and satellites along with maps of the
Mediterranean. Countless green dots
can be seen on the screens. Each of
these points represents one ship or
boat that contains refugees. Agents
analyze the images and eventually
convey the coordinates to the mobile
task force that’s located in the area.
Satellite images of rubber boats in
the stretch of sea between Morocco
and Spain are also analyzed. A few
hours later the Spanish Coast Guard,
which had immediately deployed a
ship and a helicopter after receiving
the notification from Warsaw, fishes
38 dehydrated—but alive—refugees
from the Mediterranean Sea and then“If the people
want to come,
they will find a
way. We can’t
shoot them.”
Michal Parzyszek (Frontex)
L
ike a nutshell, the rubber boat
drifts across the endless blue
of the Mediterranean Sea. It is
but a small black speck in the
glittering water that disappears again
and again among the massive waves.
The boat has already been drifting for
days, somewhere between Morocco
and Spain, far off from the boats and
planes of the coast guard. Apparently
unnoticed, it floats on toward Europe.
But none of the 38 refugees on board
the boat suspects that they’ve been
under observation for quite a while.
From an altitude of 500 miles...HOW DO YOU MONITOR
8 ,700 MILES OF BORDERS?
Who will make it through, who will be
captured, and who will die? The fate
of thousands of refugees is decided
in the Mediterranean, off the coasts
of Italy, Greece, France, and Spain—
and on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper
in Warsaw, Poland. This is where the
command center of the European
border-protection agency Frontex is
based. The EU-funded special unit
has more than 300 employees plus
dozens of patrol boats, helicopters,
and drones at its disposal as well as
access to several satellites. Frontex
monitors approximately 8,700 miles
of borders in Europe. The task so far:
detect any boats that have capsized,
rescue individuals who are drowning,
seize refugee boats, and register theoccupants once safely back on land.
It’s an immense operation, especially
when you consider that an estimated
150,000 people traveled across the
Mediterranean to Europe just in the
first 10 weeks of 2016 alone. But how
exactly will this task be accomplished
in the future? And can such high-tech
monitoring replace fences and walls?
If you want to reach the heart of
Frontex’s command center, you must
go through four security checkpoints,
including a metal detector and an iris
scanner. Only then can you enter the
situation room, where all information
is collected. Enormous monitors on
the walls display images from dronesMar 2017 18 ideasanddiscoveries.com