Sea rescue not a pull factor, says Frontex chief

On Wednesday (September 4) the executive director of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, chimed in on the debate on whether rescue boats attract migrants.

“I never said, and it’s not my opinion, that it’s a pull factor,” Hans Leijtens told a Euronews reporter in Brussels.

According to Euronews, Leijtens’ statement stands in contrast to a confidential Frontex document that was reported on in 2022, before Leijtens was in charge of Frontex.

Italy’s far-right government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has repeatedly cited the document in its ongoing criticism of NGOs that operate private rescue vessels in Mediterranean waters.

Also read: Frontex: Migrant arrivals down 64% in Central Mediterranean

NGO ships creating ‘pull factor’ mostly a myth, studies suggest 

Over the past few years, several studies refuted the claims by Meloni and others that NGO rescue ships act as a pull factor for migrants.

In early 2023, for instance, the Times of Malta investigated the supposed link by looking at several studies by think tanks, universities and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Based on the evidence, the Times concluded that the claim was “mostly false”.

The investigation had come on the heels of a statement by Maltese home affairs minister, Byron Camilleri, appearing to support the Italian government’s pull factor justification for cracking down on NGOs. 

Later in 2023, the Italian government introduced further restrictions with the same claim, which was also made by other European right-wing parties as well as Frontex.

Experts have pointed out that the presence of NGO ships is just one variable migrants consider when thinking about crossing a body of water. Rather, it’s factors such as conflicts, economic hardship, natural disasters, and weather conditions that drive migration, one study found.

Researchers have however said that cause and effect are difficult to separate when it comes to the relationship between sea rescue activity and crossing attempts.

Also read: Sea rescue NGOs and Italian interior minister clash over alleged ‘pull factor’

Can Frontex change course?

Leijtens, who took the helm of Frontex last year, provided an update on the activities of the agency to the European Parliament in Brussels. According to Euronews, several Parliamentarians who spoke at the hearing said that the Dutchman seems to take migrants’ fundamental rights more seriously than his predecessor Fabrice Leggeri.

Leggeri, now a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Patriots for Europe group, had to leave Frontex in April 2022 following a series of accusations that the EU agency was involved in the mistreatment of migrants trying to reach Europe. In particular, Frontex was accused of supporting illegal pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea trying to reach Greece after departing from Turkish shores.

Frontex has not been scandal-free since Leijtens took office last year though. An investigation by the Fundamental Rights Office published internally in June concluded that a Frontex vessel assisted the Greek coast guard in an illegal and violent pushback of a migrant boat on its way to the Greek island of Lesbos at the beginning of the year. The Frontex vessel, moreover, then allegedly covered up for Greek authorities in its mission report.

“The first thing for our officers is to save lives on land and at sea,” Leijtens told Euronews in Brussels. “What we can do also depends on resources, but at least we always promise to do it,” he added.

A video by German public broadcaster ARD‘s STRG_F format from June suggests that Frontex is probably still involved in pushbacks, even though Leijtens has demanded a rethink. But implementing it is hard as the coast guard units of the EU member states like Greece, and not Frontex, remain in charge of the missions.

Also read: New Frontex chief promises to ‘restore trust’