On 6 July, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary, will approve the replacement of Frontex by a European border-guards and coast-guards body. This new agency will actually turn out to be a reinforced version of Frontex agency with more powers, still lacking independent control over its activities, if not human rights violations occurring during operations it is coordinating.
It is very likely that the European parliament will adopt a text which wrongly presents migration as threat to security and whose only focus is on border control and preventing border crossing. This draft does not address the humanitarian urgency unfolding at the European Union’s external borders. It turns a deaf ear to the grave fundamental rights concerns although the latter are based on substantiated and founded arguments.
If adopted, the text will provide for increased powers attributed to the new agency. In particular, the agency will be able to :
- Collect and process more personal data of migrants, thus turning the agency into a personal data « hub ». Despite the European Data Protection Supervisor’s warnings, MEPs will probably adopt a text which will allow for the processing of this information and its transmission to Europol without the necessary data protection safeguards that are required.
- Complete unaccountability in case of human rights violations: the complaint mechanism that is proposed does not meet independence standards and does not solve the current problem, i.e. Frontex’s judicial unaccountability. It seems as if the EU is unwilling to address this serious issue of impunity although it was denounced many times not only by the Frontexit campaign, but also by the European Ombudsman, and despite the number of proven cases of human rights violations during the agency’s operations.
- Increase its overseas deployment beyond Europe (see attached map), away from any oversight by the European Parliament or national parliaments
Frontexit urges the MEPs to vote against the new Regulation in plenary, on 6 July. This text sets in stone the belief that migrants are a threat to security, and does not address the challenge Europe is facing today.
Frontexit, in partnership with The Strasbourg Collective for Another Migration Policy (Collectif strasbourgeois pour une autre politique migratoire) is organising a protest in front of the European Parliament, on Tuesday 5 July at 2.00 pm – Say NO to a securitarian Europe
More information:
- Short analysis of the new mandate: A European border-guards and coast-guards agency – Concerns about proposed mandate for a “new Frontex”
- 10th anniversary of Frontex: 10 measures which put fundamental rights at risk
Contacts :
Rafaël Flichmann, La Cimade : 0033 642 15 77 14
Hayet Zehgiche, EuroMed Rights : 0032 488 08 00 41