Exploring the Intersection of Humanitarianism, Technology and Policing at the Borders of Europe

The borders of the European Union have become sites of increased humanitarian intervention by a range of actors, from the Greek police in Evros, the Guardia Civil in Ceuta and Melilla and Spanish territorial waters, to private philanthropists in the southern Mediterranean. Alongside these interventions a range of security devices have been presented as making a difference in this complex humanitarian policing assemblage. Built on field research this paper examines the relationship between the humanitarian imperative to save lives, the presentation of security devices as humanitarian, the need to police European territorial space and the responsibility of member states to uphold and implement fundamental rights. It explores a range of sites and instances of practice, from the Greek border police in Evros using surveillance technologies for search, ‘rescue’ and arrest to the Spanish Guardia Civil using ‘humane’ wire and traps in the border architecture of Ceuta’s fences; to the philanthropic privately funded and operated Migrant Offshore Aid Station that seeks to locate and save migrant lives in the southern Mediterranean using a range of devices, from boats to UAVs. The paper questions the ability of policing practices, technological fixes and private philanthropy to address the underlying tensions between the need to secure a migrant population at risk alongside the territorial fixity of the European Union while questioning private rescue efforts in light of member state responsibilities and considerations of ‘what comes after’ rescue.