This cross-border investigation reveals how the EU and the UK are transforming their border control regimes into lucrative surveillance systems for large companies and startups, research institutes and private-public sector collaborations, while people on the move are subjected to experimental AI and data-driven projects with thin safeguards.
Spanning Greece, the Balkans, Switzerland, Germany and the southern shores of England, the reporting examines how artificial intelligence and “smart” surveillance tools are being tested and deployed along Europe’s borders, with Greece emerging as a key testbed. Journalists followed EU and national security funding schemes, traced the companies, research institutes and defence contractors behind major projects, and documented the human rights impact on migrants exposed to these technologies.
Based on on-the-ground reporting, interviews with officials, insiders and frontline officers, the review of hundreds of pages of public and internal documents, freedom-of-information request responses, procurement records and technical documentation, the investigation reveals a growing arsenal of border-tech: drones, facial-analysis systems, mobile surveillance units and algorithmic decision-making tools for risk assessment and age checks.
Examples range from a 60-day Frontex pilot in Bulgaria using U.S.-made drones that purportedly reduced border crossings, to a trial in the UK where facial-age estimation technology developed by American and European companies will be used to test the age of refugees.
Experts warn that supposedly “assistive” algorithms can subtly steer human decision-making, while rights groups highlight how asylum seekers’ biometric data may be shared, stored or repurposed for security reasons and profit without meaningful consent — in systems where errors can have life-altering consequences.
Meanwhile, oversight remains weak. Many projects operate at the edges of EU law and outside robust democratic scrutiny, with authorities frequently refusing to release key documents on national-security grounds. Data protection safeguards are patchy, transparency is limited, and legal accountability lags far behind technological rollout.
For the companies involved, border-tech contracts are lucrative; for people on the move, the risks are profound. As one expert told the reporters, the technologies now reshaping Europe’s borders “are not trained to show compassion”.