By Canadian Press

Frontex chief offers to resign over pushback claims

Apr 29, 2022 | 6:15 AM

BRUSSELS (AP) — The head of the European Union’s border agency has offered to resign following allegations that the agency was involved in illegal pushbacks of migrants, officials from the European Commission and Germany’s Interior Ministry said Friday.

German Interior Ministry spokesperson, Maximilian Kall, said the board of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, known as Frontex, was meeting to consider the situation.

European commission spokesman Eric Mamer later said that it was for the managing board of Frontex, which supervises the outside borders of the 27-nation EU, “to assess the situation and the letter from its director.”

The board’s decision on whether to accept Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri’s resignation has not yet been announced.

“I can confirm that he has offered the board of Frontex his resignation,” Kall told reporters in Berlin.

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Kall said replacing Leggeri would offer an opportunity for a “fresh start” at Frontex.

“It offers the possibility of fully resolving the allegations, create complete transparency and ensuring that all missions by Frontex occur in full conformity with European law,” he said.

Leggeri’s offer to resign came a day after a media investigation suggested that Frontex’s database recorded incidents of illegal pushbacks in the Aegean Sea as “prevention of departure.”

Leggeri had already been under mounting pressure to resign for several months. Last year, the EU’s anti-fraud watchdog, OLAF, opened an investigation into Frontex, over allegations of harassment, misconduct and migrant pushbacks.

According to the joint investigation by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, SRF Rundschau, Republik and Le Monde, the EU’s border agency has been involved in the pushbacks of at least 957 asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea between March 2020 and September 2021.

Pushbacks are considered as contravening international refugee protection agreements, which say people shouldn’t be expelled or returned to a country where their life and safety might be in danger due to their race, religion, nationality or being members of a social or political group.

Meanwhile, European lawmakers have asked for part of the agency’s budget to be frozen until key improvement are made. Those include setting up a mechanism for reporting serious incidents on the EU’s external borders and a fundamental rights monitoring system .

Frank Jordans And Samuel Petrequin, The Associated Press