Frontex mulls exit from Greece as re-elected government vows to continue migration policy

Days after the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean in years, the human rights chief of European Union border agency Frontex said the agency could suspend operations in EU member state Greece over chronic human rights abuses against migrants, the New York Times reported on Wednesday (June 27).

“The strongest possible measures” were necessary to bring Greece in line with national, EU and international law, Frontex’ human rights chief Jonas Grimheden said during a meeting with the agency’s management board last week, according to the Times citing a written summary of the meeting by a European Parliament official.

Moreover, he explicitly mentioned withdrawing from Greece.

Grimheden also made these suggestions in a confidential report to the agency’s leadership the Times said it obtained. In the report, he advised the board on “possible steps to address the issue of the agency’s activities in Greece, in relation to Article 46,” which requires the agency to cancel any operations in an EU country where investigations and reports have shown that the fundamental right of asylum seekers are being violated.

In another section of the report, however, he recommended that the agency increase its presence and involvement in Greece in order to prevent further misconduct, the Times reported.

In his report, Grimheden cited the agency’s internal rules and several cases of Greek authorities’ treatment of migrants that may have violated EU and international law. One of the cases was a video published by the Times in May that captured Greek authorities unlawfully abandoning migrants on a raft in the Aegean sea.

Grimheden reportedly told the Frontex board during a meeting that his own investigation into the case showed the findings were correct, according to the Times citing the written summary.

The internal report is expected to add even more pressure on Greece over its migrant policies, the Times reported. Jonas Grimheden, who joined Frontex as a Fundamental Rights Officer (FRO) in June 2021, previously worked at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) for 12 years. The FRO has an “independent role within the agency,” according to the Frontex website.

As of 2020, Frontex had 624 officers along the Greek land and maritime borders.

Read more: New Frontex boss vows to protect human rights

Frontex: Greece ignored offer to help

The recommendation by Frontex’ human rights chief to pull its units out of Greece comes on the heels of reports from survivors of the June 14 migrant ship disaster off southern Greece that raised doubts about the account given by the Greek coast guard.

Meanwhile, news agency AFP on Monday (June 26) reported Frontex had received “no response” when it offered aerial support to Greek authorities shortly before the migrant vessel overturned and sank in the Ionian Sea near Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula after setting sail from Libya towards Europe. The shipwreck left 82 dead and hundreds more missing.

“Frontex offered additional aerial support to Greek authorities on 13 June but received no response,” the Frontex press office told AFP by email.

Moreover, the agency reportedly offered to dispatch a scheduled patrol; however, Greek authorities asked it to instead join a search and rescue operation off the island of Crete.

According to AFP, the Italian coordination center (MRCC) directed the Frontex plane to look for the vessel carrying migrants in the morning of June 13, and the aircraft spotted it around 70 minutes later. However, the plane had to “return to base for refueling” after “monitoring the fishing vessel for 10 minutes,” Frontex said.

The disaster cast a spotlight on Greek authorities and whether they could have taken action to stop the disaster. A coast guard vessel that arrived a few hours before the fishing boat capsized confirmed a “large number of migrants on the outer deck” and therefore “remained close”.

Human rights organizations are calling for an independent investigation into why the coast guard vessel did not proactively intervene to help the migrants on board the trawler.

Also read: EU data authority launches probe into Frontex migrant interview breaches

New government vows ‘strict but fair’ migration policy

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Following Sunday’s conservative reelection victory with a record-high winning margin, Greece’s new migration minister Dimitris Kairidis on Tuesday (June 27) promised to continue a “strict but fair” policy toward migration in general and attempts to enter the country irregularly in particular, news agency AP reported.

“We are humanitarians but not naïve,” Kairidis told reporters hours after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ new government was sworn in on Monday.

The center-right New Democracy party has promised to extend the already 38-kilometer-long border fence along parts of the Greek-Turkish border by another 80 kilometers. It has also said that it will continue rigorous patrolling in the eastern Mediterranean to stop boats carrying migrants crossing into the European Union.

Numerous human rights organizations as well as UN agencies have accused Greek authorities of using illegal pushback methods to make sure that migrants stay in Turkey. There have also been a series of allegations of Greek authorities using violence during these pushbacks.

The Greek government has repeatedly denied such claims but also refused to allow an independent inquiry, according to AP. Frontex, too, has been accused of being complicit in abuse against migrants, for example in Libya.

Kairidis said his government was hoping to get approval for an EU-wide migration agreement over the next six months when fellow EU country Spain will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, AP reported.

with AP, AFP