EU to unveil plan turning Frontex into a return agency with powers beyond its borders

What the Commission will propose

The European Commission is set to present its overhaul of Frontex on Tuesday, 27 October, according to two EU officials who spoke before the unveiling. The Warsaw-based agency currently helps member states guard the external border, for example with passport checks and patrols, and supports deportations when asked. Responsibility for borders and returns still rests mainly with national authorities. The proposal would give Frontex a much larger role in sending people without a right to stay back to their home countries, including return operations outside EU territory and transfers between third countries. Officials describe the goal as a fully fledged European return agency, while German-language reporting quotes Commissioner Magnus Brunner calling it a central EU deportation agency.

Legal backdrop

The push follows a new return regulation that EU lawmakers approved months ago, designed to speed up deportations and allow member countries to set up deportation hubs outside the EU. In June, leaders of 19 member states asked the Commission to back such hubs, including with EU funding. The reform of the Common European Asylum System also took effect in June, according to ORF. Brunner had already said at the weekend that Frontex must become the central deportation agency. A new return coordination centre is to be set up, according to a Commission communication cited by Handelsblatt.

Staffing and oversight

The FT's sources put the target at 30,000 staff over the next 15 years, with 17,000 standby officers supplied by member states. Handelsblatt, by contrast, reports a current target of about 10,000 operational staff serving as a permanent reserve next year, made up of roughly 3,000 officers recruited from the EU and about 7,000 personnel provided by member states for long or short periods. According to the FT, the fundamental rights office would have its remit narrowed to investigating Frontex's own staff, not member-state officers working on Frontex operations, and abuses by national officers would go to national authorities. Whether the new member-state officers fall under that remit depends on how they are deployed, one source said. The FT, citing internal documents, says Frontex has earlier recorded physical abuse of migrants by Greek officers and theft from migrants by officers in Albania.

Emergency response after Ceuta

The plans draw on lessons from the Ceuta crisis at the end of July, when tens of thousands of people, mostly from Morocco, tried to swim across the border, according to De Volkskrant. That episode caused drownings and strained relations between Spain and Morocco. Handelsblatt puts the death toll from the crisis at at least 140. The Commission wants a rapid reaction force able to deploy within 24 hours of a request, with the Frontex directorate, not member states, deciding where border guards are sent. The overall size of that force has not been settled, but Frontex would expand considerably in coming years. Member states would have to share information on potential migration flows with the agency, which would also monitor announcements and rumours about migration on social media, along with reports from ships, aircraft and satellites.

Deportation numbers

According to De Volkskrant, about 30% of migrants who are not allowed to stay currently leave, up from 20 to 25% in previous years, though the Commission still considers that too low. Under the proposal, member states would have to pass their deportation plans to Frontex, which currently receives them on an ad hoc basis. Frontex would arrange the flights and pay for the removal operations. Last year the agency arranged about 220 return flights, a figure expected to rise sharply under the new setup. The articles do not say when Parliament or member states will take up the proposal.