Frontex eyes drones to further war on immigration
Dutch Campaign Against Arms Trade | 26.03.2012 10:59 | Anti-militarism | Migration
While no orders so far have become public, several military companies started courting Frontex, especially with offers of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones).
Two months later French Thales and Spanish Aerovision presented their Fulmar UAV to Frontex during a trial at the Aktio Airbase in Greece. According to the press release more companies were presenting their drones at this event, names are not mentioned. The Fulmar is already in use by for border surveillance tasks by Malaysia in the Strait of Malacca.
Just last month Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) showed its Heron UAV to Frontex, again in Greece. Militaries all over the world are operating the Heron. The Israeli Defence Forces relied heavily on the use of UAVs, including the Heron, during the Gaza conflict of December 2008 and January 2009, when the use of drones resulted into at least 87 civilian deaths. Author and activist David Cronin criticised Frontex for recruiting "Israel’s war machine […] to stop impoverished foreigners from reaching the European Union."
For a workshop in Bulgaria in April on “Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA) potential for European border surveillance and SAR operations”, Frontex once again invites “industry to present its latest achievements in this domain.
The agency and military companies are meeting up elsewhere as well.
[ Read more, with links: http://www.stopwapenhandel.org/node/1286 ]
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