Border Fences around the European Union

A state's control over its borders is a basic exercise of national sovereignty-a principle weakened only by international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention. A similar principle can apply to a group of states such as the European Union (EU) that has established internal freedom of movement for its citizens: a necessary counterpart to that freedom is control of entry at its external borders. In the EU case that control has proven practically difficult and politically contentious in the face of extensive irregular migration-both economic migrants and asylum-seekers-taking place away from authorized border crossing points. (The relevant borders include those of the four non-EU states that are part of the Schengen zone of visa-free movement.) The length of external land borders is some 10,000 km; sea-borders make up another 40,000 km. Although there is an EU border control agency, Frontex, policing responsibility, at least for land borders and for some of the most trafficked sea-crossing routes in the Mediterranean and Aegean, lies largely with individual states. EU and Schengen member-state governments have a range of views about immigration but are uniformly opposed to irregular border-crossing. In states with external land borders, the responses in many cases have entailed erection of physical barriers along with patrols and surveillance systems. The extent of these barriers is indicated in the passage reprinted below from a recent European Parliament briefing paper. Patrols by coastal state authorities and by Frontex endeavor to interdict irregular migration by sea. In both cases, deterrence actions at the borders-"pushbacks"-while responsive to domestic political pressures, have a mixed record of effectiveness and have evoked some protests on human rights grounds. The source is European Parliament Briefing, "Walls and fences at EU borders," European Parliamentary Research Service (PE-733.692), October 2022. The excerpt is pp. 2-3, omitting charts and hyperlinks.