Watchdog thinks EU border agency is too weak to prevent migrant disasters at sea

Eight months after hundreds of migrants died when they capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, investigators said Wednesday that the European Union’s border agency is unable to prevent future maritime disasters.

The investigation by an EU watchdog office into the border agency Frontex was prompted by the deaths of more than 600 men, women and children who drowned off the coast of Greece last June in front of dozens of officials and coastguard crews.

“Frontex has ‘coastguard’ in its name, but its current mandate and mission clearly falls short of that,” Emily O’Reilly, head of the EU watchdog agency, said on Wednesday. “If Frontex has a duty to help save lives at sea but lacks the tools to do so, then this is clearly a matter for EU lawmakers.”

Following the capsizing of the Adriana, a severely overcrowded fishing vessel, both Frontex and the Greek coast guard came under fire for failing to assist passengers on the ship, which slowly sank for hours as terrified migrants on board cried for help.

The scale of the loss – it was the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean in years – prompted several investigations, including that of the European Ombudsman’s office, which published its report on Wednesday.

In the report, researchers say that with member states’ failure to act to protect migrants, more legislative power is needed to carry out search and rescue missions at EU level.

Under the current system, Frontex must work closely with local maritime authorities and obtain permission before acting. The report also recommended that Frontex reconsider its presence in countries where chronic violations of migrants’ rights have been recorded.

The researchers also said that the agency has no internal rules for responding to shipwrecks, and that there was insufficient clarity on the division of labor between the agency and national authorities.

Frontex has a delicate mission. Its role is not only to help monitor the European Union’s external borders, but also to protect the rights of migrants attempting to cross them.

The agency deploys guards from all over Europe and supplies helicopters, boats, drones and other equipment to border countries such as Greece. But the country has also been accused of covering up and even participating in human rights violations.

Its former executive director, Fabrice Leggeri, resigned in 2022 amid allegations of harassment, mismanagement and rights abuses, and the agency promised reforms under new leadership. But investigators said on Wednesday that newly appointed human rights monitors were not sufficiently involved in Frontex’s decision-making process.

Europe has significantly tightened its migration policies after the arrival of more than a million refugees, mainly from Syria, between 2015 and 2016, fueling support for far-right political parties.

The last EU-funded search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean ended in 2014. Critics argued that proactively rescuing migrant ships at sea creates an incentive for migrants to take dangerous routes to reach Europe, and also encourages smugglers to take risks. the lives of their passengers.

The task has since fallen to charities, which have been prosecuted in several EU countries, including Greece and Italy, for their sea rescue activities.

The Greek coast guard has said smugglers on the Adriana refused help and panic on board caused the boat to capsize. Several survivors have said the ship sank when the coast guard tried to tow it, a claim Greek authorities have denied. Ultimately, a Greek Coast Guard ship, with the help of a superyacht in the area, rescued about 100 people.

As the Adriana was sinking, Frontex made four separate offers to help Greek authorities through aerial surveillance, the EU watchdog said on Wednesday, but received no response and could not go to the ship’s location without Greece’s permission.

The investigation found that Frontex had been to the scene only twice: once by plane, two hours after Italian authorities first issued a warning about the Adriana, and then by drone after the boat had already sunk.

Greek officials have consistently denied accusations of violating migrants’ rights, saying their migration policy is “tough but fair.”

Ms O’Reilly called on the EU institutions to learn lessons from the shipwreck.

“The European Union projects its identity through the prism of its commitment to the rule of law and to fundamental rights,” she said. “In the aftermath of the Adriana tragedy, she must take the opportunity to strengthen that identity through reflection and through actions that would, as far as possible, prevent such a tragedy from happening again.