ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the frontex and the shifting approaches to boat migration in the European Union (EU). It makes some comparative observations on United States (US), Australian and European practices concerning boat immigration. The Frontex Sea Borders Regulation is the result of a rather laborious series of negotiations and institutional conflict within the EU. The original Frontex Regulation did not refer to other EU instruments on migration, such as the EU asylum directives, and only contained a general affirmation in the recital that the Regulation respects fundamental rights. Frontex has been involved in these operations, as it coordinated the various Hera operations in the seas adjacent to Mauritania, Senegal and Cape Verde. The Regulation does not refer in any way to the guarantees for persons subjected to ordinary' border controls laid down in the Schengen Borders Code, and refers neither to guarantees for asylum seekers laid down in EU asylum law.
