The new head of Frontex, Hans Leitjens, promised members of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties’ Frontex enquiry group on Tuesday 21 March that he would restore confidence in the agency and provide full transparency on incidents reported at the EU’s external borders.
Interviewed for the first time in his new role on 1 March, the Dutchman also said that things were moving “in the right direction” in Greece, where an action plan had been launched to address, among other things, the issues raised in 2022 by the Frontex fundamental rights officer.
“The work is not finished”, said the new Frontex boss, saying he was “confident, but not yet convinced” on this issue.
The director was also asked about Frontex’s attitude in situations of ships in distress and about the material means available to the Agency to carry out its work, as Frontex operates largely on loan of equipment such as ships and cannot necessarily maintain these large pieces of equipment.
On rescue and relief operations at sea, he was asked in particular how Frontex identifies a vessel in distress and reports it to all relevant actors.
Leitjens said he was prepared to tighten up the definition of danger that would allow Frontex to sound the alarm, as the agency would have to identify “a real danger”. This risk assessment also relies on the professional judgement of Frontex officers and “I trust them” to save lives, when the situation requires it.
When a distress situation is identified, the agency can send “a mayday”, but it is not up to Frontex to determine whether to activate a rescue operation at sea, he added.
On the sinking of the Crotone off the coast of Calabria at the end of February, a horrific tragedy, the agency shared everything “it saw” and this small boat was not necessarily considered to be in distress, said Leitjens.
All the preliminary observations were transferred and shared, and then “it was up to the Italian authorities to decide”, the director added.
In early March, the Italian government criticised Frontex for failing to provide the Italian authorities with a warning or distress alert about the dozens of migrants whose boat eventually sank off the coast of Calabria. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)