Letter of concern to Frontex

Between 25th – 26th November the European Border and Coastguard Agency (Frontex) is holding a meeting of its Management Board. In advance of this meeting, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) sent a letter addressing questions to the Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri concerning compelling evidence of Frontex involvement (or presence) in pushbacks at the Albanian-Greek border and Greek-Turkish border. The letter was promptly sent on the 9th November but, over two weeks later, remains unanswered.

BVMN want to remind the Mangement Board that it’s in their mandate to ensure the activity of the Agency is in compliance with respect for fundamental rights and that member state involvement in violations of fundamental rights should be investigated and acted upon. So far the silence on the part of Frontex has been deafening.

In the letter sent to the Executive Director, BVMN posed these questions:

-What is the knowledge and understanding of the Agency about alleged involvement or presence of Frontex personnel during pushbacks at the Albanian-Greek border and Greek-Turkish border?

-What is the response of the Executive Director and of the Fundamental Rights Officer to allegations of Frontex involvement during pushbacks?

-Would the Executive Director and the Fundamental Rights Officer launch an internal inquiry into accusations of violations of the law or Frontex Code of Conduct into incidents reported by the BVMN?

Cover image – German Frontex officers stationed in Albania (Source:Reuters)

If you want to receive the monthly report from Border Violence Monitoring Network, you can subscribe here: