While refugees remain a hot topic through Europe, even
after the mini-summit of Brussels, the European Agency of Border
Control, Frontex, has a very important role.
In an interview for Top Channel, the Executive Director of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, says Albania has never been mentioned as a hosting or transitory country for refugees. To prevent this, Frontex will be established at borders between Albania, Greece and Macedonia.
Top Channel: One of the conclusions of the mini summit held a few days in Brussels was that of sending the Frontex troops in the border between Greece, Albania and Macedonia. What does this mean in simple terms and how will it work?
Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director of Frontex: As you know, Frontex is present at the maritime borders of Greece. We have started a big operation called “Poseidon”. We have sent more than 250 border patrol troops in the Greek islands and some vessels are patrolling the Aegean islands between Greece and Turkey. The challenge in Greece is to register immigrants and take their fingerprints. One of the topics discussed in the Brussels summit two weeks ago was that Frontex should increase the Poseidon operation in the maritime borderrs of Greece. Frontex should also support Greece in managing the external borders with Albania and the FYROM. This means that Frontex will send more border patrols in the western and northern part of Greek territorial borders, to help taking fingerprints and registering immigrants, who, in fact, should have been already registered in the Greek islands, but they refuse. Our main purpose is to register those who are in Greece so that we can cut the distribution mechani8sm. There was an agreement in the EU a few weeks ago, which makes asylum seekers leave Greece towards other EU countries. The problem we have now is that many immigrants prefer to cross the Western Balkan countries and don’t want to be distributed as the EU has planned. This is the main problem we have now. To make this mechanism work and have less pressure in FYROM and avoid it to Albania, EU has decided that Frontex will operate in the borders between Greece, Macedonia and Albania.
TCH: Are the teams already at the borders?
Fabrice Leggeri: I have made an official proposal with an operation plan to the Greek authorities. I proposed to increase the operation in the Greek islands and I proposed the establishing of border patrols between Albania and FYROM. The Greek authorities are reviewing the proposition and I believe we will be ready to finalize it very soon.
TCH: Albania has not been affected by the immigrant wave so far. Could they change their route through Albania during winter?
Fabrice Leggeri: It is true that Albania has not been affected so far. If we start the operation in the borders between Greece and FYROM, we must do the same with Albania, because immigrants would know that they are being registered in Greece so they would seek another route through Albania. We want to avoid this and this is why Frontex will send patrols in the border between Albania and Greece.
TCH: Is there any official request from Brussels for Albania to shelter refugees? Has Albania offered to shelter them?
Fabrice Leggeri: No, as far as I know. We have not discussed this issue. We discussed how to keep immigrants in the EU and support Western Balkan countries so that there is less pressure on them, but i have not been part of any meetings where this could have been mentioned. No one expects Albania to shelter refugees, as I know.
TCH: Does Albania have the capacities to be a host country?
Fabrice Leggeri: As far as I know, the EU has not foreseen opening any camp for sheltering refugees in Albania. The EU strategy is to keep immigrants in Greece and distribute them from there to other EU countries. We want to avoid having them cross Western Balkan countries because it could be a problem to distribute them from Greece to other EU countries.
TCH: What should Balkan and the EU do more for this refugee crisis?
Fabrice Leggeri: At this moment we are preparing information exchange. Frontex has cooperation structures with the Western Balkan countries. Frontex has signed an agreement with Albania. We have installed a network that is called “Risk analyze with Western Balkan”, and we are now watching the flux of information. We are creating a reporting system so that we can access in real time the number of immigrants crossing the borders to Western Balkan, because EU member countries in Balkan, such as Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, and also Western EU countries such as Austria and Germany, cannot foresee how many immigrants are on their way to these countries. This creates a humanitarian crisis, because it is important for every country to know how they can afford a situation with 10 thousand or 15 thousand immigrants at the border. This is very important for the countries. They need to have this information. For this reason we have established these reporting channels that are offered to Western Balkan and EU countries. In long terms, I want to mention the projects before Eu accession. EU France and IPA 2 are projects made to prepare candidate countries in developing the infrastructure and institutions. Frontex will engage with projects related to border management. Maybe in 2016, we may have a Frontex project covering the Western Balkan countries, including Albania. This is how Frontex will be able to contribute to better prepare Albania and their neighbors for facing these situations in the future.
TCH: Is closing borders a solution, like in Hungary?
Fabrice Leggeri: The borders of Europe have never been closed. There are legal border crossing for the EU, and these are open.
TCH: Hungary and PM Orban built a wall. This cannot be forgotten.
Fabrice Leggeri: It is true, but these walls have doors for legal crossing. The objective of Frontex is to support the EU member countries to manage their borders with the refugee wave, and have them under control. This is the reason why we increased our operation in the maritime borders between Greece and Turkey. We also want to help our Western Balkan neighbors. Frontex is not allowed to operate in non EU countries, that’s why it is not under our jurisdiction. Maybe in the future the mandate could be reviewed, but we would need a regulation of the EU and this is not a short term thing. Maybe Frontex will be authorized in the future to extend their operations in non-EU countries. However, our desire is to support our neighbors, so that we can cooperate with Western Balkan and Albania. This is why we are going to the Greek border, to support the authorities with the refugees going to Albania and the FYROM. As I said, the strategy is to avoid an emergency situation in your country.
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