Migration: EU Commission wants to triple Frontex reserve

Brussels. After the migration crisis in Ceuta, according to a proposal from the EU Commission, Frontex should have around three times as many staff available in the future. The permanent reserve, which is largely made up of available civil servants from the member countries, is expected to grow to a total of 30,000 in the coming years, according to a statement. Previously, 10,000 staff were planned for next year.

According to the EU Commission's plans, Frontex will also play a significantly larger role in deportations and will have its own coordination center for this purpose. In addition, an online monitoring center will monitor publicly available social media content as a lesson from the crisis in Ceuta with at least 140 deaths.

The Brussels authority also proposes allowing Frontex deportations between third countries. In other words, to be able to deport people who are already outside the European Union to another non-EU country. The prerequisite would be a corresponding agreement with the third country from which the deportation is to take place.

This could also be important for the deportation centers outside the EU planned by Germany and other EU states. The centers, also known as “return hubs”, are intended to bring people who are legally obliged to leave the country and who cannot initially be returned to their country of origin - for example because their home country refuses to take them back.

If a return to the country of origin should become possible after negotiations, Frontex employees could take over the transfer.

Rapid reaction force for crises like in Ceuta

In the event of crises, the proposal provides for a rapid reaction force that can be deployed at short notice at the border at the request of an affected Member State. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner had already announced at the end of September that such a unit should be on site within 24 hours.

The reason for the idea was the migration crisis in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta at the end of July, in which an estimated 80,000 people arrived there from Morocco within a very short time.

The idea of ​​a force for immediate operations is not entirely new. The 2019 Frontex mandate already stipulates that part of the standing reserve can be used for immediate operations (Article 54). Up to and including 2024, 1,500 employees were planned for this task - none more in the following years.

Doubling the number of Frontex officers

According to the plan, the increase in personnel will also be accompanied by the establishment of a new reserve. Up to 17,000 employees from the member states should therefore be available for the new European border and deportation force.

The staff employed directly by Frontex should increase from 3,000 to 6,000, as the EU Commission proposes. In any case, 7,000 emergency services were planned for 2027, which would be made available by the member states on a long-term or temporary basis.

Before the proposals can be implemented, the European Parliament and the Council of EU states must deal with them.

Frontex is repeatedly criticized for not adequately protecting the rights of refugees and migrants. In recent years, this has particularly involved so-called pushbacks by national authorities, in which people were sometimes violently pushed back - for example in Greece. Frontex was accused of failing to prevent or adequately investigate such incidents.

The agency actually has its own control mechanisms: It uses observers to accompany operations and check whether fundamental rights have been violated - for example by the national authorities.