22 December 2020 An article produced for the Migration Control project, providing a critical overview of the role, powers and activities of EU border agency Frontex, from 2004 to the present. Brutal. Cruel. Inhumane. These are just some of the labels that have been applied to the EU’s migration and border control policies over the years, but they have done little to stop law-makers introducing new forms of surveillance, control and denial of access to European territory for people on the move. The establishment of EU border agency Frontex in May 2005 gave the EU and its member states a new means of enforcing those policies. Fifteen years later, Frontex has had its remit, powers and budget expanded multiple times. In the years to come it will take on an increasingly-prominent role in guarding ‘Fortress Europe’, whose walls – both physical and digital – now run along Europe’s borders, within its territory, and extend to countries thousands of miles away.