For nearly an hour and a half, on May 23, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella, President of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) party and lead candidate for the European elections in June, engaged in a heated debate on France 2. The two political leaders opposed on all topics. Immigration was no exception.

Faced with an exasperated Attal, Jordan Bardella explained his political project against immigration: "systematic refoulement" of migrants who arrive on European soil, by first ensuring the "security of [their] boats". He also accused Frontex, the European coast surveillance agency, of not fulfilling its role of "policing" but of being, on the contrary, a "hostess for migrants".

InfoMigrants takes a closer look at these comments.

1) Can Europe "systematically push back" migrants who land on European coasts?

Unsurprisingly, Jordan Bardella went after irregular migration by referring to the thousands of people who have reached European shores, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Malta by the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. According to data from the International Organization for Migration, over 250,000 people arrived irregularly in Europe via sea routes in 2023, with nearly 40,000 reaching the Spanish Canaries via the Atlantic, marking the highest recorded figure for the archipelago.

What is Jordan Bardella talking about? "Pushing back" a migrant would mean for the head of the RN to send them back to their country of departure – often Senegal, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey or even Algeria or Morocco – without them being able to set foot in Europe.

Is this legal? It is complicated. Since an agreement was signed in 2016 between Brussels and Tripoli, Libya has been responsible for relief operations in the SAR zone (search and rescue zone) located in international waters off its coast. The Libyan coast guard is authorized to intercept migrants in a large area in the Mediterranean and therefore bring them back to the country.

According to international law, Jordan Bardella’s program goes against the principle of non-refoulement, a general principle set out in Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees: it is prohibited to return a person to a country where they risk their life, being subjected to torture, or mistreatment "whether it is their country of origin or not."

Under no circumstances may a foreigner be expelled or returned to any country, whether or not his or her country of origin, if their right to life or personal liberty is likely to be violated there for reasons based on his or her race, his nationality, his religion, his social situation or his political opinions. -- Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

However, the vast majority of sub-Saharan migrants who arrive in Europe through Italy (notably, the island of Lampedusa) leave from the Tunisian or Libyan coasts. In these two countries, there are threats to the physical integrity of migrants. Kaïs Saïed, the current Tunisian president, leads a racist policy against Black people on his soil. And Libya, currently torn apart by a fratricidal war between the Haftar clan in the east and the Dbeibah clan in the west, is regularly described as "hell" by NGOs and migrants who have crossed the country.

The leader of the far-right party also comes up against the principle of the right to asylum. This fundamental right recalls that an immigrant who requests the protection of a third State does not have the right to be returned until their case has been investigated, even if they arrived irregularly on European soil.

2) Can we "secure migrant boats" before turning them back?

Bardella's statement lacks precision: what does it mean to "secure" a boat? To ensure that it floats, that there are no excess migrants on board? In the immensity of the Mediterranean Sea, is not a plastic, wooden or iron boat exposed to bad weather and strong currents necessarily in distress?

And what do we do with these passengers if they are injured or face imminent danger of drowning? Bardella did not explain.

The fact remains that "safety" at sea is based on a rule: international maritime law. And the latter is clear on one point: any person in a situation of danger must be rescued whatever the reasons for their presence, their nationality, their destination.

What if injured people, children, or pregnant women are on board? This scenario is not uncommon during migrant crossings. The boats provided by traffickers are shoddy and dangerous. Jordan Bardella’s project does not address the legal duty to assist people in danger.

Over the years, InfoMigrants has documented dozens of rescues including people burned by the mixture of fuel and seawater, migrants asphyxiated by gasoline fumes in the boats they were in, pregnant women who gave birth at sea, migrants unconscious due to extreme dehydration.

3) Jordan Bardella criticizes the European border guard agency Frontex which is, according to him, "a hostess for migrants."

"Frontex is not a police force which protects the borders, but it welcomes and takes care of the boats [of migrants] before distributing them in French municipalities, towns and villages," the candidate claimed on French TV Channel France 2.

What is the role of Frontex? It provides support to Member States in the control and surveillance of the external borders of the European Union (EU), in particular by participating in the detection of boats at sea. The agency also records all arrivals on European soil.

Sometimes, Frontex may be required to carry out rescues at sea, by providing technical and operational assistance (vehicles, planes, ships) to Member States. These operations are coordinated by the sea rescue coordination centers.

Is Frontex a "hostess"? The comparison would make migrant rights advocacy groups jump. Frontex was singled out for its pushback actions, particularly in the Aegean Sea, under the leadership of Fabrice Leggeri (he is currently a member of the National Rally and on Jordan Bardella's European list) from 2015 to 2022. Leggeri is currently being sued for complicity with crimes against humanity and torture during his time at Frontex.

A report from the European Anti-Fraud Office made public in 2022 by the press and NGOs even revealed that in 2021, Frontex had not properly processed evidence of pushbacks of migrants at maritime and land borders, going so far as to conceal them.

Several journalistic investigations carried out by the Lighthouse Reports consortium and published in particular in Le Monde, had also demonstrated that between March 2020 and September 2021, Frontex had recorded illegal pushbacks to Greek waters as simple "prevention operations at departure points, carried out in Turkish waters."

With regard to distributions "in French municipalities, towns and villages", Jordan Bardella points to the new Asylum and Migration Pact. The pact requires "solidarity" from all Member States to help countries where many migrants arrive, such as Italy, Greece or Spain. The 27 EU states must each year, as part of a "solidarity reserve", welcome a certain number of asylum seekers via "relocations". If they refuse, the EU plans to penalize them: by imposing a fine of 20,000 euros for each "non-relocated" migrant.

But the Pact also sets up a "particularly harsh" system, in the words of NGOs, for migrants. The text notably endorses the creation of centers at EU borders, in which migrants will be held while their files are examined. It will be impossible for them to set foot on European soil before then. A new form of “criminalization” of migrants leftist parties and associations have denounced since the adoption of this project.

Translated from the French original by Arno Pedram