At the Borders of Aid: Development Cooperation and the Externalisation of EU and Italian Migration Policies

About €3 billion went to border management and return operations – areas of intervention where the diversion of ODA and human rights violations are pressing concerns. ActionAid: “Development aid should remain focused on poverty reduction, not be used to stop people at borders”.

8 October – ActionAid’s new report, At the Borders of Aid: Development Cooperation and the Externalisation of EU and Italian Migration Policies maps €9.6 billion allocated by the EU to migration management and forced displacement through the NDICI-Global Europe Instrument between 2021 and 2025. The amount exceeds the Instrument’s initial seven-year target of €7.9 billion after just five years. 

About €3 billion went to border management and return operations, which are areas of particular concern because of recurring human rights violations and the deviation from development objectives. This is especially concerning as all the projects analysed were reported to qualify as ODA. In North Africa in particular, border management and return operations alone constitute about 70% of the regional allocation for migration. 

Responses to forced displacement and protection remain the main categories of funding globally under the migration window of NDICI-Global Europe, accounting for approximately €5.7 billion. This support is essential as displacement becomes increasingly protracted and needs continue to rise. In this context, development cooperation can and should respond to the assistance and protection needs of forcibly displaced populations and their host communities. However, externalisation policies and deterrence programmes contribute to creating or exacerbating the humanitarian conditions that make protection interventions necessary. In regions like North Africa – where the overall intervention paradigm is focused on border management and returns – protection programmes also serve to mitigate the impact of migration deterrence. Interceptions, prevention of arrivals and the lack of safe and regular alternatives expose people to additional risks and vulnerabilities, with a risk of diverting protection away from the primary needs of people and communities and turning it into a tool for managing the negative effects of deterrence policies.

The report documents how significant amounts of Official Development Assistance (ODA) are increasingly being used for border control, interception of people along migration routes to Europe and prevention of arrivals, including through interventions targeting so-called “root causes”.

The result is that aid, instead of responding to the needs of populations in partner countries, is being redirected towards migration-control objectives and made conditional on countries of origin and transit adopting restrictive measures against people seeking to leave. 

Similar patterns can be seen at Member States’ level. In Italy, between 2020 and 2024, half of the development cooperation funding provided to Tunisia was allocated to border control and returns: €49.8 million, compared with €113.3 million in bilateral aid. In Libya, migration cooperation mobilised €66.4 million for border control, combating trafficking and returns, equivalent to 41% of the €161.1 million in bilateral aid allocated to the country.

Italian migration-control cooperation is also continuing in 2026. The 2026–2028 Budget Law has renewed funding for the two main external action instruments on migration: the Migration Fund, with €28.5 million, and the Incentive Fund for Return Policy, with €9.5 million. Bilateral support for border control is complemented by the Missions Decree. For more than a decade, the decree has financed the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. For the first time, it is now also financing a mission in support of the Tunisian National Guard, with €8.8 million.

“Development cooperation should protect migrants and support communities in countries of origin and transit, not finance migration control and the repression of migration. Diverting aid from these objectives undermines the principles recognised and adopted by the donor community, which should guide action towards sustainable development”, says Roberto Sensi, Policy Advisor at ActionAid Italy. 

“The funding instruments analysed show how migration is treated as a political issue, not a development one. When supported by rights-based policies, migration can contribute to the socioeconomic development of communities of origin through safe pathways, circular migration programmes and the involvement of diasporas”, says Lorenzo Figoni, Migration Expert at ActionAid Italy. 

Aid is not only diverted from development objectives; it is increasingly made conditional on recipient countries’ efforts to prevent departures, contribute to pushbacks and facilitate returns. In the coming months, the link between aid and migration control could become even stronger. Negotiations on the European Union’s next Multiannual Financial Framework are currently considering the possibility of suspending funding for countries that do not cooperate on returns and readmission. If adopted, the measure would effectively turn aid into leverage for securing cooperation on return policy. 

“The aid conditionality measures proposed in the next Global Europe Instrument would be a radical departure from the objectives of ODA. If aid diversion has so far manifested itself through deterrence-type programming, conditionality would take this a step further by embedding aid diversion in the functioning of the next external action Instrument itself”, says Eva Baluganti, Advocacy Adviser with ActionAid International. 

ActionAid calls on the European Union and the Italian Government to:

• Ensure that resources allocated as ODA are genuinely directed towards the economic and social development of partner countries, without making them conditional on cooperation on border control and returns.
• Increase investment in the protection of people, in safe and regular migration pathways – including for study and employment – and in programmes designed together with local communities and based on local needs.