# taz.de -- Europes borders in Africa: Beyond the fence | |
> The EU is transforming Frontex into a full-service agency. It is working | |
> with shady governments. | |
Bild: Migrants after disembarking from the Norwegian vessel Siem Pilot at Pozza… | |
There is almost everything on the ship of Pal Erik Teigen: a freezer | |
container for corpses, a play room with a cinema screen, and a giant deck | |
with sun protection, which can seat over 1,100 people when teigens pull | |
them out of the water. Today, however, it is raining, it is a gloomy | |
afternoon, in the middle of November, in the port of Catania in Sicily, and | |
the „Siem Pilot“, the huge signal-red flagship of the EU border guard | |
agency Frontex, lies on the quayside and takes its new crew members on | |
board. | |
Actually, the „Siem Pilot“ is a provider of oil drilling rigs in the North | |
Sea. Since June 2015, it has been Norway's most important contribution to | |
tackling the refugee crisis. The government in Oslo chartered the ship and | |
paid for the crew of 15, as well as eleven Norwegian policemen, ten | |
soldiers and six coastal guards. | |
For the fourth time, dough is here, as commander. „It was more violent than | |
all the years before the police before,“ he says. „Sometimes 2,000, then | |
7,000 come, in between it is quiet for a few weeks.“ 28,598 live and 91 | |
deaths took the „Siempilot“ on board in Frontex and brought to Italy. Most | |
of them have been taken over by private NGOs crossing the Libyan coast. | |
Frontex does not. | |
The „Siem Pilot“ saves people. But that is not the reason why she is here. | |
It is no coincidence that the ship is commanded by a policeman. Refuge | |
boats are cops for them. Tactics of human smuggling. Teigen's real mission | |
is the fight against tugs. Policing. | |
## Frontex is approaching the refugees | |
Teigens men and women are on the „Siem Pilot“ to find among thousands of | |
refugees and migrants those who operate the crossings as a criminal | |
business. On the trips to the mainland, to the safe harbor, they watch the | |
rescued, photograph and question them, evaluate mobile phones, investigate | |
corpses in a separate forensic department, take DNA samples. 300 „Persons | |
of interest“, suspects, have so far handed over to the Italian police. | |
The people on board are the first point on which people can start. Beyond | |
the sea, where the tugboats are doing their business, they have no access, | |
not even reliable contact with the coast guard. „Nothing works. When we get | |
to Libya, we have to look for danger with binoculars.“ | |
This is only partly true. In fact, the agency, newly constituted in | |
September as the European Agency for Border and Coast Guard, has long since | |
extended its bulbs to Africa. Even now she is not forced to look through | |
the binoculars to find out what is going on.Border protection today has | |
less to do with guarding a fence on its own territory, but more and more by | |
being active in distant countries. Frontex is approaching the refugees. | |
With 18 states around the world, Frontex has working arrangements. | |
Including countries in Eastern Europe, USA, Canada, Cape Verde and Nigeria. | |
But negotiations are underway for further agreements: with Libya, Morocco, | |
Senegal, Mauritania, Egypt and Tunisia. „North Africa is our most important | |
focus for new cooperations,“ confirms Frontex. | |
## At the table with African secretaries | |
At the informal level, Frontex has also been cooperating with some of these | |
countries, including Morocco, Senegal and Libya. A liaison officer is to be | |
sent to Niger soon. Above all, the agency operates four so-called risk | |
analysis networks with countries outside the EU. Two include the countries | |
of Eastern Europe, one the Balkans and Turkey. The biggest one is the | |
Intelligence Community Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community (Afic). | |
Since its founding in 2010, Frontex has already invited 20 intelligence | |
officers from Africa to Warsaw. At Afic there are 21 countries, from | |
Morocco via Djibouti to Angola. Seven states, including the hardcore | |
dictatorships Eritrea and Sudan, have „observers“ status, including | |
Ethiopia, Somalia and Tunisia are „invited“ to participate. „This is a | |
framework for intelligence sharing in the area of border security,“ says | |
Frontex. And bring to the table those who are responsible for some of the | |
causes of the escape. | |
Meanwhile there are not only meetings, but also an online platform for data | |
exchange. Monthly analyzes have been carried out since May. The goal: To | |
draw as complete a picture as possible of migration throughout Africa. | |
Andrej Hunko, a deputy for the Left, believes that the EU's new aid offers | |
to Africa: „Cooperation with shady governments and dictatorships is the | |
sole purpose of building them as bouncers for the fortress of Europe.“ | |
The EU has „agencies“ for certain policy areas. No one has grown as fast as | |
the Frontex. When she was founded in Warsaw in 2005, she had only 45 | |
employees and an annual budget of 6.5 million euros. This year, Frontex is | |
able to spend 254 million euros, 2020 should be 320 million. | |
## Full service: deportations in the complete package | |
What is certain is that the EU wants to further expand Frontex – to a | |
complete border police. It was not until September that she gained new | |
competencies: for deportations. To date, Frontex has carried out | |
deportation charter flights only at the request and expense of the member | |
countries. In 2015 there were seven, this year so far 13, it went to | |
Georgia, Serbia and Albania. | |
In the future, Frontex will be able to carry out collective deferrals on | |
its own initiative and at its own expense. She now has her own budget from | |
which she can pay for airplanes, accommodation of accompanying persons, | |
food, medical staff and interpreters. It provides passports for | |
deportations and „voluntary departure“, all tasks that have hitherto been | |
in the hands of the Member States. Frontex is thus becoming a service | |
agency for foreigners' authorities. 66.5 million euros have been allocated | |
to „Return Support“ since this year. | |
To this end, a pool of so-called escorting officers, ie returning | |
companions, is set up in the respective Member States. In parallel, a pool | |
of „return specialists“ will be created, which can be deployed flexibly to | |
the Member States to organize deportations there.But Frontex is also to | |
prevent any irregular migrants from reaching Europe. Staff of the agency | |
train border guards of non-EU countries, for example in the detection of | |
fake passports. Frontex has carried out almost 500 such trainings since | |
2010, most in Eastern Europe, some in Morocco. This week, Frontex starts | |
training the Libyan coast guard – their contribution to an EU training | |
mission. | |
The number of employees grows with the tasks. Lastly, Frontex had more than | |
360 officials. In the meantime, a roughly 1,200-strong so-called emergency | |
force group is being added to help protect the EU's external borders, in | |
Bulgaria, for example. There, 163 employees monitor the borders to Turkey | |
and Serbia. | |
## No contact for contradiction | |
Only one is saved: monitoring and complaining mechanisms. Anyone who is | |
illegally rejected or deported by EU border guards has little opportunity | |
to do so. This is not just complained about by refugee organizations and | |
human rights activists, but also by the Europaparlament: Frontex needs to | |
provide more staff and more money to protect the fundamental freedoms and | |
complaints of asylum seekers, the Committee on Civil Liberties calls. | |
More resources and more staff are not a solution, as Frontex itself shows. | |
This year, when more staff and more money was available to the agency than | |
ever before, more than 4,700 people drowned more than ever before Libya. | |
Rescuing people is not the real reason why people like the policeman Pal | |
Erik Teigen are on the Mediterranean. | |
15 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Christian Jakob | |
Eric Bonse | |
## TAGS | |
Lesestück Recherche und Reportage | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
MigrationControl | |
Frontex | |
migControl | |
Libyen | |
EU-Afrika-Gipfel | |
migControl | |
migControl | |
Israel | |
Lesestück Recherche und Reportage | |
Lesestück Recherche und Reportage | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
Schwerpunkt Flucht | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Strategien gegen Migration: Die Wiederentdeckung Afrikas | |
Mehrere Gipfeltreffen wollen Afrikas Märkte öffnen und Grenzen schließen. | |
Der Kontinent soll unseren Wünschen gehorchen. | |
Seawatch über Grenzschutz im Mittelmeer: „Man zwingt die Leute auf die Boote… | |
Seawatch patrouillierte vor der libyschen Mittelmeerküste, um Flüchtende zu | |
retten. Die hätten keinen anderen Weg, als übers Meer, sagt Pressesprecher | |
Ruben Neugebauer. | |
Geflüchtete in Uganda: Neue Zukunft in Nakivale | |
Ackerbau und Arbeit gibt es für Flüchtlinge. Im ältesten Flüchtlingslager | |
Ugandas finden sie Frieden und Sicherheit – aber nur wenig Wohlstand. | |
Abschiebepraxis in Israel: Die Währung Mensch | |
Die israelische Regierung schiebt eritreische Flüchtlinge nach Ruanda und | |
Uganda ab. Steckt dahinter ein geheimer Deal? | |
EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Afrika: Durchsichtige Afrikaner | |
Mit Geld und Technologie aus Europa wird Afrika biometrisiert. | |
EU-Grenzschutz und afrikanische Staatsräson finden so zusammen. | |
Das EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Afrika: Abschied von Dadaab | |
Das größte Flüchtlingslager der Welt liegt in Kenia. Eine Generation | |
Somalier ist dort groß geworden. Nun soll es abgewickelt werden. | |
EU-Flüchtlingspolitik in Libyen: Zurück in den Krieg | |
Libyen ist durch den Bürgerkrieg stärker zerrüttet als irgendein anderes | |
Maghreb-Land. Trotzdem will die EU Flüchtlinge dorthin zurückschicken. | |
Business mit Flüchtlingen im Sudan: Die Ehre der Schleuser | |
Tamir und Khalid treten wie seriöse Geschäftsleute auf – sie brachten 5.000 | |
Flüchtlinge nach Europa. Beide sind stolz darauf. Und sie sind | |
ausgestiegen. | |
EU-Flüchtlingspolitik im Sudan: Abschottung im Auftrag Europas | |
Früher verübten seine Kämpfer Verbrechen in Darfur. Heute jagt Generalmajor | |
Daglo als Chef der Grenzpolizei Flüchtlinge, die nach Europa wollen. |