Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Thursday 11 November heard from Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri and Jonas Grimheden, Frontex’s new head of fundamental rights, who raised concerns and called for more fundamental rights officers to properly assess what is happening at the EU’s external borders.
In particular, the elected representatives wanted to know how the recommendations they had made to the Agency after the report of the Scrutiny Working Group on suspected violations of migrants’ rights had been implemented.
In July, MEPs concluded that Frontex, while clearly not directly involved in any acts of pushback at the EU’s external borders, did not prevent them (see EUROPE 12763/17).
Fabrice Leggeri explained on Thursday that half of the recommendations of the scrutiny group made to the Agency had been “almost implemented” and that reflection on Article 46 of Frontex was well advanced, which obliges the Agency to interrupt or not launch operations in areas where there are migrants’ rights violations risks.
Although Frontex suspended some operations in Hungary after the judgments of the Court of Justice condemned asylum laws, notably in Hungary, in border areas, the Frontex Director did not give any assurance to the elected representatives on the end of cooperation with Budapest on the return of irregular migrants, as some elected representatives had requested.
With regard to fundamental rights staff, the Director of the Agency indicated that resources for the required 40 staff had been made available.
So far, 20 officers have been hired and the head of fundamental rights at Frontex hoped that the expected 40 officers would be in place “by spring”.
He reported that, to date, his office has monitored 15 forced return flight operations. Next week, his team will also be in Greece, Italy, and Poland to carry out additional checks.
The Agency Director also indicated that Frontex was working on improving the way it receives information from Member States on suspicious operations to feed into the reporting of serious incidents, which is covered by a new mechanism (Standard Operating Procedure, SOP).
For Greece’s SOP, he explained that he had asked the coastguard for more information on the timing of their patrols and indicated that some EU funds would not be paid out until there was full transparency on the operations of these patrols, including when and where they operate.
Referring to the situation with Belarus, Mr Leggeri said that Frontex officers could assist Poland with return flights, but physical presence on the ground has not yet been requested by the Polish government.
At this stage, 200 Iraqis would be ready to be returned, the Frontex Director said, and potentially 1,700 people could be affected by the returns.
Jonas Grimheden stated that on the whole his office works well within Frontex and with the Member States and is able to monitor fundamental rights aspects. But this work requires “a bigger staff”, he insisted; a set of 40 agents “will not be enough”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)