten, robbed, stripped naked, and abandoned in remote border areas. These "pushbacks" violate international law and human rights. Yet, with the use of technology, they continue to increase and advance with impunity across Europe. The methods used in pushbacks include beatings, dog attacks, stripping and abusive cavity searches, theft of belongings, and dumping people in remote border areas. Some have even died.

Technology should not dehumanize or harm. If employed for border security, safeguards must uphold the rights and dignity of all people. We all deserve to feel safe and live freely—not just those lucky enough to be born on the right side of a line.

Ethical Considerations and Human Rights

As drones and biometric systems increasingly fortify Europe's borders, serious ethical questions arise regarding privacy, data security, and human rights.

Surveillance technologies like drones threaten privacy by monitoring migrants in sensitive situations. Drones can track individuals over long distances and in isolated areas where people expect privacy. Biometric data collection also poses risks, as there are no guarantees that sensitive information like fingerprints or facial scans won't be leaked, hacked, or misused.

Once collected, biometric data can be used to systematically deny entry and enact pushbacks with life-threatening consequences. Migrants turned away at the border face immense dangers, and some don't survive the journey back.

Overall, technology seems to dehumanize migrants by reducing them to data points and images on a screen. There is a lack of transparency around how these systems work, and a lack of accountability for the suffering they allow.

If the EU truly values human rights, it must establish oversight and protections to limit privacy violations and prevent technology from enabling systematic pushbacks. Failing to do so will only exacerbate human suffering in the name of border control. The ethical implications demand our attention before it's too late.

There are no easy fixes here, but we must forge a compassionate solution that treats all people with equal worth and respect. The time has come for Europe to step out of the shadows and into the light.