EU reform would allow Frontex to deport migrants outside the bloc
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Seneweb
The European Commission is preparing a reform that would allow Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to help countries outside the EU transfer irregular migrants to their countries of origin. The plan is due to be unveiled on Tuesday and would extend the agency’s operations beyond European borders, according to European officials cited anonymously by Euronews.
The European Commission is due to unveil a reform on Tuesday that would allow Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to support the return of irregular migrants from one non-EU country to another, according to several European officials cited by Euronews. The new rules would also strengthen the agency’s operational powers outside European territory.
Frontex could, in particular, help North African countries return Central African nationals to their countries of origin before they reach European shores. Its agents would also take part in deportations from return centres set up in third countries. The first could become operational in 2027 after negotiations led by five European governments, Euronews reports.
The reform would allow migrants whose asylum claims or right to stay in the European Union have been rejected to be transferred from these centres to their countries of origin. Josephine Solan, an official at the organisation Statewatch, believes Frontex would thereby become a “deportation agency” operating beyond the borders of the European Union.
