The EU’s border police Frontex stays underneath tight scrutiny following the leak of a damning report by the EU’s anti-fraud workplace, Olaf.
Earlier this week, the Warsaw-based EU company confirmed its new chief, Aija Kalnaj, has learn the 129-page labeled doc.
“Frontex Govt Director advert interim Aija Kalnaja had a chance to learn the Olaf report,” mentioned the company, in an e-mail on Thursday (6 October).
The report, leaked to Der Spiegel , Le Monde and LightHouse Reviews over the summer season, particulars grave violations that led to the ouster of its executive-director Fabrice Leggeri in April.
They are saying it gives detailed proof of Greek human rights violations, which Frontex knew about however then determined to cowl up.
These violations embrace the Greek Coast Guard towing refugees in inflatable rafts again in the direction of Turkey, some witnessed by Frontex.
Greek authorities had been additionally piling strain on Frontex brokers to not doc violations, in keeping with the retailers, once more citing the Olaf report.
Critics say such violations now require the company to droop operations in Greece.
The UN Particular Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe González Morales, additionally chimed in.
“In Greece, pushbacks at land and sea borders have turn into de facto basic coverage,” he had mentioned, earlier this yr.
The UN refugee company (UNHCR) had itself recorded lots of of incidents, involving some 17,000 individuals reportedly returned by power to Turkey between 2020 and 2021 alone.
Greece has at all times denied any flawed doing. The Olaf report has solely piled on additional proof of the violations, presumably implicating the company itself.
When queried in regards to the Olaf report, Kalnaja in July advised the European Parliament that she had had no entry to it.
However now that she has seen the Olaf proof, the query was posed by this web site on whether or not Kalnaja has since shifted her eager about the company’s previous operations.
‘Guidelines adopted’ in Greece
However Frontex refused to touch upon the Olaf report itself and as a substitute appeared resolute that it had executed nothing flawed within the Aegean.
“We wish to reiterate that Frontex’s actions within the Aegean Sea area had been carried out in compliance with the relevant authorized framework, together with in accordance with the tasks stemming from elementary rights,” mentioned the company.
It additional added that it isn’t concerned in pushbacks, that its workers is instructed to report any potential violation of elementary rights to the company’s Elementary Rights Officer, and that it can not examine incidents in member states.
It says they’ve bolstered the position of the rights officer, revised the way it points so-called critical incident studies (SIR), and is at the moment working to instigate additional reforms.
“Frontex has been capable of launch 60 SIR studies thus far in 2022, in comparison with 40 over the identical interval in 2021,” it mentioned, for example.
However attorneys at front-LEX, a Dutch-based civil society organisation, printed complete sections of the Olaf report on Wednesday, shedding doubt on these claims.
One part says two departments inside Frontex had confirmed the credibility of pushbacks within the Aegean, but no critical incidents studies had been launched.
One other says the company had relocated aerial property to keep away from witnessing doable violations happening off the Greek coast.
European lawmakers sitting on a committee oversee budgets additionally stay cautious.
On Thursday, they refused to log out on Frontex’s 2020 accounts given the “magnitude of the dedicated critical misconduct” underneath Leggeri’s command.
Additionally they faulted the company for not following up among the suggestions, together with readability of its border surveillance operations in Greece the place pushbacks had been happening.
Different points additionally remained unresolved underneath Leggeri’s command, together with 17 reported sexual harassment circumstances. Not less than one workers, who had allegedly suffered the sexual abuse, dedicated suicide.
That case is now being re-opened.
Originally published at Irvine News HQ
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