“Instead of preventing deportations, they lied to the European Parliament and hid the truth with European taxpayers’ money,” said an investigative report that confirmed the involvement of a European Border and Coast Guard agency in abuses against migrants.
Repeated accusations faced by the European Agency, Frontex, of participating in violations against migrants within the Greek-Turkish borders, according to a confidential report of the European Anti-fraud Office.
The 129-page report documented “how the European Border Protection Agency (Frontex) participated in the illegal machinations of the Greek Coast Guard, had early knowledge of these practices and covered them up”. Frontex is an acronym for the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, founded in 2004 and headquartered in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
The agency of the European Union is charged with controlling the borders in the European Schengen area, in coordination with the border guards and coast guards of the member states within that area.
Violation of international laws
The investigation was revealed by European media, most notably: the German “Der Spiegel” and the French “Le Monde”, then it was followed by demands from the German Foreign Ministry to Frontex to provide clarifications on the cases of returns that were said to have taken place “systematically for asylum seekers or what is known as pushbacks.”
The report talked about Frontex’s participation in financing pushbacks of migrants at the border between Greece and Turkey, in violation of international laws and the Geneva Convention, which obliges European countries to give asylum seekers an opportunity to study their files.
These accusations and investigative findings led last April to the resignation of former Frontex president Fabrice Leggeri after assertions that his administration had covered up abuses against immigrants and had participated in the pushbacks and forcible returns.
What did Frontex say?
Regarding these accusations, the then-president of Frontex spoke of “confusion about whether his role is to obstruct the entry of migrants to Europe, or to oversee the way in which national border agencies deal with asylum seekers“.
Western news agencies quoted the French official as saying that he “felt unable to understand his true mission between the duty not to allow people to cross in an irregular manner, and the principle of non-refoulement (which prohibits pushbacks).”
According to the investigations, on August 5, 2020, the Greek authorities towed a rubber boat in the Aegean Sea with 30 migrants on board towards Turkey. A Frontex plane filmed the scene while it was patrolling the place.
At that time, at least six Greek boats, financed by Frontex, were seen carrying out about a dozen deportations between April and December 2020.
Article written by:
Muhammad Amin Mira
