Record of deportations by Frontex

7.12.2021

Question for written answer  E-005427/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Sira Rego (The Left), Konstantinos Arvanitis (The Left), Cornelia Ernst (The Left), Anne-Sophie Pelletier (The Left), Pernando Barrena Arza (The Left), Clare Daly (The Left), Malin Björk (The Left)

A report by the Executive Director[1] of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) reveals that in the first half of 2021, Frontex was involved in the deportation of 8 239 people. This is 9 % more than in the same period in 2019 and twice as many as in 2020. However, return operations supervised by human rights monitors fell by 7 % and only 47 % of the flights coordinated by Frontex had at least one monitor present[2], violating its own regulation[3].

We also learned that the new fundamental rights officer at Frontex has expressed concern about some of its practices and feels that his advice is not being followed[4].

• 1.Does the Commission consider not guaranteeing the presence of monitors in return operations to be a violation of Directive 2008/115/EC and Regulation (EU) No 2019/1896?
• 2.Given the allegations of rights violations in return operations, what measures does the Commission intend to take to ensure an independent monitoring system and that return operations respect fundamental rights?
• 3.What initiatives and concrete measures will the Commission propose in view of the comments made by the new Frontex fundamental rights officer?

• [1] https://www.statewatch.org/media/2951/eu-frontex-return-report-first-half-2021-13405-21.pdf
• [2] https://www.statewatch.org/news/2021/november/eu-deportations-at-record-levels-as-frontex-foresees-an-unprecedented-number-of-post-pandemic-removals/
• [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ES/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019R1896
• [4] https://euobserver.com/migration/153666