On 3 November, the EU-funded Liminal project reported that aerial surveillance by the EU’s border agency Frontex over the central Mediterranean has directly led to the interception and return of over 33,000 people to Libya and Tunisia between late 2018 and 2024. “In 2021, the year with the most complete data available, detection by Frontex’s aircraft accounted for at least 36 percent of all recorded pushbacks,” according to Liminal. Frontex has already allocated €330m for aerial surveillance for 2027 with the European Commission demanding an additional €169m for drones, seaborne equipment and state-of-the-art high-altitude systems. Liminal says they identified 16 cases in which Frontex aerial assets detected a migrant boat but did not directly alert nearby charity ships able to help.
