Frontex director replies to Ombudsman: ‘We’re not the European rescue agency’
Hans Leijtens, the manager director of Frontex, responded on Tuesday to the findings of the European Ombudsman, who discovered extreme shortcomings within the company’s mandate, operations and relations with member states.
The report, revealed final week, concluded that Frontex is overly depending on the consent of nationwide authorities and is subsequently ill-equipped to uphold European Union values and save lives at sea. The workplace of Emily O’Reilly additionally really useful the company ought to “terminate, withdraw or droop its actions” in nations that persistently disregard their search-and-rescue obligations or violate elementary rights.
In any other case, O’Reilly warned, the EU dangers turning into “complicit” in migrant deaths.
On Tuesday, virtually per week after the report’s publication, Hans Leijtens met members of the press in Brussels and delivered his first on-camera response to the findings.
“I perceive the logic the Ombudsman is following. I do not likely agree along with her on a variety of issues,” Leijtens mentioned. “We’re not the European Search and Rescue Company. We’re the European Border and Coast Guard Company.”
The director confused the company’s “main responsibility” was to safe the EU’s exterior borders by deploying brokers on the bottom and helping member states, which means its core process is to “search” fairly than to “rescue.” Final yr, the company noticed 2,000 sightings of irregular migration by way of surveillance airplanes and drones, he mentioned.
Beneath present guidelines, Frontex is empowered to alert coordination centres of potential misery conditions and, if obligatory, help in emergencies at sea. However this help can solely go forward if the company obtains the express consent of a rustic. If it doesn’t, Frontex has no alternative however to stay on the sidelines of the operation with out first-hand intervention. Moreover, Leijtens famous the boats managed by Frontex have been primarily “coastal vessels” not meant for search-and-rescue at excessive sea.
Regardless of the sensible limitations, Frontex continues to be carefully concerned in managing flows of irregular migration: the company estimates it helped rescue 43,000 individuals at sea all through 24 operations in 2023.
“Our process relies on securing borders,” Leijtens mentioned. “However there is not any doubt that if we have now to decide on between assessing whether or not it is a safety difficulty or saving lives, we’ll all the time save lives after which cope with the safety difficulty later.”
But it surely’s the episodes that finish in tragedy that thrust the company below the extreme scrutiny of lawmakers, civil society and journalists. Final yr, Frontex confronted powerful questions over its response to 2 lethal shipwrecks: one in February, close to Calabria, Italy, which left no less than 94 individuals useless, and one other in June, when the Adriana, a fishing boat overcrowded with asylum seekers, capsized off the coast of Messenia, Greece. Greater than 600 individuals have been both confirmed or presumed useless.
The Ombudsman’s inquiry was launched within the aftermath of this second incident. The report says Greece didn’t reply to Frontex’s alerts on “4 separate events” through the tragedy and criticises the company for failing to take a “extra lively position” whereas being “absolutely conscious” of the accusations of pushbacks and systematic abuse which have for years surrounded the Greek Coast Guard.
Frontex has 626 officers within the Greek mainland and islands, along with 32 patrol vehicles, 9 vessels, and two plane, the biggest deployment of any member state.
Requested in regards to the potential suspension of actions in Greece, in keeping with the watchdog’s suggestion, Leijtens trod with warning and mentioned the query was not “black or white.” The company, he argued, is “closely depending on what we all know and what we all know is being processed within the so-called critical incidents reviews.” These reviews are submitted to the Elementary Rights Officer, an unbiased physique tasked with guaranteeing the company’s compliance with EU guidelines and values.
“Final yr we had 37 of those reviews. And a majority is with Greece, with Italy and with Bulgaria. But it surely’s an incident report. It is not one thing that has been confirmed. It is a sign that arrived to us,” the director instructed journalists.
In-depth investigations and felony proceedings can solely be launched by nationwide authorities, as Frontex lacks jurisdiction. A choice to tug out of a rustic ought to be based mostly on these probes, Leijtens mentioned, no matter how lengthy they take to conclude. Greece continues to be wanting into final yr’s bombshell report by the New York Occasions, which exposes graphic proof and gripping testimonies of pushbacks on the border.
“I am very impatient right here, frankly talking, however I’ve to attend for them,” he mentioned.
Even when the end result of those investigations have been to be damning, the company won’t essentially take the novel step of chopping all ties, the director added. As a substitute, Frontex may droop co-financing and particular initiatives, or ask the accused nation to implement “applicable measures” and forestall the wrongdoing from repeating itself.
The suspension is “not one thing that may be finished in a single day,” Leijtens mentioned. “This actually wants some consideration and a few justification.”
First established in 2004 with a restricted mandate, Frontex has steadily grown in energy, sources and notoriety till turning into one of the vital distinguished our bodies within the bloc. The company is predicted to have about 10,000 officers and a €1-billion price range by 2027. A complete reform of the EU’s migration and asylum coverage, which Leijtens described as a “paradigm shift,” is ready to additional increase Frontex’s position.