Greek authorities should face more checks over how they manage asylum seekers trying to reach Europe, the lead official in charge of human rights at the EU’s border agency has said.
Jonas Grimheden, fundamental rights officer at the European Border and Coastguard Agency, known as Frontex, was speaking in a rare interview following numerous allegations that asylum seekers are being illegally expelled from Greece.
“It has been clear to me that Greece is one of the countries that needs enhanced monitoring,” he told the Guardian. “I think that what is missing now from my side, is increasing the pressure, increasing the concreteness of what I think should be done in order to prevent violations.”
He was reluctant to go into details, but suggested Frontex “could be present in more locations, involved in more activities” at Greece’s external border.
“On countries that are not performing according to EU law it would make more sense to have more Frontex rather than less,” he said adding that the agency’s presence put “clear reporting obligations” on member states.
While human rights groups, who have long reported alleged pushbacks by Greek authorities, are likely to welcome the increased attention on the EU’s south-eastern frontier, Frontex itself has been accused of complicity in human rights violations.
Grimheden, a former human rights lecturer, joined Frontex in June 2021 tasked with ensuring that EU border management is compliant with international law and the EU charter of fundamental rights.
His early days in the job coincided with dozens of NGOs and sea rescue captains launching a campaign to abolish Frontex, with the claim the EU agency was enforcing a deadly border control policy against migrants.
“It is maybe a logical reaction,” Grimheden said when asked about the campaign. “But I don’t think it’s the solution. On the contrary, I think Frontex is needed.”
Much of his tenure has coincided with criticism against the Warsaw-based agency that culminated in April with the resignation of Frontex’s executive director, Fabrice Leggeri.
Grimheden declined to comment on Leggeri’s record and stressed his independence from the management board.
The Swedish human rights expert, however, suggested the agency’s problems stemmed from past practice and were being resolved with the recruitment of dozens of fundamental rights officers. These staff, tasked to uphold human rights, may work at the EU border or on return flights of people denied asylum in Europe.
The agency was last year reprimanded by the European parliament for failure to recruit “at least” 40 fundamental rights officers as required under EU law.
As of 1 July the agency had 31 monitors, and Grimheden hopes 46 will be in post by October 2022.
“I think the past practice, the past experience of Frontex of being quite untransparent, not having the fundamental rights officer and the monitors in place, adds to the risk that it’s interpreted as something that it’s not,” he said.
Allegations of violent and illegal pushbacks at the Greek border have multiplied since spring 2020 when thousands of refugees and migrants attempted to cross Greece’s land and sea borders, encouraged by Turkey’s government.
Grimheden’s intervention, couched in diplomatic terms, reveals EU concerns about Greek asylum policy. In June, the European commission’s top official on migration, Ylva Johansson, told the Greek government that “violent and illegal deportations of migrants must stop”, warning Athens it risked losing EU funds.
In the first six months of the year 5,567 refugees and migrants arrived in Greece via sea routes, according to the UN refugee agency. The UNHCR also reported that Turkey rescued or intercepted 4,700 people in the month of May alone – a 47% increase on the previous month.
The Greek government has consistently rejected allegations of violating human rights. Speaking in the European parliament last month [5 July] the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, rejected accusations of pushbacks at his country’s borders. “It is the right of every European member state to protect its borders with full respect of fundamental rights. This is exactly what Greece has been doing for the past three years,” he told MEPs. He added that Greece’s independent anti-corruption agency was looking at some “concerning” allegations that needed to “be further explored”.
And he accused Turkey of failing to abide by a 2016 pact with the EU to stop people getting on boats for Europe: “Let us not repeat the Turkish propaganda, that they have no role in what is happening and that it is the Greeks who are behaving inhumanely in terms of not protecting fundamental rights.”
Grimheden can recommend that Frontex quit an EU member state if there are persistent rights violations, but warned against using that “leverage” in Greece. “I could not monitor in Greece, if we are not active in Greece … the complaints mechanism would not be operational for Greece. So I think in that sense, it’s essential that Frontex is present.”
