On Tuesday 12 July, the new acting executive director of Frontex, Aija Kaljana, was invited by the Frontex enquiry group of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties to give an update on the activation of Article 46 of the Frontex Regulation against Hungary, an article activated when serious violations of fundamental rights are found.
Frontex had to suspend its operations in Hungary in early 2021 after a ruling by the EU Court of Justice condemned the country’s asylum system in transit zones.
Frontex has not resumed land-based activities in Hungary, but has only participated in “a pilot project dedicated to the fight against organised crime”, which has been subject to consultation with Frontex fundamental rights officers, she said. Frontex maintained its return operations from Hungary, “but never from the transit zones”.
Return operations from Hungary, still supported by Frontex, remain “limited”, with 13 charter return flights between 2020 and 2022, in 12 cases with a forced return officer.
Frontex is also largely dependent on information from Hungary and does not have the mandate to investigate the merits of these return decisions, she said.
Present at the hearing, Fundamental Rights Officer Jonas Grimheden said that Frontex was however obliged to ask Hungary to respect so-called mitigation measures, which are meant to ensure that all decisions taken are in line with international law.
The Director was also asked about Lithuania after the EU Court of Justice ruling on its emergency laws (see EUROPE 12983/24). Frontex and its fundamental rights officers are involved in discussions on changes to the condemned law. Frontex will stop border surveillance operations this week, but the decision “had been taken before” and was in response to a need to redeploy staff to the central Mediterranean. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)