Paper short abstract:

The technologies of "protection of the external borders of the EU" implemented by Frontex are based on racist ideological principles and bypass democratic control. This paper examines the major institutional component of contemporary European states of exception: the politics of Europe Fortress.

Paper long abstract:

The so-called "refugee crisis" brings to light the lethal capacity of the Frontex agency which, since its creation in the mid-2000s, can be held responsible for the death of more than 30.000 refugees and immigrants along the Mediterranean borderline going from Ceuta and Melilla on the West, through Lampedusa to Farmakonissi and Lesvos on the East. This high death-toll is part and result of an ever-growing and complex apparatus of ad hoc institutions, such as detention centers, authorities of registering, filtering and repatriating non-EU citizens, sea and land patrols etc.

In this paper, I will first attempt to draw a map of this archipelago of modern forms of exclusion, reclusion and stigmatization. The implementation of those policies often bypassed the established processes of democratic ratification in the national level. The techniques of stigmatization of the incoming migrants (e.g. the Cologne New-Year incidents) and the involvement of the local populations in practices of segregation, seclusion and human trafficking reveal a high-level of tolerance and support to unconcealed racism. This process should be considered as interdependent rather than as parallel to the rise of far- and extreme right parties across the continent. In guise of conclusion, I will attempt to assess how contemporary islamophobia, xenophobia and cultural racism draw their roots from long-standing reactionary, counterrevolutionary and anti-Enlightenment ideological currents.