The map is an actor within the politics of migration.

The map is an actor within the politics of migration. Maribel Casas-Cortes and Sebastian Cobarrubias, suggest that; “illegality is cartographically configured and re-configured by “expert” security actors.” Maps become a device for criminalizing migrants and mobilizing data to trace migrant routes across land and water, turning the map into a management strategy. The maps visualizing migrants’ precarious routes through abstract numbers and statistics, often fail to convert migrants’ suffering and conditions that resulted in their forced displacement.

The Hermes 900, first deployed in the Gaza Strip in 2014, can fly at a maximum 10,000 m altitude and has a range of about 1000 km. Distances at which the unmanned aircraft or drones can operate is important because they enable Frontex to carry out surveillance over the coast of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt without providing rescue assistance, under the UN’s convention on the Law of the sea. European Naval authorities share data and satellite imagery with Libyan Coast Guards “the first non-EU agency to gain access to European surveillance systems through Seahorse Mediterranean network”, who in turn captures and prevents migrants from reaching European jurisdictions where they are able to claim asylum.