{"id":126590,"date":"2024-03-06T07:35:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T05:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency\/"},"modified":"2024-03-06T07:35:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T05:35:31","slug":"frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontex director replies to Ombudsman: \u2018We\u2019re not the European rescue agency\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126590\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Hans Leijtens, the executive director of Frontex, responded on Tuesday to the findings of the European Ombudsman, who found severe shortcomings in the agency&#8217;s mandate, operations and relations with member states. The report, published last week, concluded that Frontex is overly dependent on the consent of national authorities and is therefore ill-equipped to uphold European Union values and save lives at sea. The office of Emily O&#8217;Reilly also recommended the agency should &#8220;terminate, withdraw or suspend its activities&#8221; in countries that persistently disregard their search-and-rescue obligations or violate fundamental rights. Otherwise, O&#8217;Reilly warned, the EU risks becoming &#8220;complicit&#8221; in migrant deaths.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, almost a week after the report&#8217;s publication, Hans Leijtens met members of the press in Brussels and delivered his first on-camera response to the findings. &#8220;I understand the logic the Ombudsman is following. I do not really agree with her on a number of things,&#8221; Leijtens said. &#8220;We are not the European Search and Rescue Agency. We are the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The director stressed the agency&#8217;s &#8220;primary duty&#8221; was to secure the EU&#8217;s external borders by deploying agents on the ground and assisting member states, meaning its core task is to &#8220;search&#8221; rather than to &#8220;rescue.&#8221; Last year, the agency spotted 2,000 sightings of irregular migration via surveillance airplanes and drones, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Under current rules, Frontex is empowered to alert coordination centres of potential distress situations and, if necessary, assist in emergencies at sea. But this assistance can only go ahead if the agency obtains the explicit consent of a country. If it does not, Frontex has no choice but to remain on the sidelines of the operation without first-hand intervention. Additionally, Leijtens noted the boats managed by Frontex were mainly &#8220;coastal vessels&#8221; not meant for search-and-rescue at high sea.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the practical limitations, Frontex is still closely involved in managing flows of irregular migration: the agency estimates it helped rescue 43,000 people at sea throughout 24 operations in 2023. &#8220;Our task is based on securing borders,&#8221; Leijtens said. &#8220;But there&#8217;s no doubt that if we have to choose between assessing whether this is a security issue or saving lives, we&#8217;ll always save lives and then deal with the security issue later.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s the episodes that end in tragedy that thrust the agency under the intense scrutiny of lawmakers, civil society and journalists. Last year, Frontex faced tough questions over its response to two deadly shipwrecks: one in February, near Calabria, Italy, which left at least 94 people dead, and another in June, when the Adriana, a fishing boat overcrowded with asylum seekers, capsized off the coast of Messenia, Greece. More than 600 people were either confirmed or presumed dead.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/my-europe\/2024\/03\/05\/frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/my-europe\/2024\/03\/05\/frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency\">Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/frontex-director-replies-to-ombudsman-were-not-the-european-rescue-agency\/\">Frontex director replies to Ombudsman: \u2018We\u2019re not the European rescue agency\u2019<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,696,1954],"class_list":["post-126590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-europe","tag-frontex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}