Frontex’s Fundamental Rights Officer, Jonas Grimheden, gave a relatively positive assessment on Wednesday 16 March regarding actions taken by the European coastguard and border guard agency in response to accusations of violations of fundamental rights at external borders.
These accusations resulted in the European Parliament setting up an enquiry group within its Committee on Civil Liberties and the drawing up of a report that included various recommendations (see EUROPE 12763/17, 12831/15).
The official, who has been working with a deputy Fundamental Rights Officer for the past few weeks, explained that the culture is changing within the agency: incident reports are more frequently being sent automatically and at a frequency of up to “five reports per month, or even five per day, depending on the period”, he told the Committee on Civil Liberties. “Things are progressing in a positive direction”, he said on this point.
Jonas Grimheden also indicated that he had organised the hiring of six additional monitors to ensure fundamental rights were being respected, since Frontex already had to hire 40 agents. Recruitment of these posts, which should have taken place in 2021, are still underway, with 32 agents being expected to be at the Agency within the next two months, he said. “I am confident that there will be 40 by the end of the year”, the official added, also acknowledging that this number is still not enough given the scope of Frontex’s missions.
Fundamental Rights Officers were also able to support 25 return trips of irregular migrants and have been recently deployed on 300 occasions.
However, the Fundamental Rights Officer also expressed his concerns. For example, he explained to MEPs that not all recommendations in respect of measures to mitigate the risk of violating rights at external borders, especially between Lithuania and Belarus, are being implemented.
The timeframe for investigations in Greece into possible violations of migrants’ rights – including by Frontex – is also long, Grimheden said, while adding in passing that Frontex management has not provided him with all the resources he needs to carry out investigations.
The Fundamental Rights Officer also called for it to become mandatory that Frontex and Fundamental Rights Officers were in attendance at all EU external borders, not just as an option. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)