Border policing at sea: Tactics, routines, and the law in a Frontex patrol boat

Abstract

This article explores how Frontex border policing is organized and performed at the level of the everyday. Based on ethnographic research in the Aegean Sea and interviews with Frontex and Hellenic Coast Guard officers, it details the mundane workings of ‘early detection’—a bordering practice that is systematically performed at EUrope’s frontier. By analysing the tactical labour and interactions with the host authority, the article documents a transformation in Frontex officers’ understandings of their role from humanitarian rescue towards deterrence. A focus on the day-to-day practices of Frontex officers and their limited conception of human rights reveals the ways unlawful bordering tactics become routinized within the Frontex operational theatre.