The operations of the European Border Agency (Frontex) in Spain have become another focus of criticism of the Government’s immigration policy by the Popular Party. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has been accusing the Executive for weeks of not having asked the European organization for help in the immigration control work on the Canary Islands route, while the Ministry of the Interior defends the opposite. “The Frontex planes are not flying to the Canary Islands, there must be an explanation, but the Government refuses to give it,” said the leader of the PP this Thursday during his visit to the European Parliament.
“Spain is the only country in Europe that does not have a migration policy, it is not fighting against irregular immigration, it is not activating the Frontex tool, it does not have any bilateral agreement with African countries to reduce the exodus of people trafficked by mafias. and Spain does not allow Frontex planes to fly in the Canary Islands,” stated Feijóo, despite the fact that the Government does have bilateral agreements on migration – such as with Senegal, Morocco and Mauritania among others – and has support from the borders for intelligence work, but not maritime control.
Behind the accusations launched by the PP leader this Thursday, which mix falsehoods with half-truths, there are a series of disagreements between Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Frontex, about how and where the deployment of the agency’s ships and planes should be activated – which accumulates criticism for the lack of control in matters of human rights – in its objective of stopping the arrivals of migrants to the Archipelago. We explain some keys.
When did the accusations of not having asked Frontex for help to stop migration begin?
The increase in the tone of criticism dates back to an appearance by the executive director of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, in the European Parliament, in which he assured that the border agency could deploy more resources in the Canary Islands but, to do so, it would need a request from formal aid from Spain that, according to its defense, it has not received. His statements prompted the Civil Liberties Commission of the European Parliament, chaired by PP MEP Javier Zarzalejos, to ask Minister Marlaska in a letter “why he does not use EU tools for migration management.”
The Minister of the Interior responded in writing to the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament. In the letter, sent to Zarzalejos as president of the commission, Grande-Marlaska detailed some of the requests for help made by Spain to the European institutions to respond to the increase in migration.
As Marlaska details in his writing, since the increase in the migratory flow through the Canary Islands route registered in 2020, the Government requested the support of the European institutions through different means. “From the first moment, the Government of Spain requested the support of the European Institutions. It obtained support from the European Commission, both public and financial, and, what is more important, Spain managed to mobilize European support for the African countries of origin and transit, which was insufficient, however,” responds the minister.
What is the current deployment of Frontex in the Canary Islands?
Currently, Frontex has 60 agents mobilized in the Canary Islands. Its main functions are more linked to identification, investigation and intelligence tasks, supporting Spain in the registration of migrants and in the collection of information on trafficking networks, Frontex and Interior sources confirm. They are on the ground and conduct interrogations of newly arrived people, either at the port or in the centers where migrants are held during the first 72 hours after their arrival in Spain.
“Our teams are on the ground helping to manage arrivals and working with local authorities to combat organized crime involved in human trafficking,” the spokesman for the European agency, Chris Borowski, told elDiario.es.
Does Frontex have planes or ships deployed on the Canary Islands route to stop migration to Spain?
No. When the executive director of Frontex defends that the Agency could send more resources to the Canary Islands if Spain asked it, he is referring precisely to the mobilization of ships and planes in Canary Islands waters, something that the Ministry of the Interior opposes. But this does not mean that it has not requested European patrols to prevent the arrival of migrants along the Canary Islands route. Interior wants this deployment to occur in African waters, not in Spanish waters as the European organization defends.
Marlaska does not consider it necessary to send Frontex resources to Canarian waters, as he considers the means available to the State security forces and Maritime Rescue to be sufficient. Interior considers that, to prevent these arrivals, “it is of no use” to incorporate these European ships in the Spanish area: “If there are migrants in Spanish waters, Frontex would not prevent these arrivals, they could only be rescued and brought to land.” ministerial sources maintain. “And to rescue we already have Maritime Rescue and the State security forces,” they add.
Where the Ministry has requested the activation of Frontex ships and aerial means is in African waters, in the areas adjacent to the countries from where the majority of cayucos leave for the Canary Islands (Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal), as it considers that this is the most effective strategy to “prevent” arrivals.
“The causes of the increase in arrivals to the Canary Islands are not found in Spain, but in the countries of origin and transit of irregular migration, in Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, from where the majority of the boats come. Therefore, it is in these areas where it is necessary to reinforce preventive surveillance,” Interior sources maintain.
Why doesn’t Frontex then send resources to African waters as Spain requests?
Frontex could deploy its vessels in Spanish waters if Spain requests it, but to enter the waters of other countries it needs procedures that go beyond the Spanish Government and the border agency. According to the regulation that governs the operation of Frontex, for this the EU must reach an “agreement on the status with the third country concerned.”
“To operate in African waters we need a special agreement between the EU and the African countries involved, such as Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal,” explains the Frontex spokesperson. “At the moment, these agreements do not exist and, without them, we cannot work on the ground there.”
What is the clash between Marlaska and Frontex?
In his letter to the European Parliament, the Spanish Minister of the Interior was critical of the statements made by the executive director of Frontex in Brussels, as he denies that he has not requested support from the Agency to respond to migration in the Canary Islands. According to Marlaska, his department has requested his support on several occasions but “their responses have been disappointing.”
Interior defends that Frontex, as a European external border agency, is the entity that must promote in the European Commission the agreement that requires its intervention in African waters. “Frontex has not achieved this with any African country from which the vessels that arrive in the Canary Islands depart,” Grande-Marlaska laments in his writing.
“Despite the lack of support from Frontex in what the Canary Islands need as a priority, we will continue to insist on the need to concentrate efforts on prevention and for this reason we have reiterated our request to Frontex to support the EU, Spain and the Canary Islands with means of surveillance in Africa, not in waters of Spanish responsibility,” reiterated the head of the Interior. “The lack of a positive response to the request for support requested by Spain does not mean that Spain has not repeatedly requested the agency’s support. Something that was possible and effective in the past should also be effective today.”
For its part, Frontex maintains that, as it does not have legal personality, its agency is not responsible for asking Brussels for such an agreement. “Frontex is willing to intervene, but it is up to the European Commission and the African governments to negotiate these agreements,” a spokesperson for the Agency responds to elDiario.es.
Has Frontex previously patrolled African waters to prevent arrivals in Spain?
Yes, through Operation Hera surveillance in African waters, in Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal, promoted in 2006 during the so-called canoe crisis in the Canary Islands. The operation was extended until 2018. The former executive director of Frontex, Gil Arias, explains to elDiario.es that then only formal permission from countries like Senegal was necessary to send Frontex ships and planes to African countries. However, after the reform of the Agency’s regulations in 2019, the regulations require closing a special agreement with the European Commission.
What kind of criticism does Frontex accumulate?
In recent years, Frontex has been widely criticized for the lack of transparency and little independent control of its operations. The Agency has been accused of human rights violations during some of its actions in those countries where it has permission to carry out maritime surveillance, such as the abuses documented on the route to Greece, where the agency has collaborated in the execution of hot returns of potential asylum seekers. The EU Anti-Fraud Agency (OLAF) report concluded that the EU’s European border agency was complicit in these human rights violations.
The report noted that Frontex management repeatedly concealed suspected cases of fundamental rights from its own agents and prevented them from working, because the agency withdrew its aerial surveillance to stop recording such violations. The study also documented that the agency co-financed some of the Greek entities that made the hot returns, misleading the bodies charged with supervising the agency. Although the pushbacks are “serious or persistent legal violations,” Frontex did not withdraw from joint operations as provided for in the agency’s regulations.
“In addition to allegations of collusion with the Greek authorities in violent pushbacks in the Aegean, Frontex faces accusations of systematically communicating to the Libyan coast guard the location of migrant and refugee boats located in the Mediterranean, violating international law. by delivering the castaways to a place that is not only unsafe but also criminal, where they suffer confinement, rape, torture and death,” analyzes a report from the PorCausa Foundation. “There is a worrying culture of opacity, of not systematically reporting incidents, which prevents the Agency from having a true picture of what is happening on the ground*. “The potential serious incidents of violations of fundamental rights,” the document adds.
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