Frontex scandal: Europe's borders are a legal vacuum

Enlarge image

The Turkish coast guard rescues a woman in the Aegean Sea.

Again and again, people seeking protection are illegally deported from Greece to Turkey.

Photo: Emrah Gurel / AP

There are obviously two ways of reading the EU Parliament's latest report on Europe's border protection agency Frontex.

Either like almost all experts, journalists, lawyers, and anyone who knows anything about what is going on in the Aegean.

Then one has to come to the conclusion that Frontex boss Fabrice Leggeri has grossly neglected his official duties.

The European parliamentarians note that Frontex officials knew about illegal repatriation of refugees from Greece to Turkey, so-called pushbacks, but did nothing about it, and worse, that Leggeri destroyed incriminating material.

Frontex is an accomplice in human rights abuses

Or you can interpret the report like Leggeri himself. His agency tweeted last Thursday: "Frontex welcomes the review group's report and its conclusions, which confirm that there is no evidence that the agency is involved in human rights abuses."

If proof was needed of how far the officers at Frontex headquarters in Warsaw have strayed from reality, how much they turn a blind eye to the mismanagement and irresponsibility that is rampant there, then it has it the agency provided itself with its reaction to the report of the European Parliament.

Yes, it is true that the parliamentarians state that there is no evidence of any direct involvement by Frontex officers in pushbacks in the Aegean.

Nobody said that either.

The allegations against Frontex always involved complicity, which has now also been established by the European Parliament.

A diversionary maneuver like the one Leggeri's people undertake is usually more familiar from authoritarian regimes.

Pushback is an abstract term for a process that is clearly illegal and almost always violent under European law.

What Greek border guards usually do is stop refugee boats, destroy the engine and expose people, often women and children, on rafts in the sea.

In doing so, you repeatedly and willfully endanger the lives of those seeking protection.

Frontex has long claimed that it knew nothing about it, but the agency has been working in the region for years.

Foreclosure at all costs

Last year, SPIEGEL and international partners proved that this is not true, that Frontex officers were in the vicinity in at least seven cases during pushbacks but did nothing. And that Frontex even recorded some of the legal violations from the air, and that Frontex boss Leggeri then deliberately deceived the public. The research was the reason for the European Parliament to convene a review group, which has now come to the same conclusion.

It is therefore officially recorded that Frontex hides human rights violations at Europe's borders, that it covers offenses committed by national security forces.

But instead of showing remorse and reforming its own human rights monitoring, as experts have been calling for for years, Leggeri continues to insist on having done everything right.

He is demonstrating that he is intolerable as Frontex boss, that a renewal of the agency is not possible with him.

What is even worse is that the politically responsible are apparently not prepared to draw any conclusions from the Frontex scandal.

The Frontex Board of Directors, which is responsible for summoning or dismissing the head of the authority, is largely composed of representatives from the EU member states.

You seem to be very happy to have a head of the authorities who does not take the law very seriously when it comes to preventing refugees.

Interior ministers like Horst Seehofer also tolerate the permanent violation of the law.

In Europe there is a political consensus that refugees should be kept away by all means.

The reaction to the Frontex scandal shows that people are already in favor of overriding their own norms and values ​​if necessary.