ODI | 10.01.2018
In the last decade, €896 million of public funding was channeled through 1,000 contracts to 350 companies involved in the Spanish migration control industry. These companies both run the machinery, and profit from it. How these companies use and exploit the industry will have long-term effects on any sensible, global migration policy.
Explaining the migration control industry
It is extremely difficult to track the total amount spent by the EU on the migration control industry. In 2016, we estimated that at least €17 billion had been spent on border control in the previous two years. But the industry is much broader than that. In Spain, money is spent on four areas: