The European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties’ fact-finding group on Frontex met on Monday 30 January with the agency’s Deputy Executive Director, Uku Särekanno, to discuss the internal changes that have been implemented since the series of revelations about alleged pushbacks of migrants and the resignation last April of the former director, Fabrice Leggeri.
Ahead of the arrival of the Agency’s new director, Hans Leijtens from the Netherlands, on 1 March (see EUROPE 13078/24), they also discussed migration trends, including fears of a new influx of refugees from Ukraine and the situation on the Western Balkans route.
The year 2022 was marked not only by the war in Ukraine, but also by a new “very volatile” situation at the external borders, Uku Särekanno said from the outset, with continued attempts to instrumentalise migrants, always attributed to Belarus. State actors that operate, among other things, directly “with organised groups” of human traffickers.
In the face of multiple challenges, Frontex has held its own, with the deployment of 2,500 permanent officers at the most tense points of the external borders and more than 17 joint operations with Member States.
Frontex also reacted “quickly” to the outbreak of war in Ukraine and last week an agreement was signed with the Ukrainian border management agency, which will receive “€12 million” to deal with winter conditions. Frontex will provide “electrical generators, uniforms”, the deputy director said.
As regards flows from Ukraine, there is a “high risk” of new arrivals in the EU, the deputy director added, although this has not yet materialised and there are still as many returns as arrivals of Ukrainians (around 2,000 per week in both cases).
Nor has Frontex seen major trafficking in arms or human beings between Ukraine and neighbouring EU countries materialise.
As regards the Western Balkans, Frontex has also increased its deployment with 600 agents, notably in Serbia with more than 130 officers. Calls for Serbia’s visa policy to be aligned with that of the EU are beginning to “have a positive effect”, the Frontex official said, as Belgrade has suspended its visa liberalisation agreements with Burundi and Bangladesh.
Internally, the deputy-director called on elected representatives to be patient, as “the change in organisational culture takes time”. In any case, he stated that cooperation between Frontex operational services and the agency's Fundamental Rights Department is now working well.
A relationship of “trust” was established, he said. The recruitment of 40 fundamental rights officers is also “finalised” and the incident reporting mechanisms are well used.
As for the pushbacks of migrants, he assured that Frontex was not involved. “Frontex operates on the basis of the law”, he said in reply to Theresa Muigg (S&D, Austrian). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)