The Frontex agency for the control of the EU’s external borders is active in the Mediterranean Sea with three main missions that aim to “secure” the EU’s borders, reduce human trafficking and save as many lives as possible.
The three missions are Operation Themis (1) covering the central Mediterranean, Operation Poseidon (2) covering the eastern Mediterranean and Operation Indalo (3) covering the western Mediterranean. In detail, Operation Themis supports Italy through border surveillance in the central Mediterranean. It also aims to prevent foreign terrorist fighters from entering the EU. Search and rescue continue to be key elements of the operation. Operation Poseidon, on the other hand, has covered the eastern Mediterranean since 2006, focusing on surveillance along Greece’s maritime borders with Turkey. Finally, Operation Indalo, covers all activities along the western Mediterranean route between Morocco and Spain. These are complemented by a fourth operation launched in March 2020, Operation IRINI (4), which aims to contribute to dismantling the business pattern of human smuggling and trafficking networks through intelligence-gathering and aerial patrols in the Mediterranean.
The agents, vessels and other surveillance assets deployed by Frontex in the operations assist national authorities in border surveillance, search, and rescue activities. But are Frontex agents really engaged in doing this? Since April 2021, several voices have accused Frontex of violence against migrants and of not responding or failing to respond promptly to requests for help. The most recent example involves the shipwreck that occurred precisely in April 2021, 40 to 50 miles from Libya and 200 miles off the coast of Sicily. The alarm, launched by SOS Mediterranée via “Alarm Phone” and directed to the relevant authorities and the Ocean Viking, reported three boats in distress, one with 40 people on board and the other two with 100/120 people on board. The NGO moved in search of the boats, which were later found capsized in a rough sea. No help came from the authorities and, according to the UN Migration spokesman, the third dinghy was returned to Libya. It is likely that the people on it returned in a state of detention.
Frontex tried to reconstruct what happened, claiming it acted promptly and alerted the central coastguard commands of Italy, Malta, and Libya. Italy would have moved by diverting a few merchant ships to facilitate the rescue at sea, and the Libyan coast guard would not have responded.
The attack on the EU is centered on the issue of border security. This obsession with strengthening borders has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 people since 1993. The focus in this violent issue is on Frontex, which, since its creation, has been as much an avid promoter as the main perpetrator of European political violence against migrants and has often avoided public scrutiny. However, in 2021, a series of investigations by journalists, human rights groups and the European Court of Auditors itself, put Frontex in the spotlight. Evidence was found that Frontex constantly uses violence, especially with illegal rejections and human rights violations. The revelations and elements brought to light by the investigations of many journalists and activists, however, are only the tip of the iceberg: until 2027 Frontex will in fact have a very significant budget with which it will be able to create an army of more than ten thousand guards and further strengthen the European border walls and the already quite restrictive controls to cross them.
These policies are based on an ideology that sees migration as a security problem and not as a necessity to improve one’s condition (in particular, the increasing ageing of the population in the EU), but by expanding the EU’s border “security” funds.
An international call was made for Frontex to be abolished and not reformed, especially in this context where borders are seen as a form of defense against the migrant “enemy”. But what has happened is that the agency has changed its name and the European Ombudsman has been included in its headquarters. Nothing else.
It is essential to stop funding Frontex and divert resources to a search and rescue program in the Mediterranean Sea, which, to date, together with the Atlantic stretch between West Africa and the Canaries, is the world’s deadliest migrant route. These demands are based on solid data of people who have died in the Mediterranean due to, among other things, negligence, and other acts of violence committed by Frontex.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), from the beginning of 2021 to date, has made it clear that the migration policy the EU is using is a total failure: too many deaths are recorded and too many people are missing. The EU has concentrated its funds in order to make Frontex a frontier giant, aimed solely at armoring the EU “fortress” and its borders, rather than rescuing lives.
On the Mediterranean route, people intercepted at sea are taken back to Libya, and thus to prison camps, places where the systematic violation of migrants’ and asylum seekers’ human rights have been denounced by numerous journalistic investigations, Court rulings and reports by organizations active on the ground. For every person who arrives in Europe, one is turned back to the Libyan coast guard, and this is what the externalization of borders entails.
It is clear that the recent reform of the agency is not transforming its activities. What is certain is that migrants at sea are not being brought to safety. What is needed is the creation of an organization with only one objective and that is to ensure safety at sea and preserve the lives of people in danger.
According to Human Rights Watch, Frontex should put human rights at the heart of its operations. It should assess of the risk of its complicity in human rights violations, and ensure its rights monitors have adequate resources and can investigate abuse allegations independently. It should also act on the monitors’ findings and recommendations, even terminating operations or funding in a member State if serious abuses are linked to its activities (5).
This would be the best way to ensure a strong EU border agency that guarantees the rights of people at Europe’s borders.
References:
- https://frontex.europa.eu/we-support/main-operations/operation-themis-italy-/
- https://frontex.europa.eu/we-support/main-operations/operation-poseidon-greece-/
- https://frontex.europa.eu/we-support/main-operations/operations-minerva-indalo-spain-/
- https://www.operationirini.eu/operation-irini-frontex-expand-cooperation/
- https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/05/frontex-reform-needed-uphold-human-rights
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
