In its latest annual report, published on Wednesday 15 July, the office of Frontex’s Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO) paints a mixed picture: despite a clear improvement in operational transparency, serious violations persist at the EU’s borders.
The FRO thus regularly receives credible reports of “collective expulsions of migrants”, particularly at the Bulgarian and Greek borders - where they are often accompanied by “inhuman and degrading treatment” and “unnecessary or excessive force” by coastguards and border police.
In total, the office examined more than 200 potential serious incidents and opened 47 formal inquiries, mainly in Greece. Of the cases closed, seven violations of migrants’ rights were confirmed and 21 were deemed “likely”. Given Athens’ inaction in ensuring that its maritime operations comply with the rules, the FRO also had to advise Frontex “not to launch operational activities in the eastern Aegean”.
On the sensitive issue of forced returns, the officer notes several failings during operations coordinated or financed by the agency. Many charter flights are still carried out without any independent observer on board, particularly those organised by Italy (38% unmonitored). The reports document “systematic” use of coercive measures as well as means of physical restraint from the pre-departure phase and embarkation onwards, in the absence of any individual risk assessment. Reports even reveal that individuals were denied access to asylum procedures during these operations.
In addition, the report points to significant failings in Frontex’s complaints mechanism, which is supposed to allow affected persons to report directly the abuses of which they feel they are victims. Thus, out of 112 complaints registered (a figure up 36% on the previous year), only one was declared admissible, the others having been dismissed because the alleged facts “had not occurred as part of an operational activity performed by the Agency”.
These limitations had already been highlighted in May by Frontex’s Consultative Forum (see EUROPE 13863/4), which was critical of the impossibility of transferring complaints concerning national border guards directly to the competent authorities, leaving many victims without redress.
Full report: https://aeur.eu/f/mwn (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)