Gabriella Sanchez's Avatar

Gabriella Sanchez

@gesanchez.bsky.social

Fronteriza! Migration and Security researcher at @Georgetown University. Critical border studies; high risk migration facilitation and criminalization; smuggling & trafficking. Tacos & Shawarma. Former @mpc-eui.bsky.social and @diis.dk.

1,030 Followers  |  816 Following  |  38 Posts  |  Joined: 22.11.2024  |  2.3228

Latest posts by gesanchez.bsky.social on Bluesky

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ICE's Alternatives to Detention programme is said to be "more humane" – but for Juliana and her children, it means living under constant pressure.

Read the new blog post by @gesanchez.bsky.social and Juliana R. S. ⤵️

blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-crimi...

21.01.2026 11:46 — 👍 0    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

I‘m sure @birgitsippel.bsky.social has the entire migration/asylum expert community on her side on this issue, but sadly that doesn‘t seem to mean much any more. @nikolajnielsen.bsky.social @euobserver.com @gesanchez.bsky.social
@jesperbjarnesen.bsky.social
@theecre.bsky.social

16.01.2026 18:56 — 👍 6    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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The EU's new asylum 'safe countries' list is a fantasy wonderland Contrary to the name, the EU's safe country of origin list is not primarily based on safety considerations. In fact, the EU’s new asylum legislation on ‘safe country policies’ forms part of a system whose aim is to reject and deport more quickly.

Contrary to the name, the EU's safe country of origin list is not primarily based on safety considerations. In fact, the EU’s new asylum legislation on ‘safe country policies’ forms part of a system whose aim is to reject and deport more quickly.

10.12.2025 11:31 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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Today, in Copenhagen!

11.11.2025 09:28 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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White House claims "more than 1,000%" rise in assaults on ICE agents, data says otherwise Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers claim assaults on their officers are up sharply since June. There's no public evidence that number is true.

ICE claims assaults on its officers are up sharply since June. There's no public evidence that number is true.

10.10.2025 13:33 — 👍 2234    🔁 685    💬 264    📌 171
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ICE agents raid South Shore apartments; Trump says Chicago could become military training ground ICE agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’”

It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

02.10.2025 02:10 — 👍 3305    🔁 2073    💬 134    📌 315
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📣Call for applications: Dialogues on Mobility, Surveillance & Resistance JAN 26–30, 26 Tijuana, Mexico
Organized by International Migration Institute & University of Amsterdam's Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area.
Apply by SEP 25. Funding available! www.migrationinstitute.org/imi-archive/...

19.09.2025 06:08 — 👍 7    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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📣Call for applications: Dialogues on Mobility, Surveillance & Resistance JAN 26–30, 26 Tijuana, Mexico
Organized by International Migration Institute & University of Amsterdam's Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area.
Apply by SEP 25. Funding available! www.migrationinstitute.org/imi-archive/...

19.09.2025 06:08 — 👍 7    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
The EU's Return Regulation: Negotiating on the Basis of Evidence, not Narratives

🚨 New publication out!
Together with @linavosyliute.bsky.social, we examine the EU’s risk of falling into a far-right trap in the negotiations on the Return Regulation.
📄 Published as an open-access Policy Brief by @birmm.bsky.social l — free to read & share!

zenodo.org/records/1696...

04.09.2025 08:46 — 👍 5    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Full access to the story here: archive.li/2025.09.08-0...

09.09.2025 08:55 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Enfrentamiento entre España y Frontex: dudas sobre el uso de los datos que se obtienen de los migrantes Documentos internos a los que ha tenido acceso EL PAÍS revelan tensiones entre la agencia de la UE y las autoridades españolas por las entrevistas a los recién llegados

Frontex doesn't like to hear its 'voluntary' interviews of people arriving at Europe's shores being described as covert 'interrogations'. Why? Because it has no legal mandate to interrogate and criminalise migrants.

Yet, that is precisely what's happening in Spain.

elpais.com/espana/2025-...

09.09.2025 08:54 — 👍 5    🔁 9    💬 1    📌 0
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Sex Workers Are Being Abducted by ICE — and Abandoned by Respectability Politics Sex workers targeted by ICE need the migrant justice movement’s full solidarity.

On June 11, ICE and police in Baton Rouge, raided 9 massage parlors, detaining 10 Chinese women, their names and whereabouts unreleased. They disappeared into ICE’s sprawling detention system. Not a single migrant rights organization has called for their release. truthout.org/articles/sex...

14.07.2025 10:08 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...

Here is how #Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people’s personal data with #Europol

Investigation conducted by Solomon, the French newspaper Le Monde, the Spanish newspaper El País, and the German outlet Netzpolitik.

wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...

08.07.2025 08:04 — 👍 8    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 0
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Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...

Cross-border investigation: @lemonde.fr, @elpais.com, and @netzpolitik.org reveal how, between 2016 and 2023, @frontex.bsky.social illegally transferred the personal data of over 13,000 people to Europol.

Published by @wearesolomon.bsky.social 👇

wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...

08.07.2025 08:37 — 👍 14    🔁 12    💬 0    📌 2

Important investigation from @elpais.com on how migrants and activists were treated as criminals by Frontex and Europol. “My whole life was in that police file... They wanted to portray me as promiscuous, a lesbian, using morality to make me look suspicious,” says Helena Maleno, a Spanish activist.

08.07.2025 07:46 — 👍 7    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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EU’s Frontex Tripped in Its Plan for ‘Intrusive’ Surveillance of Migrants Frontex and the European Commission sidelined their own data protection watchdogs in pursuing a much-criticised expansion of “intrusive” data collection from migrants and refugees to feed into Europol...

Serious questions about evasion of accountability arise, too. FOI documents reveal that senior EU officials had coordinated to misled MEPs about the scale of unlawful Frontex-Europol data transfers during a hearing that followed our earlier investigation: balkaninsight.com/2022/07/07/e...

08.07.2025 11:24 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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For @gesanchez.bsky.social - leading expert on smuggling - 'EU agencies often justify harvesting personal data from migrants by claiming it is necessary to combat sophisticated...smuggling networks. This creates the illusion that the data is actually reliable or useful. We know it's neither.'

08.07.2025 11:24 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with European police In the name of combating migrant smugglers, the European Union's border surveillance agency spent years collecting information on migrants and civil society activists deemed 'suspect,' before passing ...

Our investigation reveals that prominent human rights defenders, who have faced lengthy criminal investigations in Spain and Greece - including @helenamaleno.bsky.social and @aegeanboatreport.bsky.social - have also landed in Frontex & Europol databases.

www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decod...

08.07.2025 11:24 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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Frontex transfirió durante años ilegalmente a Europol datos de migrantes y activistas Una investigación de varios medios, entre ellos EL PAÍS, revela que la agencia europea de fronteras facilitó a la entidad policial información indiscriminada de miles de personas a partir de entrevist...

Between 2016-2023, Frontex unlawfully shared the personal data of more than 13,000 'suspects' with Europol, via supposedly 'voluntary' debriefing interviews with newly arrived migrants that lack basic legal safeguards - branded by experts as 'covert interrogations'.

elpais.com/internaciona...

08.07.2025 11:24 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...

For years, human rights advocates have warned of the criminalisation of migrants & activists at Europe’s borders.
With @balkanizator.bsky.social & @lolahierro.bsky.social we shed light on the opaque role of Frontex and Europol in drawing thousands into this dragnet.
wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...

08.07.2025 11:24 — 👍 41    🔁 28    💬 2    📌 6
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The criminalisation of solidarity is an incredible worrying element of the EU's response to migrant smuggling.

We went deep on this issues with @gesanchez.bsky.social , @bramfrouws.bsky.social and @bernd-parusel.bsky.social in this seminar hosted by @sieps.bsky.social

sieps.se/en/seminars/...

08.07.2025 08:11 — 👍 5    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 0
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Migrants : comment Frontex a alimenté de manière illicite les polices européennes avec les données personnelles de milliers de personnes Au nom de la lutte contre les passeurs, l’agence européenne de surveillance des frontières a recueilli pendant des années des informations sur des migrants et des militants associatifs jugés « suspect...

También publicamos en @lemonde.fr , versión en inglés y francés www.lemonde.fr/article-offe...

07.07.2025 19:27 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Frontex transfirió durante años ilegalmente a Europol datos de migrantes y activistas Una investigación de varios medios, entre ellos EL PAÍS, revela que la agencia europea de fronteras facilitó a la entidad policial información indiscriminada de miles de personas a partir de entrevist...

Con @balkanizator.bsky.social y @stavinoha.bsky.social publico hoy esta investigación en @elpais.com acerca de las prácticas ilícitas de @frontex.bsky.social en la obtención y el manejo de datos personales de migrantes y activistas. elpais.com/internaciona...

07.07.2025 13:48 — 👍 14    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 2

Following a complaint by civil society organisations, we opened an inquiry into @ec.europa.eu decision not to carry out an impact assessment on two legislative proposals to counter migrant smuggling.

As a first step, we have asked the EC a set of questions.

www.ombudsman.europa.eu/news-documen...

25.06.2025 08:12 — 👍 4    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1
Assessing the EU’s response to the smuggling of migrants

Missed our recent @sieps.bsky.social webinar on migrant smuggling and the EU’s counter-smuggling policies, with @gesanchez.bsky.social, @bramfrouws.bsky.social & @svaroschi.bsky.social?
There is now a recording you can watch! 👇 sieps.se/en/seminars/...

25.06.2025 08:33 — 👍 5    🔁 6    💬 2    📌 0

📢📢📢Join @svaroschi.bsky.social , @bramfrouws.bsky.social, @bernd-parusel.bsky.social for a conversation on the #facilitationproposal and its implications, next 17 June at 15.00 CET.

12.06.2025 16:09 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Next deportation stop- Nepal.

08.06.2025 14:37 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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✈️👀 I believe this is a likely large jet deportation to Bangladesh. It would follow small jet deportations to there in February and April. Would not be surprised to see another atop on this route.

08.06.2025 10:45 — 👍 27    🔁 8    💬 3    📌 3
Assessing the EU’s response to the smuggling of migrants

Looking forward to speaking in this webinar on the EU’s legislation on counter-smuggling of migrants organised by @sieps.bsky.social next 17 June.

I will be joined by @gesanchez.bsky.social and @bramfrouws.bsky.social

Thanks @bernd-parusel.bsky.social for the invitation!

sieps.se/en/seminars/...

05.06.2025 07:04 — 👍 4    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

@gesanchez is following 20 prominent accounts