Euroeast

Publications

Ethics of Border Security

16-05-2011

1. EU Border Guard agencies operate under Codes of Conduct which specify the ethical principles that should guide their work. However, almost none of these Codes have been written with border guards in particular in mind. Rather, most are designed to apply to the police. Even those Codes written specifically for border guards ignore many of the ethically difficult tasks they perform.
 
2. The EU itself has legislated or proposed many ethical standards for many of the tasks BGs perform, but these are nowhere collected together in a single document. That is done here for the first time.
 
3. A range of technologies are available to border guards in the pursuit of their tasks. Indeed, the use of certain technologies is legally required. However, the fact that use is permitted or even required does not entail that the use of the technology is risk-free. On the contrary, many of these technologies may be intrusive, or risk casting false suspicion on innocent individuals. Border guards should be aware of these costs when using the technology.


ethics_of_border_security_report[1].pdf