FRONTEX WATCH

In 2002, Italy concluded a police cooperation agreement with Egypt, a country governed by Mubarak under emergency law since 1981. At the time, big ships with asian migrants, mainly from Sri Lanka, reached Italy via the Red Sea - Suez Canal - Mediterranean Sea to Sicily. The agreement allowed the delegation of an Italian police officer to Cairo charged with coordination of all efforts related to human trafficking. In return, Egyptians were given an immigration quota for Italy. In 2003, Italy paid chartered flights to Sri Lanka to deport Asians that were intercepted in Egypt. Migrants sidestepped accordingly to the Saharan desert to reach the Lybian Mediterranean coast. Even Egyptian migrants use this route to enter Italy.

more from Das diskrete Sterben, Paolo Cuttitta, FR, august 2004

Well, no… Frontex just coordinates cooperation in this field - no, wait: provides necessary assistance for organizing… errh, these flights are rare anyway:

An original assignment of assisting return operations Article 9 of Council Regulation No. 2007/2004 authorises the Agency to “provide the necessary assistance for organising joint return operations of member states”. However, the article does not mention whether third countries can take part (or not) in these operations and projects. This original competence is the most widely discussed assignment of the Agency, especially as regards human rights, the increasing number of expulsions and the lack of common EU policy in immigration and asylum. Initially, the Commission proposal worded the definition of the task as ‘coordination’ of operational cooperation in the field of return operations. It notably referred to the establishment of a network of contact points, of a register to record existing resources and infrastructures or of guidelines and specific recommendations. Moreover, as the adoption of general provisions as regards return policy is not among the competences that can be borne by the Agency, the question of providing FRONTEX with a task of coordination/organisation of joint return operations was highly politicised and criticised – especially by the European Parliament. Indeed, the latter argued that it was premature to set up an operational structure in charge of return operations as there is not yet any EU common policy in asylum and immigration, in particular concerning the refugee status. Hence, the revised proposal no longer referred to any task of coordination or organisation. Finally, the FRONTEX regulation only mentioned the provision of ‘necessary assistance’, such as technical support or identification of best practices in the field of return operations and issuance of travel documents. However, the objective of the FRONTEX Agency is not to define a common return policy through the implementation of its task of assistance. In fact, this assignment concerns only a handful of operations per year, which are carefully registered.

The FRONTEX work programme for 2006 asserted the assistance of the Agency to 4 joint return operations, the work programme for 2007 plans assistance in 5-6 joint return operations organised by the Member States. Further, this year’s work programme describes Frontex tasks, notably “to coordinate joint return operations” and “to further implement pilot projects started in 2006 and launch new pilot projects” and allocates financial resources (300,000€).

Construction of a European Institutional Model for Managing Operational Cooperation at the EU’s External Borders: Is the FRONTEX Agency a decisive step forward? April 2007, by Jorry Hélène

The number of migrants arriving on the Canary Islands by boat was estimated at 31,000 in 2006, six times the figure from the previous year, according to Canary Islands government official Froilan Rodriguez Diaz. Approximately 900 were unaccompanied minors - mostly boys under the age of 18, who comprised the majority arriving from Senegal.

Minors are protected under Spanish law, regardless of their immigration status. The age threshold is crucial because minors receive higher levels of support and protection than adults. Unlike their adult counterparts, minors don’t face the fear of repatriation when caught by Spanish authorities.

However, Spanish law does not permit children to work. Thus, the children stay in such emergency centers for a few weeks until they have filed for a residence permit, by which time they are placed in centers on the Spanish mainland. They are expected to attend school or enroll in vocational training until they reach 18. The hope for these young boys is that they will receive their residence permits by that time, get a job and apply for a work permit.

“The Canary government wants to send the children to the Spanish mainland, but the problem is that they do not want to take the children,” said Margarita de la Rasilla, a legal expert at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Madrid. At the beginning of October, there were about 800 minors on the islands. The Canary government has promised to try to distribute 500 all over Spain, but in the last three months of 2006, only 220 have been sent.

more from From Africa to Europe Alone: Unaccompanied Minors in the Canary Islands BY MRINALINI REDDY, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Home Secretary John Reid said: “During the past two years there have been 1,173 occasions when attempts to remove detained people have failed due to disruptive behaviour on their part. If a detainee cannot be removed due to their disruptive behaviour they are returned to detention and arrangements are made to remove them as soon as possible with in-flight escorts.”The scale of Britain’s problem with “air-rage” asylum seekers emerged last night, as immigration experts revealed would-be deportees regularly scream and lash out, attack cabin crew and even strip naked on planes in a desperate bid to delay the end of their dreams of staying in the UK.
They had to be returned to detention in the UK and in some cases could only be successfully removed from the country when accompanied by in-flight escorts, costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds a time.

No reference was made to British experiences with European joint deportations flights.
According to a press release of the Dutch Justice department the first joint deportation flight to Africa started from Amsterdam already in May 2004. Involved were the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany.
In January 22, 2004 the European Commission had reserved 30 million € for European Joint Return Operations, including the logistical preparation and the chartered flights, for 2005 and 2006.

more from News Scotsman

Both accords should be officially signed in autumn in order to come into force on January 1, 2008, providing for easier access to visas for certain categories of Serbian citizens, the government reported on its website. All categories of Serbian citizens with the right to visa relaxations will be given visas free-of-charge at consular offices of EU countries, whereas until now a fee of EUR 35 per visa was mandatory.

According to the Readmission Agreement, between 100,000 and 150,000 citizens illegally staying in the EU are to be returned to Serbia.

more from B92 News

The major example of this, later followed by other operations, was on Friday, May 11, when 11 boats arrived within nine hours, eight of them simultaneously at different points along the shorelines of the islands.

The vessels had sailed northwards from places close to Cabo Bojador, in Western Sahara, and after covering 225 kilometres in 25 to 30 hours, they made for the southern tip of the island of Gran Canaria.

Shortly before approaching within 12 nautical miles of the coast, and in order to avoid being detected by the single radar apparatus installed there, they dispersed and made landfall separately, so that Spanish patrol boats would not be able to prevent their arrival.

The police saw several dots on the radar screen, but were not able to determine whether they were small vessels or just “noise” from wave motion. They did, however, stop some of the boats and detained their passengers, while other boats made it to shore.

In any case, once the 12-mile limit is breached, the immigrants are within Spanish territorial waters and cannot be expelled, unless they are nationals of a country that has signed a deportation agreement with Spain, such as Morocco and, more recently, Senegal.

more from Inter Press Service

The cost of a ‘one-way ticket’ to Spain or Italy is difficult to ascertain, as it is all obviously illegal. The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) estimated that for 450,000 illegally smuggled migrants some €4,200,000,000 could be earned, which would be about €9,333 per person.
The annual report of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for 2003 mentions prices of between €1,800 and €3,200 for a crossing to Spain. Another ‘source’ mentions that a boat trip for a Guinean from Dakar (Senegal) to the Spanish coast would cost ‘more than € 850’. A trip from the West African coast to the Canary Islands would be cost more than €3,000, which would be six times as much as with a pirogue [canoe] from the Western Saharan coast (€500). The correlation between the price and the mode of transportation employed is very clear: the easier and more comfortable the trip, the higher the price.

Usually they are able to stay in the EU. Spain, for example, has a law that states that migrants whose identity cannot be determined 40 days after they landed in the country will be set free. What happens is that these migrants will be taken (from the Canary Islands) to the Spanish mainland and set free. The majority of these refugees stay – with an illegal status – in Spain, while others travel on to other countries.

The costs of being smuggled are never paid in advance; migrants often have to work in their country of destination to first pay off their debt, before they can actually start to build up a new life. For women, this often means that they end up in illegal prostitution: some of them because they do not have other options to earn a living, while many others are forced into prostitution.

Some prices are old, but still: read it all!
The African Migration Movement: Routes to Europe
David van Moppes, 2006

Nearly 400 African migrants were caught trying to enter Spain’s Canary Islands by boat Monday, bringing to more than 800 the number intercepted over the past five days, the Interior Ministry said. Ministry spokeswoman Candelaria Cedallos said 339 would-be immigrants, mostly male and from sub-Saharan African countries, arrived in five boats between midnight and 10 a.m.

Two of the boats were carrying 103 people each, she said. The migrants included 30 children.

Between Thursday and Sunday, authorities intercepted 476 migrants headed toward the seven-island archipelago located off the northwest coast of Africa.

Officials blamed the latest influx on the fact that the European Union’s external borders agency Frontex has yet to resume its maritime vigilance of the area between the islands and the west coast of Africa.

more from International Herald Tribune

EU countries have promised to increase their support for patrolling the bloc’s Mediterranean borders by making available a total of 21 planes, 24 helicopters and 109 boats, diplomats said.
The Centralized Records of Available Technical Equipment, also known as CRATE, list the technical equipment which Member States are willing to provide at the request of another Member State for temporary use for control and surveillance of the external borders.

more from New Europe

From the EU side, officials stress that the visa and readmission agreements will facilitate increased travel, but also help combat illegal migration. According to Kommersant Daily, the EU border control service Frontex in 2006 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Border Service. -This demonstrates both parts’ readiness to cooperate, head of Frontex, Ilkka Laitinen, says to the newspaper. –Current cooperation is excellent, he adds.

more from kommersant daily