Gates of Europe

This film – also available as a feature documentary and mini series – explores Europe’s (moral) borders from within the controversial Frontex border agency.

An estimated 2,000 people die every year at Europe’s external borders. Human rights organisations report tens of thousands of cases of ‘pushbacks’: the practice of forcing people back across a border without giving them access to an asylum procedure. This makes Europe’s border the deadliest and most violent in the world. Border control is in the hands of the member states; the European agency Frontex supports them and is tasked with overseeing their activities. This border police force is expected to uphold European values while simultaneously implementing an increasingly restrictive migration policy.

For three years, the filmmakers were granted access to Frontex. As well as following it’s executive Director, Dutchman Hans Leijtens, they also followed key figures outside the agency who critically monitor the organisation and its border policies. Leijtens promised greater transparency and a more humane approach when he took office in 2023. He operates, however, in a political arena where European humanitarian values continually clash with calls for stricter border control. Although an extensive system is in place to protect the rights of people seeking safety, the series shows how this system can fall short in practice and how humanitarian values are increasingly coming under pressure. Whether at the Turkish border, in the middle of the Mediterranean, or while crossing the English Channel between continental Europe and England.

The migration debate has become increasingly polarised in recent years. There are no easy answers, but there are major dilemmas. To make this complexity tangible and understandable, Gates of Europe places the human being within the system at its centre.  It shows how the reality on paper collides with the daily reality at our borders.

Also available as a feature-length and a series.