The EU border agency is increasingly passing on the coordinates of refugee boats to neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean. This also includes the Coast Guard in Libya. A whistleblower now reports on these incidents.
Frontex is monitoring the Mediterranean and other sea areas with aeroplanes and drones in order to curb irregular migration and flight to Europe. In 2023, companies carried out 1711 flights on behalf of the EU border agency, 243 of which were with unmanned systems. The aircraft completed over 11,000 flight hours. This is according to Frontex’s response to a question from MEP Özlem Demirel of the Left Party in the EU Parliament. Similar high figures are given for the period from January to April 2024. In the two previous years, these figures were around a fifth lower.
Frontex charters the surveillance aircraft from the British company DEA, while two large drones are flown by the Bremen-based defence division of Airbus. Frontex spends around a quarter of its annual budget on this, which totals €922 million this year.
The recorded videos are forwarded by the service providers with other information in real time to the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. The respective host state from whose airport the aircraft are operating also receives the data.
Most of the Frontex service’s missions take place over the central Mediterranean, with aircraft and drones stationed in Italy, Malta and Greece. The companies also carry out Frontex flights over the English Channel for Belgium and France. As part of an operation in Romania and Spain, Frontex is also deploying manned aircraft there.
If the airborne units spot a boat or ship with refugees, the neighbouring Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) are informed in the event of a maritime emergency: Italy, Malta, Tunisia and Libya. In accordance with the international search and rescue (SAR) legal framework, these countries are responsible for coordinating measures if the incident occurs in their zones with their responsability.
In 2023, the pilots detected and reported 1204 such crossings. In addition, 191 mayday distress calls were sent. In particularly urgent emergencies, these are not only radioed to the control centres, but also to all ships and aircraft in the vicinity. These figures are also rising: in 2022, Frontex surveillance aircraft reported 771 cases of ships in distress at sea, including 56 cases in which mayday distress calls were sent out.
Frontex now creates many situation reports using images from satellites launched by the EU as part of the Copernicus programme. The member states also benefit from this: the EUROSUR service, which was launched in 2014, has provided satellite images in 1147 cases over the past three years – although the frequency of EU satellites is falling sharply. One possible reason: “Frontex almost exclusively uses very high resolution (0.3 m – 4 m) commercial satellites”, as stated in another reply from the agency to MEP Demirel, and has spent around €16 million on this since 2022. It is also known that Frontex uses relay satellites from Airbus’ “space data highway” for fast data transmission.
Frontex states that the agency is not involved in returning refugees to Libya in violation of international law, but only informs the MRCC control centre in Tripoli about boat sightings in the event of an emergency at sea in accordance with regulations.
A recent report by the Swedish TV programme “Mission Investigate” refutes this in an interview with a Swedish coast guard who worked at Frontex headquarters in Warsaw. “For example, as soon as we see a migrant boat leaving Libya, we call them [the Libyan Coast Guard] and try to get them to take it back. And most of the time we succeed,” he said. “They go out and take these refugees back quite often,” another official told the magazine.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: The Frontex aerial surveillance service consists of private charter aircraft and devours a considerable part of the annual budget (Frontex/Youtube).
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