While the European Union and member states are at least apparently tightening migration policies, Dutchman Hans Leijtens, head of the EU border protection agency Frontex, based in Warsaw since March last year, is in favor of “humane treatment of migrants.”
In an interview with the German weekly “Welt am Sonntag”, the head of Frontex stated that “nothing can stop people from crossing borders, no wall, no fence, neither the sea nor rivers.” According to him, “the only thing that can be done is to slow down and better control the flow of people into the EU.” For him, illegal immigration is as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning.
Sometimes we pretend that we can just cork the bottle and the migration will stop. However, this is a misconception. Who am I to dare to condemn migrants? I’m sitting here in my office in Warsaw, of course I could do it, but it would be too easy
– he declared. According to him, “we cannot continue the story of detaining people and closing borders.”
My job is to create a balance between effective border management and respect for fundamental rights
-he said. As he further argued, instead of border protection, what is needed is asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders, faster deportations and agreements with third countries that “include, for example, joint police investigations into human smuggling.”
The head of the EU Border Protection Agency who doesn’t believe in border protection and wants to focus on faster deportations, even though he probably knows that the majority of arrivals whose asylum applications are rejected have nowhere to go?
Leijtens not only wants to reform Frontex, but also wants to steer the entire debate on migration onto a new track, namely ‘more humanity, less fear of strangers, less prejudice’.
This alarmism must end. We (in the editorial office) have the rule of law
– he emphasized. Journalists from Welt am Sonntag also contacted Leijtens’ predecessor, Fabric Leggeri. The former head of Frontex claimed he “always tried to defend the interests of the EU and the Schengen countries by fighting terrorism and smuggling”. According to him, his career ended because “there was a political change at the highest levels in Brussels.”
In October 2019, I met with Commissioner Yllva Johansson, responsible for home affairs. Until now, the EC wanted us to develop the permanent Frontex force. Commissioner Johansson asked me: what do you need this for? Migrants are welcome here. So why these weapons and these uniforms?
-added. It then became clear to him that guaranteeing effective border control would become increasingly difficult.
NGOs gained increasing influence in Brussels. I could no longer complete my tasks
– insists Leggeri. The pressure on him started to increase. The European Anti-Fraud Office – OLAF – assessed his work as ‘miserable’ in an official report. Socialists hurled insults at him in the European Parliament, and he replied that Frontex was not an organization that helped migrants.
He also did not want to recruit forty new human rights plenipotentiaries. At the same time, media pressure increased. In April 2022, a joint journalistic investigation by Lighthouse Reports, German weekly Der Spiegel, Swiss public broadcaster SRF Rundschau and French daily Le Monde revealed that Frontex was involved in illegal pushbacks in Greece.
Some NGOs even called for the liquidation of Frontex. In July 2021, Poland’s Ocalenie Foundation (the one responsible for Marshal Hołownia’s cheerful photos with migrants in the Sejm) joined the “Abolish Frontex” network.
As the French weekly Le Point reported at the time, Turkey actively participated in removing Leggeri from his position. Süleyman Soylu, the Turkish Minister of the Interior, is said to have admitted this in June 2022 during a meeting with journalists.
We did our best and we succeeded
-he pointed out. Leggeri’s resignation was therefore the result of coordinated action by actors within and outside the EU, which lasted more than two years. At the same time it was revealed what Frontex should be used for. The OLAF report made this clear. Not to help national authorities control their borders, but to monitor (and possibly condemn) their efforts to limit migration.
Hans Leijtens would certainly not agree with such a radical proposal as the liquidation of Frontex, but apparently he is prepared not to get too involved in human smuggling. He told reporters in Brussels in January that the agency’s work would be based on “transparency and accountability.” Frontex is primarily intended to support the implementation of the EU migration pact agreed last December.
-JJW, welt.de,spiegel.de, bbc.com
Source: wPolityce