phonenumber:775

Frontex accepts Greece’s request for Rapid Border Intervention Teams

Frontex accepted today Greece’s request to deploy Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) on the Greek islands in the Aegean to assist the country in dealing with the record number of migrants coming to its shores. Following a required evaluation, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri decided to activate the RABIT mechanism.

Greece and Frontex now have five working days to agree on an operational plan to be signed by the Frontex Executive Director. The RABIT deployment requires Greece to provide a number of national officers and team leaders who will work alongside officers deployed by Frontex.

“The RABIT deployment will allow us to increase the number of both sea and land patrols, which means more migrants will be identified and properly registered soon after they arrive on the Greek islands. In other words, launching RABIT means upscaling Operation Poseidon Sea,” said Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.

Out of more than 700 000 migrants who reached the Greek islands from Turkey so far this year, only one in five was intercepted upon reaching the shore.

The RABIT deployment will increase the number of officers and technical equipment, such as boats and patrol cars, deployed on the Greek islands. The operation shall also have a new focus on security checks. Officers who will conduct security checks by consulting national and pan-European databases are to work alongside screening, debriefing and fingerprinting experts.

The RABIT deployment will replace currently running operation Poseidon Sea and will cover similar operational area. Currently, in the Aegean islands, Frontex deploys 16 vessels and more than 260 officers assisting in the registration of new arrivals, as well as border surveillance officers, and debriefing and document experts.

The 448 officers offered so far by Member States in response to the Frontex’s most recent request call for 775 border guards in October will now take part in the RABIT deployment. Unlike participation in regular Frontex operations, it is mandatory for member states to provide officers and equipment for RABIT deployments.

So far, the RABIT mechanism had been activated only once, in October 2010, also by Greece. The operation at the Greek-Turkish land border in the Evros region started in November 2010 and ended in March 2011, when Frontex resumed Joint Operation Poseidon Land.

▻http://frontex.europa.eu/news/frontex-accepts-greece-s-request-for-rapid-border-intervention-teams-
#RABIT #Frontex #Mer_Egée #asile #migrations #réfugiés #contrôles_frontaliers #Méditerranée
cc @reka

La « bonne » nouvelle du jour...
 :-(

#Frontex asks for 775 border guards

Today Frontex launched a call for 775 additional border guards to be deployed by the national authorities of Member States at the external borders of the European Union.

This is the largest number of border guards Frontex has ever requested in the history of the agency.

The officers are to assist mainly Italy and Greece in the registration and identification of migrants coming from Libya and Turkey.

“Since the beginning of this year over 470 000 migrants arrived in Greece and Italy alone. No country can possibly handle such high migratory pressure at its borders by itself. It is crucial that all those arriving in the EU are properly registered and identified,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.

Frontex requested 670 officers – mainly screeners, debriefers and interpreters to be deployed in Italy and Greece, in addition to 105 officers to be deployed at various external land borders of the European Union.

The screening officers play a key role in helping authorities to determine the nationality of the incoming migrants in order to identify and register them. Debriefers gather information about the activities of smuggling networks.

▻http://frontex.europa.eu/news/frontex-asks-for-775-border-guards-eQvFQA
#frontières #militarisation #contrôles_frontaliers #migrations #asile #réfugiés
cc @reka