EU - Frontex: Thousands apply for EU border guard posts

The EU border agency, Frontex's recruitment drive launched last October to fill 700 new border guard positions has attracted a massive number of applicants from across southern and central EU states.

Some 7,500 applicants had applied for the 700 positions, which is part of a much larger bid to create a standing corps of 10,000 guards under the agency's aegis over the next several years.

"For the first time, and this is also new, and we are also making preparations for that, for the first time, Frontex staff will put on European Union uniforms, not to represent their nations, but to represent the entire European Union," Fabrice Leggeri, the head of the Warsaw-based agency, told reporters on Friday (17 January).

Many applicants appear to be retired military personnel, seeking a possible second career complete with generous EU salaries and perks.

Leggeri said the agency had expanded the scope of potential applicants in order not to deplete existing national border guard agencies.

Once recruited, the 700 will still have to undergo a six-month training exercise before being deployed in the field at the EU's external borders early next year.

Although most appear to come from what Leggeri described as "new" and southern EU states, he also noted some had applied from Nordic EU countries.

Political masters and law makers at the EU institutions, in early 2019, reached an agreement to boost the agency's mandate in the wake of a wider shift to clamp down on the EU's external borders.

That agreement included creating a standing corps of 10,000 guards by 2027 and dovetailed into an agency that primarily saw itself as doing law enforcement work.

Read more: Thousands apply for EU border guard posts

EU Frontex starts joint operation in the Mediterranean - Malta to provide aerial and expertise assets

EU special border forces Frontex has been given instructions to start preparing for a possible unprecedented influx of immigrants and asylum seekers fleeing Libya towards the EU, particularly through Malta and Lampedusa. The EU has raised its concern about the possible exodus of more than 700,000 Libyan citizens and sub-Saharan Africans from the country towards Europe as a result of the turmoil.

( photo insert Eurofighter)

Frontex stated that “as with all Frontex-coordinated Joint Operations, the host Member State – Italy - will play the leading role. All maritime assets and crews will be provided by the Italian authorities and will patrol a predefined area with a view to detecting and preventing illegitimate border crossings to the Pelagic Islands, Sicily and the Italian mainland.”

Aerial assets will be made available by other Member States for enhanced border surveillance and search and rescue capability will support these sea patrols. Meanwhile, second-line border control will be supported through the deployment of debriefing and screening experts to identify migrant’s nationalities and to gather intelligence on people-smuggling networks. Further support may also be made available in the area of return operations.

EU-Digest

EU gears up to deploy 175 officials to help Greece with immigrants

The European Union's border agency, Frontex, will deploy 175 officials to Greece by the end of November in a bid to stem the growing tide of illegal immigrants crossing the Turkish- Greek border, local media reported Saturday.
Frontex had agreed to send a rapid intervention team earlier this week, after Greece turned to the EU agency for help because of the increasing number of refugees - mainly from Africa and Afghanistan - who are attempting to cross the border to find their way into the EU.

Personnel and equipment from Germany, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark will be deployed along the border to Turkey, according to the Warsaw-based Frontex.

For more: EU gears up to deploy 175 officials to help Greece with immigrants - Monsters and Critics