Frontex presents its new field agents with “excellent results”.

Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has just taken stock of its interventions in 2021 - it is satisfied with "

" - and presents its new agents sent to the field.

The work of these “

”, created last year, will be able to be observed by NGOs, which had criticized the agency when it took part in certain illegal refoulements of migrants at the borders of the European Union.

In its report on its activities in 2021, the Frontex agency highlights its effectiveness in figures: 1,050 traffickers identified, 16,000 kg of drugs seized and 6,100 false documents detected last year. These feats seem to be linked to an innovation within the agency: the

”, field agents. Frontex was previously made up of office staff, whose job was to organize cooperation with the agents of the countries that requested its intervention.

Through this development, Frontex intends to become a real

at the agency's headquarters”.

There are currently 2,000 operational

, but Frontex aims to recruit 10,000 by 2027. This is the first time that the European Union has equipped itself with uniformed and armed officials.

This new body obtains its own prerogatives, which allow it to be operational in the field.

refugee law

The creation of this new corps of European coast guards and border guards seems to respond to a need to clarify the legal responsibility of the agency. The operations to combat illegal immigration organized by Frontex have indeed regularly been the subject of criticism. In March 2021, the Greek NGO Legal Center Lesvos accused Frontex of violating the principle of non-refoulement, defined in the Geneva Convention on the law of refugees.

However, the direct responsibility of the European agency had not been called into question: the coastguards behind these pushbacks were employed by Turkey and Greece, Frontex partner countries, and not by the agency itself. -same.

These

, paid by Frontex and who follow its recommendations, will now directly involve the agency if this type of incident happens again.

Cooperations outside the EU

Frontex troops are mainly deployed at the external borders of the EU. With a

of 19 simultaneous operations, the agency reports on its successes in its annual report. It looks back on its interventions in the Western Balkans, where its agents are establishing themselves more deeply, in particular thanks to a new collaboration with Serbia.

Deployment at the borders is not the sole prerogative of the

 : their establishment has made it possible

, specifies the report. This body carries out interventions against crime, the smuggling of false papers or against the entry of drugs into European territory. The agency's attention nevertheless remains focused on migration: its agents have provided assistance to European countries wishing to return certain migrants to their country of origin. 18,300 people were deported to 102 countries thanks to Frontex in 2021.

The

also participate in the training of national agents, both within the EU and outside its borders.

As the report puts it, Frontex

, but also with transit countries.

The effectiveness of the fight against illegal immigration depends on the quality of this cooperation with partner countries whose mission is to monitor the illegal departures of their nationals.