10 September 2025: Discussion/Lecture : Fortress Europe: 10 Years of Border Regime between Isolation and Resistance

A decade after the so-called “Summer of Migration” in 2015, the European Union has fortified itself into an almost impenetrable fortress. What began as a humanitarian crisis has been systematically transformed into a regime of control — one that strips people on the move of their rights and criminalizes solidarity.

The Escalation of Isolation

Ten years of sea rescue in the Mediterranean — and ten years of state refusal to assume humanitarian responsibility. While the number of irregular border crossings into the EU fell by 31 percent in the first quarter of 2025, European governments celebrate this “success”. Yet behind these figures lies a brutal reality: systematic isolation has not reduced migration, but increased the number of deaths at the EU’s external borders.

Barbed-wire fences several meters high, cutting-edge surveillance technology, speedboats, helicopters, drones, warships — the EU has transformed its borders into militarized exclusion zones. Frontex, originally conceived as a coordinating body, has grown into the largest border protection agency in the world, with a budget of several billion euros.

The Criminalization of Solidarity

The systematic criminalization of civilian sea rescue is particularly cynical. Just last month in Italy, NGO vessels were detained three times under the “Piantedosi Decree” — even as hundreds drowned in the Mediterranean. What began as humanitarian assistance is now smeared as aiding and abetting “illegal” migration. Instead of establishing state rescue programs, civilian rescuers are criminalized and buried under bureaucratic hurdles. In some EU countries, any form of support for refugees is punishable. Often, refugees themselves are forced to spend years in prisons along Europe’s external borders.

Digital Surveillance and Smart Borders

Fortress Europe 2.0 increasingly relies on digital surveillance and algorithmic control. Biometric databases, AI-driven risk assessments, and drone monitoring are turning borders into high-tech barriers. This “smart” isolation cloaks its violence in the language of technological efficiency.

Resistance and Alternatives

But wherever repression thrives, resistance grows. From Solidarity Cities to direct actions at the borders, transnational movements for freedom of movement and against the European border regime are active everywhere. The demand for open borders is not a utopia but a necessary response to the barbarism of Fortress Europe.

How should we assess the current situation at the EU’s external borders? What do ten years of civilian sea rescue mean for the struggle for freedom of movement? And how can emancipatory movements challenge Europe’s border regime?

We will discuss these and other questions with Lea Reisner, sea rescuer and member of the Bundestag for Die Linke, as well as with an activist from Poland’s Grupa Granica, Vasileios Psomos from the Legal Centre Lesvos in Mytilene, and two activists from Izmir — one representing the Association of Solidarity with Refugees (Mülteci-Der) and the other from the Progressive Lawyers Association (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği).

The discussion will be moderated by Marlene Auer.

The evening will open with short films from the digital exhibition VOICES FROM THE BORDER by borderline-europe, in which people stranded at the EU’s external borders as well as residents of these regions speak about their experiences.

The event will take place in German and English with interpretation.