This policy paper collects and analyzes refugee testimonies as a way of engaging pressing political debates on contemporary EU border governance. Rather than offering a conventional catalogue of policy recommendations for decision-makers, it seeks to contribute empirically grounded reflections on how coercion, border violence, and displacement have become increasingly embedded within European migration management practices. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted across the Aegean context, the paper examines how refugees themselves are incorporated into coercive enforcement structures through the practices described here as the “Shadow Army.” In doing so, it engages broader debates on border externalization, securitization, refugee agency, peacebuilding, and the erosion of legal accountability within the EU’s border regime. The document aims to contribute to policy discussions and informed public debate at a moment marked by intensifying geopolitical instability, growing displacement, and mounting pressures on international protection systems. It is directed toward policymakers, researchers, civil society actors, journalists, and readers interested in understanding how contemporary border governance is reshaping not only migration policy, but also the normative foundations and contradictions of EU foreign policy making as a whole.
