In 2025, the EU Border & Coast Guard agency Frontex handed out €76 million in financial assistance to unwanted non-EU nationals after they left the EU, as part of an EU-wide project to increase deportations.
The investigation exposed several legal failings during the implementation of the programme. It also traced attempts by the agency to shield itself from public scrutiny, as it chose to hide information about its deportation funding programme by colluding with national authorities in the EU.
The investigation relied on interviews conducted with deportees and employees within Frontex’ financial assistance programme, as well as documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests.
The investigation benefited from the support of Staffan Dahllöf, who advised the team on how to approach different EU authorities to ask for information. Dr. Laura Salzano, the subject-matter expert for the project, provided the team with detailed legal analysis of the Frontex programme that helped confirm some of the investigation’s findings, as well as support during fact-checking.
Photo caption: A sign inside Pournara, Cyprus’ main refugee reception centre, advertising voluntary returns to its residents, who are overwhelmingly Syrians. March 2024. Photographed by Hope Barker/The New Arab.
