Böhmermann reveals Frontex meeting with gun lobby - allegations against the border agency weigh heavily

Jan Böhmermann severely criticized the EU border protection agency Frontex in ZDF Magazin Royale.

Meetings with arms lobbyists had been kept secret.

• The EU border agency Frontex was heavily criticized by Jan Böhmermann.

• In the ZDF magazine Royale, the satirist Frontex accused of covering up meetings with arms lobbyists.

• An investigation group is supposed to get to the bottom of the behavior of the border agency.

Cologne - In

ZDF Magazin Royale

, presenter Jan Böhmermann made a sweeping blow last Friday.

In the sights of the satirist: Frontex, the European Agency for the Border and Coast Guard.

The agency is currently under criticism for allegations of illegal rejections of people seeking protection.

The European anti-fraud authority OLAF is also investigating the EU border guards.

Böhmermann surprised in his television program with another precarious revelation: Secret meetings between Frontex and gun lobbyists.

The satirist and

ZDF Magazin Royale

had evaluated 142 documents from 16 industry meetings in advance with journalists Luisa Izuzquiza, Margarida Silva and Myriam Douo as well as the NGO “Ask the State”.

The result of the research: “Summaries, presentations and catalogs of the meetings of Frontex with the European arms industry between 2017 and 2019.” For example, an expensive Frontex dinner with the Angolan Ministry of the Interior and with armaments companies such as Heckler & Koch, Glock, SigSauer and Airbus.

The aircraft manufacturer suggested using zeppelins to observe migration flows.

Böhmermann adds: "Anyone who likes handguns, dirty deals and zeppelins can now read that." The documents have been available here since Friday evening.

Böhmermann: Frontex meeting with gun lobby without legal regulation for arming agency officials

The entertainment television company Ehrenfeld, which makes the data available online, criticized the “frontexfiles.eu” website: “There were no external observers at the meetings.” Frontex did not make the content publicly available.

"To this day, Frontex has not published a lobby transparency register, as requested by EU parliamentarians two years ago." At the request of

ZDF Magazin Royale

, the EU agency wrote at the end of January: "Frontex does not meet lobbyists." Claim that Böhmermann denies in his broadcast.

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Jan Böhmermann made a sweeping attack against Frontex in his broadcast.

© Sven Hoppe / dpa

The explosiveness of the concealment of Frontex meetings with gun lobbyists makes Böhmermann clear with further arguments: There are no legal regulations for EU agency officials for carrying the devices presented there, such as handguns and ammunition.

Monitoring devices such as sensors, drones, cameras and servers for the storage of biometric data also presented at the meeting are “controversial and not yet adequately regulated”.

Böhmermann's conclusion: "Frontex looks like the police, has the equipment of a police force, but is just a megalomaniac coordinating authority."

Böhmermann: “Outsourcing” of human rights by Libyan speedboats - Frontex relies on drone surveillance

"Because the EU has not signed the European Convention on Human Rights", Frontex as an EU agency - which is not directly subject to national law - is also difficult to grasp in the event of violations.

“If something goes wrong, the EU states say it was Frontex.” The border protection agency, on the other hand, could always say: “It was the EU states.” Böhmermann says: “Super practical if you don't like parliamentary and legal control that much. "

In the course of researching the lobby meeting, Böhmermann also assumes a change of strategy: “So that the EU doesn't have to wet the beautiful smooth leather ankle boots when people throw themselves into the water, Frontex needs more technology.” With plenty of sarcasm, the ZDF satirist gave his viewers a quiz question: "What does the eleven billion euro shopping queen need planes and drones in the Mediterranean for?" As a layman, he would have guessed that ships are more practical.

The solution: “Frontex would have to use ships to rescue people from distress at sea and bring them to Europe.” With drones, however, you “only fly over it briefly” and call someone else to rescue them - for example the Libyan coast guard.

The EU and Frontex had previously made Italian speed boats available to this civil war country in order to outsource human rights.

Böhmermann summarized the allegations that Frontex would drive boats back with waves instead of saving them: "The main thing is to get rid of the people, better dead than in Europe."

Frontex according to the Greens parliamentary group leader "wild border agency"

As a consequence of the unregistered meetings of Frontex with lobbyists that Böhmermann discovered, there were numerous reactions in politics.

Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt pleaded on Saturday, according to the German Press Agency (DPA), for a realignment of Frontex.

She told the Funke media group that the European states had inflated Frontex in recent years with "more and more resources and competencies, but did not control this wild-growing border agency".

According to the DPA, Pro Asyl is calling for German police officers to be withdrawn from the agency.

Erik Marquardt, Green Member of the European Parliament, announced his participation in a Frontex investigation group on Twitter.

I am very happy that I can work in the #Frontex research group of the European Parliament to clarify the human rights violations of the member states and the behavior of Frontex.

[Thread] #frontexfiles

- Erik Marquardt (@ErikMarquardt) February 5, 2021

In another post he writes: "I saw the authorities trying to disguise the behavior when I observed on Lesbos that a rubber dinghy was not rescued for hours and was floating on the water." He informed the sea rescue service there but heard excuses and was then arrested by the police despite a diplomatic passport.

The officials had forbidden him to “look on the beaches to see what the coast guard is doing.” Marquardt's conclusion: “There is overwhelming evidence that illegal behavior at the external borders is common practice.

Federal police officers on site and Frontex insiders also report how fundamental rights are systematically disregarded. "

According to the DPA, EU circles said in January that the Olaf investigations also extended to other possible cases of misconduct and reports of harassment within the authority.

According to a

Spiegel

report, Olaf is checking whether Frontex boss Leggeri or his head of cabinet have yelled at or harassed employees.

(nap)

List of rubric lists: © Matthias Balk / dpa