Policing Mobility Regimes: Frontex and the Production of the European Borderscape by Giuseppe Campesi

Author:Giuseppe Campesi [Campesi, Giuseppe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Emigration & Immigration, Criminology, Social Science, Political Science, Law Enforcement
ISBN: 9781000441604
Google: 3h8-EAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 57560181
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

According to existing procedures, all participants are responsible for reporting incidents ‘immediately and after knowledge’ (Frontex 2015: 2), having special regard to any allegation of fundamental rights violations92. Incidents can also be reported by fundamental rights monitors or identified from open-source reporting. Incidents thus reported will then be further investigated by the fundamental rights officer, which may issue a recommendation or request a follow-up to the Agency's executive director or to the relevant authorities of the member state concerned.

Monitoring mechanisms can undoubtedly be useful for triggering a learning process that may improve the future protection of fundamental rights during operational activities, but in the current state of play, mechanisms at Frontex remain largely ineffective. According to data included in the Agency's annual reports, for example, only 24 incidents were reported in 2016, eight in 2017 and three in 2018 (Frontex 2017b: 36; 2018b: 40; 2019c: 55), and ‘the almost negligible number of reports received by the Agency, with an average of 1,500 officers deployed along the EU's external borders, raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of Frontex's serious incident reporting mechanism’ (Frontex 2018c: 32). Moreover, although the new regulation now establishes that the Management Board ‘shall ensure that action is taken’ with regard to recommendations of the fundamental rights officer93, there is no assurance that the authorities concerned will follow up on the fundamental rights officer's recommendations, or take action against a member of a team suspected of being involved in fundamental rights violations. As a consequence, one of the main problems with Frontex's monitoring system remains the ‘lack of feedback’ provided by member states’ (Frontex 2017b: 133). At the same time, not even the executive director is explicitly required to comply with the fundamental rights officer's recommendations, being subject only to the generic duty ‘to reply’ to the fundamental rights officer about how concerns regarding possible violations of fundamental rights are being dealt with94. In particular, the executive director continues to have absolute autonomy in exercising the power ‘to suspend or terminate an operational activity in case of violations of fundamental rights or international protection obligations that are of a serious nature or are likely to persist’95, and this means that the effective impact of fundamental rights officer monitoring efforts on the actual course of operational activities is, overall, limited.

Finally, the reform enacted in 2016 envisaged a further strengthening of ex post controls by creating an entirely new ‘internal’ complaint mechanism. According to the current procedure, as slightly revised in 2019, any person who is directly affected by the actions of the staff involved in operational activities and who considers themselves to have suffered a breach of his or her fundamental rights may submit a complaint in writing to the Agency96. The fundamental rights officer is responsible for handling complaints, reviewing their admissibility and ensuring their confidentiality. In cases of registered complaints concerning a staff member of the Agency, the fundamental rights officer shall recommend appropriate follow-up, including disciplinary measures, to the executive director97; if a complaint concerns a

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