Non-state actors have become increasingly important players within the European–North African migration and border regime. My research looks at how different humanitarian non-state actors (from large-scale international organisations to small local NGOs) operate in different spaces (international waters as well as North African countries of transit/origin such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) of the delocalised EU border. The question is whether and in how far their activities can be considered as part of the processes of denationalisation and/or depoliticisation of the border; in how far these actors are just supporting states in their delocalised migration and border policies and in how far they are pushing forward their own agendas instead. Can attempts to repoliticise the border generate processes of counter-delocalisation?