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Dangerous pushbacks at sea: how Frontex hides human rights violations

2020-11-25T22:44:39.558Z


Frontex boss Leggeri has to justify his officials' involvement in illegal pushbacks in the Aegean Sea. Internal documents now show that the EU agency has concealed crimes.


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Refugees in the Aegean Sea: Hardly anyone arrives anymore

Photo: Michael Varaklas / AP

Frontex can monitor the Mediterranean with drones and satellites, and the images are streamed directly to the situation center in Warsaw.

But the technology went on strike at the most important video conference of the year.

On November 10th, the board of directors of the EU border protection agency met for an emergency meeting. Several participants reported that they were thrown out of the line that day.

For a long time the representative of Cyprus was unable to intervene.

The switch should take three hours, in the end it was almost five.

EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson had called the internal meeting.

She wants to know from Frontex boss Fabrice Leggeri whether his agency is involved in human rights violations in the Aegean.

SPIEGEL reported that Frontex had been involved in at least six so-called pushbacks in the vicinity and in at least one itself since April.

Greek border guards intercepted boat refugees and forcibly withdrew them into Turkish waters, according to a joint research with the media platforms Lighthouse Reports, Bellingcat, the ARD magazine »Report Mainz« and the Japanese television station tv Asahi.

Pushbacks violate international law

The pushbacks violate international law.

The mood at the video conference was therefore correspondingly tense, report participants.

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Fabrice Leggeri: Questions like in a cross-examination

Photo: Joo £ o Silva / imago images / GlobalImagens

In order to refute the evidence from SPIEGEL, Leggeri submitted an internal report to the participants on November 10th.

In it Leggeri confirms that Frontex units were close at the pushbacks, but whether they were aware of the legal violations cannot be conclusively assessed.

Questions remained, such as the visibility.

Frontex officials actually have to report illegal pushbacks according to the agency's rules, but no relevant »Serious Incident Reports« have been included, Leggeri says.

His conclusion: Since there are no such reports from the crews, there is also no evidence of pushbacks.

Many participants and observers at the meeting consider this explanation to be poor.

The fact that Frontex has no reports of the pushbacks shows that the internal mechanisms for protecting migrants are not working, it is said.

The Frontex regulations stipulate that the director must end a mission if persistent and serious human rights violations are expected.

But Leggeri doesn't want to know anything about it.

In September he informed the European Parliament that no serious or persistent violations of fundamental rights had been observed.

The Frontex boss not only denies the involvement of his officials in the pushbacks, he also covers the crimes of the Greek coast guard in the Aegean.

The Greek authorities had dispelled his doubts, Leggeri said in an interview at the end of October, a week after the SPIEGEL revelations.

And this despite the fact that his own agency was warned of alleged human rights violations in the Aegean in at least five cases.

In one case, Frontex even recorded from the air how Greek border guards put refugees on a "rubber boat" and then had to be rescued by the Turkish coast guard.

The Greek coast guard pulls refugees towards Turkey on an inflatable life raft: overwhelming evidence

In the next few years, Frontex is to become a kind of European super agency.

In 2005, Frontex's budget was only six million euros.

It could grow to over a billion euros in 2021.

Thousands of armed Frontex employees will then patrol the EU's external borders.

There is a vague hope associated with the tax billions: The Frontex officials could not only control the borders, but also compliance with European law.

However, numerous internal documents and reports show that Leggeri prefers to ignore and belittle human rights violations rather than denounce them.

Migrants are dragged out to sea

The Turkish coast guard has not stopped refugees on their way to Greece since March, and sometimes even accompanies the boats to the sea border.

The Greek coast guard responded with a brutal tactic: the refugee boats should be stopped in any case, according to the instruction.

Sometimes migrants are even dragged out to sea, even though they have already reached a Greek island.

The Greek government belittles this as "aggressive surveillance".

The Greek authorities also informed the Frontex crews of the new tactic.

And Frontex is obviously playing along.

Since then, the EU border guards have hardly saved any more people and no longer take the refugees on board.

This is what EU officials as well as residents and fishermen on the Greek islands describe.

Instead, Frontex is concentrating on tracking down the inflatables at an early stage and reporting them to the Greeks.

They then leave the further procedure to the Greek coast guard.

Frontex informs you in writing that you always follow the instructions of the responsible authorities during operations.

The EU border guards do not want to say how many refugees they have pulled out of the sea themselves.

The procedure again shows the systematic character of the pushbacks in the Aegean, says Tineke Strik, European MP for the Greens.

“The evidence against Frontex and the Greek government is mounting.

These practices are not just incidents, they are politics. "

There is no independent control body

Danish border guards have also experienced this policy.

On March 2, a Greek officer ordered a Danish Frontex crew to put refugees who had already been rescued back on the rubber dinghy and to take them to Turkish waters.

This is what internal Frontex e-mails published by the transparency portal “Ask the State”.

But the Danish crew refused.

Finally, the Greek command center withdrew the order and the Danish crew was allowed to land the refugees on the island of Kos.

The incident became aware at Frontex headquarters on March 6th after the Danish media reported it.

"Dear Fabrice, dear colleagues," the press spokeswoman wrote at 11:39, they will soon have to comment.

On the same day, Frontex was certain that it was an "isolated case".

Apparently no one was surprised that the illegal order had not been reported to Frontex headquarters by its own officials.

There was no "Serious Incident Report" as prescribed in such cases.

At 8:13 p.m., so it goes from the emails, the files were closed.

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Internal Frontex e-mail: Process completed

Photo: Ask the State

Before the European Parliament in July Leggeri spoke of a "misunderstanding".

A Greek coast guard officer on site did not understand the plan of operations.

Even then, it was clear to observers that the Greek coast guard was systematically carrying out pushbacks.

At the Board of Directors meeting on November 10, some participants made further allegations against Frontex.

According to several participants and internal documents, the head of the Swedish border police told that a Swedish Frontex crew wanted to write a "Serious Incident Report" on October 30th.

The Frontex official in charge advised him not to do so.

Neither Frontex nor the Swedish border police wanted to comment on the details when SPIEGEL asked.

There is still no independent inspection body.

Border guards often censor themselves out of fear of causing problems for their own colleagues.

The woman who was actually supposed to stop Leggeri is Annegret Kohler.

She has been the border protection agency's interim fundamental rights officer since September, and is now replacing her predecessor for the second time.

But Kohler worked as a consultant for Leggeri in his cabinet for a long time.

Even the so-called Frontex Advisory Forum, in which organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency sit and advise Frontex, therefore doubts Kohler's independence.

Leggeri ignored the fundamental rights commissioner's concerns

Even if the office of the fundamental rights commissioner does raise its voice, it does not have to have any consequences.

In March, when thousands of migrants tried to cross the Greek land border on the Evros River and Frontex hastily sent reinforcements, Leggeri received a letter from the then fundamental rights officer.

There are strong indications of fundamental rights violations, among other things, the rule of not refusing protection seekers is being broken, said the letter, which SPIEGEL was able to see.

Leggeri should reconsider the use of Frontex officials on the Evros.

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Refugees at the Greek-Turkish border in early March: Strong evidence of fundamental rights violations

Photo: 

CANSU ALKAYA / REUTERS

There would have been enough reasons to withdraw.

Days earlier, at least two migrants had been killed on Evros, very likely by Greek security forces.

Many other refugees reported violent pushbacks; the Greek prime minister had suspended the right to asylum.

But Leggeri, so it is clear from the documents, rejected the proposal.

His officials should stay.

A specially established committee of the Frontex Board of Directors is now to investigate the allegations against Frontex more closely.

Before the next meeting of the Administrative Board on Wednesday and Thursday, the EU Commission sent Leggeri a questionnaire.

It reads like a cross-examination.

"We are very unhappy with the way Frontex is handling the matter," said a senior EU official.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-11-25

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