Frontex, the EU's border surveillance agency, in turmoil
Frontex headquarters in Warsaw.
JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Trouble is mounting for Frontex, the EU's border surveillance agency.
After being accused of illegal refoulements of migrants, the agency is also suspected of fraud and harassment, but also of too close relations with the arms industry.
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Lobbyists from the surveillance and armaments industries are the headquarters of the European agency responsible for border surveillance: this is the conclusion of a survey carried out by the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory.
According to the organization, in 2018 and 2019, 72% of lobbyists received by Frontex were not registered in the European Transparency Register.
Yet this is what the European rules provide.
Frontex's budget has exploded in recent years.
By 2027, the agency must have 10,000 employees and
transform into a real police force
equipped with numerous equipment, radars, drones, facial recognition systems, enough to attract representatives of the defense and security sector. security.
The European border and coast guard agency has been singled out since last fall in an
investigation
by several media, accusing it of being involved in incidents of refoulements of boats of asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey.
The European anti-fraud gendarme has opened an investigation.
However, according to information from several media, including
Liberation
and
Der Spiegle
, this Olaf investigation also relates to accusations of fraud and harassment against Frontex staff members.
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