Frontex Involved in Hundreds of Migrant Pushbacks

Despite efforts of many European and non-European countries to put an end to illegal immigration, the number of undocumented migrants is significantly increasing.

Most of those migrants are escaping their countries’ armed conflict, persecution, and deprivation.

After long hours traveling by sea, if not days, asylum seekers arrived at borders, but instead of being rescued, the EU border agency pushed back at least 957 of them in the Aegean Sea.

A recent investigation revealed the agency’s involvement in returning hundreds of asylum seekers back to the sea between March 2020 and September 2021.

 

Violating the Duty of Transparency

With a budget of €758m, the EU’s best-funded agency, Frontex, was reportedly involved in pushing asylums seeking protection back to the sea to face death.

Hand in hand with Greek authorities, the agency is being investigated over previous claims of illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers, which were denied by the organization, The Guardian has found.

According to the German NGO, the Border Protection Agency has violated international law and the duty of transparency concerning the operations.

A joint investigation held by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, SRF Rundschau, Republik, and Le Monde has disclosed Frontex’s involvement in what seemed to be pushbacks.

According to the same investigation, a Freedom of Information request (FoI) found the internal incident report database of the agency recorded asylum seekers being pushed back in the Aegean, which officials call “prevention of departure.”

The recent allegations against the EU border agency came before a referendum that will take place on May 15 in Switzerland on the country’s involvement with the EU border agency.

Switzerland donated 24m Swiss francs (CHF) to this agency last year, and the government has plans to raise the amount to 61m Swiss francs by 2027.

However, opponents of the agency’s expansion said increasing the donation would make Switzerland responsible for human rights violations taking place on Europe’s borders.

The referendum was called after a petition including more than 62,000 signatures that support cutting the agency’s funding.

 

‘Systematic’ Pushbacks

According to The Guardian report, “the Frontex guidelines define this as an incident when migrants are stopped at sea by non-European country authorities in their territorial waters and sent back to their point of departure.”

Frontex provided a reviewed version of the database including the descriptions of only 145 cases under the pretext of “prevention of departure” mentioned in the agency's guidelines.

The version was different from reports of the same incidents by the Turkish coast guard, witnesses, and leaked documents in addition to other confidential sources.

“In at least 22 incidents, asylum seekers were taken off dinghies, put into Greek life rafts, and left adrift at sea,” according to The Guardian.

On May 28, 2021, about 50 asylum seekers landed on the Greek island and sent photos and WhatsApp messages to a Norwegian NGO showing their location near the island’s capital.

Some of the asylum seekers of this group were found hours later by the Turkish coast guard at sea in orange life rafts.

What happened was thereafter mentioned in the Frontex database as a “prevention of departure.”

Two Frontex sources announced in the media that illegal pushbacks in the Aegean end up in the Jora database as “prevention of departure.”

“Why don’t they just call it ‘pushbacks’ and get it over with?” said a Greek coastguard officer.

Human rights groups and organizations have described these pushbacks by the agency as “systematic.”

 

A Fundamental Change Needed

Greece and Frontex refused all allegations of pushing asylum seekers back to the sea and their officials never violated human rights legislation.

Despite the denial, there has been mounting pressure on the executive director of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, and critics said he has lost credibility in respecting fundamental rights; the EU has recently frozen part of the agency’s budget while allegations are investigated.

The Dutch MEP and a member of the Frontex Scrutiny Working Group, Tineke Strik, said it is better to suspend the border agency’s operations in Greece

“A fundamental change in the culture of the EU border agency was needed,” she said.

Tineke Strik said also that a change of leadership is also necessary because Leggeri “has lost credibility in taking fundamental rights seriously.”

“[Frontex] should suspend operations in Greece,” Strik said.

“We have so many credible reports from authorities such as the UN and the European Council, which all say that pushbacks are systematic. More needs to be done, otherwise, you become part of the violations and complicit—and this is the problem that Frontex is facing.”

Fabrice Leggeri received frequent accusations about turning a blind eye to unlawful pushbacks.

This process is pushing refugees away from the border before being able to reach a country and demand help.

Following the fresh allegations, Leggeri has offered to resign, EU and German officials said Friday.

The head of Frontex has been under increasing pressure to withdraw in recent months.

“I can confirm that he has offered the board of Frontex his resignation,” German Interior Ministry spokesperson Maximilian Kall told reporters in Berlin.

According to Kall, replacing Leggeri allows a “fresh start” at the Frontex agency.

“It offers the possibility of fully resolving the allegations, creating complete transparency, and ensuring that all missions by Frontex occur in full conformity with European law,” he said.