It was a well-known fact, and the European Union itself confirmed it in the end. The European Border and Coastal Guard Agency of Frontex has participated in the illegal return of migrants and has blocked them in Greek and Maltese waters in the Schengen area.

A classified report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which has denounced for more than two years the situation of activists for the rights of migrants and of various media, explains that Frontex has committed human rights violations on a continuous basis. The document also highlights the lack of transparency of the agency and the cases of harassment of some of its workers.

The report of over 120 pages was drawn up in April, but so far it has not been published. However, through a leak, the German newspaper Der Spiegel and the NGOs Lighthouse Reports and FragDenStaat have been in charge of publishing their contents. The document can be read in the link below (all names are covered in black).

The OLAF report focuses in particular on the illegal pushback or return in the Aegean Sea from 2020. According to the Front-LEX, since then, over 43,000 people have been expelled from Europe by this method. Well, according to the classified document, Frontex has protected and concealed some of those pushback made by the Greek coastguards, being the direct witness at sea.

In these illegal returns, on many occasions, the Greek coastguards mock the boats of migrants who are already in EU waters and, after being returned to Turkish waters, leave them abandoned. Thus, in addition to obvious violations of international law and human rights, these practices are also serious attacks on the lives of migrants.

Lack of transparency

Frontex, the most expensive agency in the European Union, which has received EUR 754 million by 2022, has 600 agents in the Aegean Sea and, according to OLAF, several of them have been present in the illegal returns of migrants. What they saw was also known and authorized among the senior officials of the agency, and also by the hand of its director, Fabrice Legger. He had to resign from office in April, surrounded by studies on Frontex's irregularities.

The published report highlights the “lack of transparency” of Leggeri’s agency, emphasising that it concealed from the Community authorities information on facts that could lead to violations of fundamental rights. And not only that. The document also states that the person in charge of monitoring compliance with fundamental rights inside Frontle was abandoned from his duties, arguing that this measure sought “the absence of witnesses in the events of Aegean”.

On the other hand, the OLAF report also includes cases of humiliation and harassment of the Agency’s workers.

Accuse each other when everyone is guilty

A few days ago, Frontex itself announced that it rescued 92 naked migrants on the banks of the Evros River, between Turkey and Greece, and announced the opening of a study to clarify what happened. For its part, Greece, which cooperates with Frontex in the waters of Aegean, accuses Turkey of what happened, determining that the Turkish guards nullified the migrants and raised them to the boats.

In fact, Greece has been denouncing the political use of migrants by Erdogan for years, with the aim, supposedly, of putting pressure on the European Union and achieving its favour. Ankara, for its part, has denied its responsibility and, in line with what the new OLAF report points out, accuses Greece of making illegal returns.

However, the evidence gathered by the entrepreneurs operating at the border between the two countries highlights the violation of the rights of migrants who wish to reach Europe, as well as those who are under the European Union’s management, by coastal agents and policemen on either side.