“Member States remain responsible for the consequences of returning people to third countries”

The European Commission has recently proposed to strengthen the EU Border Agency Frontex. If this proposal is adopted, Frontex would be able to co-lead border patrol operations with EU member States, deploy liaison officers in third countries, and coordinate joint return operations.

Bjarte Vandvik, Secretary General of ECRE, is meeting today Ilka Laitinen, Director of Frontex, to discuss about civil society’s involvement in Frontex work and the impact of the revised mandate on the respect of fundamental rights within the context of Frontex activities. ECRE has asked Michal Parzyszek, Frontex Spokesperson, what these changes would mean for Frontex in practice.

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About 10 activists managed to enter and disrupt a conference organised by capita under the title “policing the borders”, featuring speakers from UK police forces and FRONTEX (see the call).

Here we reproduce the programme, the list of delegates and their bios, and two of the main presentations that were included in the welcome packs, one by Frontex and the other by ACPO.

PBBB was in the UK for more than one year detained. He spent around 6 months in prison and six months in detention centres in the UK, in Brook and Tinsgley House detention centres at Gatwick. PBBB was arrested when he was at Heathrow on his way to take a plane to be reunited with his family in Canada. His wife and his two children (one of them PBBB has not yet know) have been granted leave to remain in Canada until in the next 2/3 years their case will be review again.

PBBB had been shot on his legs several times. His business partner killed and his uncle shot and killed too. He was suffering terrible problems for one of this shots and one of his legs was painful and start having terrible physical problems because of this. PBBB stated that at no time, he was seen by a specialized the time he was detained. After losing his case, he had enough. He was saying that it was better for him to come back to Nigeria to a country where he could be shot rather than staying in a detention centre. He felt that G4S were treating him very badly and he kept saying that G4S and detention centres in the UK were breaching human rights in every corner of the detention centres he had been (see article in the Independent on the 04/02/2010). He signed the voluntary return papers and after long waiting, he got his removal flight reference for the 03/02/2010. Even when he was a voluntary return passenger, he was given removal directions with a Frontex Charter Flight that was going to deport back individuals who unlike PBBB did not want to be taken back to Nigeria. A Frontex Charter Flight that went from London, to Dublin and then apparently to Spain too.

This is the story of PBBB. He has kept in touch with friends in the UK and he agreed to write his part of the story of being in a Frontex Charter Flight.

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As most of you probably know, there have been several actions against Frontex in the last years, like in Warsaw (in front of their Headquarters) or in Greece (during the nobordercamp in Lesvos). In addition to this, the mainstream media has turned to an ever more critical examination of the activites of Frontex. To make it short: It is the right time to make Frontex a focus of a strong, European wide campaign.