# taz.de -- Europes borders in Africa: Beyond the fence
> The EU is transforming Frontex into a full-service agency. It is working
> with shady governments.
IMG Bild: Migrants after disembarking from the Norwegian vessel Siem Pilot at Pozzallo's harbour, Italy
There is almost everything on the ship of Pal Erik Teigen: a freezer
container for corpses, a play room with a cinema screen, and a giant deck
with sun protection, which can seat over 1,100 people when teigens pull
them out of the water. Today, however, it is raining, it is a gloomy
afternoon, in the middle of November, in the port of Catania in Sicily, and
the „Siem Pilot“, the huge signal-red flagship of the EU border guard
agency Frontex, lies on the quayside and takes its new crew members on
board.
Actually, the „Siem Pilot“ is a provider of oil drilling rigs in the North
Sea. Since June 2015, it has been Norway's most important contribution to
tackling the refugee crisis. The government in Oslo chartered the ship and
paid for the crew of 15, as well as eleven Norwegian policemen, ten
soldiers and six coastal guards.
For the fourth time, dough is here, as commander. „It was more violent than
all the years before the police before,“ he says. „Sometimes 2,000, then
7,000 come, in between it is quiet for a few weeks.“ 28,598 live and 91
deaths took the „Siempilot“ on board in Frontex and brought to Italy. Most
of them have been taken over by private NGOs crossing the Libyan coast.
Frontex does not.
The „Siem Pilot“ saves people. But that is not the reason why she is here.
It is no coincidence that the ship is commanded by a policeman. Refuge
boats are cops for them. Tactics of human smuggling. Teigen's real mission
is the fight against tugs. Policing.
## Frontex is approaching the refugees
Teigens men and women are on the „Siem Pilot“ to find among thousands of
refugees and migrants those who operate the crossings as a criminal
business. On the trips to the mainland, to the safe harbor, they watch the
rescued, photograph and question them, evaluate mobile phones, investigate
corpses in a separate forensic department, take DNA samples. 300 „Persons
of interest“, suspects, have so far handed over to the Italian police.
The people on board are the first point on which people can start. Beyond
the sea, where the tugboats are doing their business, they have no access,
not even reliable contact with the coast guard. „Nothing works. When we get
to Libya, we have to look for danger with binoculars.“
This is only partly true. In fact, the agency, newly constituted in
September as the European Agency for Border and Coast Guard, has long since
extended its bulbs to Africa. Even now she is not forced to look through
the binoculars to find out what is going on.Border protection today has
less to do with guarding a fence on its own territory, but more and more by
being active in distant countries. Frontex is approaching the refugees.
With 18 states around the world, Frontex has working arrangements.
Including countries in Eastern Europe, USA, Canada, Cape Verde and Nigeria.
But negotiations are underway for further agreements: with Libya, Morocco,
Senegal, Mauritania, Egypt and Tunisia. „North Africa is our most important
focus for new cooperations,“ confirms Frontex.
## At the table with African secretaries
At the informal level, Frontex has also been cooperating with some of these
countries, including Morocco, Senegal and Libya. A liaison officer is to be
sent to Niger soon. Above all, the agency operates four so-called risk
analysis networks with countries outside the EU. Two include the countries
of Eastern Europe, one the Balkans and Turkey. The biggest one is the
Intelligence Community Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community (Afic).
Since its founding in 2010, Frontex has already invited 20 intelligence
officers from Africa to Warsaw. At Afic there are 21 countries, from
Morocco via Djibouti to Angola. Seven states, including the hardcore
dictatorships Eritrea and Sudan, have „observers“ status, including
Ethiopia, Somalia and Tunisia are „invited“ to participate. „This is a
framework for intelligence sharing in the area of border security,“ says
Frontex. And bring to the table those who are responsible for some of the
causes of the escape.
Meanwhile there are not only meetings, but also an online platform for data
exchange. Monthly analyzes have been carried out since May. The goal: To
draw as complete a picture as possible of migration throughout Africa.
Andrej Hunko, a deputy for the Left, believes that the EU's new aid offers
to Africa: „Cooperation with shady governments and dictatorships is the
sole purpose of building them as bouncers for the fortress of Europe.“
The EU has „agencies“ for certain policy areas. No one has grown as fast as
the Frontex. When she was founded in Warsaw in 2005, she had only 45
employees and an annual budget of 6.5 million euros. This year, Frontex is
able to spend 254 million euros, 2020 should be 320 million.
## Full service: deportations in the complete package
What is certain is that the EU wants to further expand Frontex – to a
complete border police. It was not until September that she gained new
competencies: for deportations. To date, Frontex has carried out
deportation charter flights only at the request and expense of the member
countries. In 2015 there were seven, this year so far 13, it went to
Georgia, Serbia and Albania.
In the future, Frontex will be able to carry out collective deferrals on
its own initiative and at its own expense. She now has her own budget from
which she can pay for airplanes, accommodation of accompanying persons,
food, medical staff and interpreters. It provides passports for
deportations and „voluntary departure“, all tasks that have hitherto been
in the hands of the Member States. Frontex is thus becoming a service
agency for foreigners' authorities. 66.5 million euros have been allocated
to „Return Support“ since this year.
To this end, a pool of so-called escorting officers, ie returning
companions, is set up in the respective Member States. In parallel, a pool
of „return specialists“ will be created, which can be deployed flexibly to
the Member States to organize deportations there.But Frontex is also to
prevent any irregular migrants from reaching Europe. Staff of the agency
train border guards of non-EU countries, for example in the detection of
fake passports. Frontex has carried out almost 500 such trainings since
2010, most in Eastern Europe, some in Morocco. This week, Frontex starts
training the Libyan coast guard – their contribution to an EU training
mission.
The number of employees grows with the tasks. Lastly, Frontex had more than
360 officials. In the meantime, a roughly 1,200-strong so-called emergency
force group is being added to help protect the EU's external borders, in
Bulgaria, for example. There, 163 employees monitor the borders to Turkey
and Serbia.
## No contact for contradiction
Only one is saved: monitoring and complaining mechanisms. Anyone who is
illegally rejected or deported by EU border guards has little opportunity
to do so. This is not just complained about by refugee organizations and
human rights activists, but also by the Europaparlament: Frontex needs to
provide more staff and more money to protect the fundamental freedoms and
complaints of asylum seekers, the Committee on Civil Liberties calls.
More resources and more staff are not a solution, as Frontex itself shows.
This year, when more staff and more money was available to the agency than
ever before, more than 4,700 people drowned more than ever before Libya.
Rescuing people is not the real reason why people like the policeman Pal
Erik Teigen are on the Mediterranean.
15 Dec 2016
## AUTOREN
DIR Christian Jakob
DIR Eric Bonse
## TAGS
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR MigrationControl
DIR Frontex
DIR migControl
DIR Libyen
DIR EU-Afrika-Gipfel
DIR migControl
DIR migControl
DIR Israel
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Lesestück Recherche und Reportage
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
DIR Schwerpunkt Flucht
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA
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DIR EU-Flüchtlingspolitik im Sudan: Abschottung im Auftrag Europas
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