EU Commission Proposes Frontex Deportation Role and 30,000 Officers
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The European Commission on Tuesday 27 October proposed new rules that would turn Frontex, the EU border and coast guard agency, into the EU's central body for deportations. Under the plan, the agency's standing corps would grow gradually to 30,000 officers, including a new European border and return reserve of 17,000 officers that member states can call on when needed.
Frontex would get a dedicated Return Coordination Centre to plan and coordinate returns across the EU, from voluntary return counselling to organising return flights and supporting reintegration in the country of origin. It could also help carry out returns from one non EU country to another, but only where an agreement with that country exists. Frontex's own officers would double from about 3,000 to 6,000. A quick reaction force could be sent to an external border at very short notice, and a new monitoring centre would watch public social media for risks at the borders. The Commission also proposed a second regulation to move return, readmission and reintegration files onto a shared digital system.
The proposal concerns people in the EU who have no right to stay and have received a return decision. It does not change any residence permit, asylum procedure or protection status in Germany at this point. Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said: "Today we propose that Frontex becomes the central EU actor on returns."
This is a proposal, not law. The European Parliament and the member states in the Council must still agree on it, and negotiations of this kind usually take many months. Until then, Frontex keeps working under its current rules from 2019.
Nothing changes for residents in Germany at this stage. Anyone with an open asylum case, a residence question or a letter from the immigration office should keep following their own case with the authority that handles it, and can get free advice from a migration counselling service or a lawyer before any deadline in that letter.
Photo: Frontex vehicle in Kos harbour, Asurnipal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (symbolic image).
Sources: European Commission, tagesschau.de
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