On Wednesday 28 February, in publishing the results of an inquiry into Frontex’s role in search and rescue operations, the European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, found that the current rules “leave the agency unable fully to fulfil its fundamental rights obligations and too reliant on Member States to act when boats carrying migrants are in distress”.
The inquiry was launched after the Adriana tragedy in June 2023, which resulted in the drowning of more than 600 people off the Greek coast, recalls a press release (see EUROPE 13230/6).
“According to documents inspected during the inquiry, Frontex made four separate offers to assist the Greek authorities by providing aerial surveillance of the Adriana but received no response”.
Under the rules, “Frontex was not permitted to go to the Adriana’s location at critical periods without the Greek authorities’ permission. Consequently, Frontex was at the scene of the Adriana only twice — once briefly by plane two hours after the Italian authorities first made the alert about the Adriana and then 18 hours later with a drone after the boat had already sunk”.
Frontex also lacks “internal guidelines on issuing of emergency signals and Frontex’s fundamental rights monitors are not sufficiently involved”.
“We must ask ourselves why a boat so obviously in need of help never received that help despite an EU agency, two Member States’ authorities, civil society, and private ships knowing of its existence”.
The Ombudsman also deplores the fact that there is no single accountability mechanism at EU level that could independently investigate the role of the Greek authorities, Frontex and the European Commission.
Link to the inquiry: https://aeur.eu/f/b1t (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)