EPA
News from the NOS•yesterday, 19:40•Modified yesterday, 19:58
The European Parliament rejected for the second time the 2020 annual accounts of the European Border and Coast Guard Frontex. MEPs who did not approve the budget believe that Frontex is still not doing enough against human rights violations at the borders of the European Union. For this reason, parliament also rejected the annual accounts, which amounted to 754 million euros, in May.
Furthermore, the rejection of the budget is mainly a symbolic gesture, it does not mean that Frontex will no longer receive money.
“We can no longer tolerate public money being used to violate European and international laws,” said MEP Bas Eickhout (GroenLinks). Press release. Member of Parliament Thijs Reuten (PvdA) let us know who hopes the budget disapproval will lead to a cultural shift at the border agency. “Frontex should not only protect the external borders of our EU, but also the human rights of all citizens”.
The vote on the budget came the day after 92 naked men were found by the Greek border guard near the Evros River on the border between Greece and Turkey. Some of them were injured. In August, some 38 migrants were left to fend for themselves on an uninhabited island on the same border river. A 5-year-old girl was later killed.
And in February, the Turkish coast guard found the naked bodies of 19 migrants frozen to death, also near that river. Greece and Turkey in all cases point to each other as guilty.
illegal
In recent years, there have been numerous reports of migrants forcibly detained outside the EU borders by European Member States. This rejections they are illegal, because they violate European laws on migration and asylum and because fundamental human rights are violated.
By April, the then director of Frontex had already resigned operation due to the role played by the border agency in pushbacks. Frontex senior officials helped to keep the secret, as it turned out last week from a report by OLAF, the European fraud control body.
Furthermore, Frontex has shared incorrect information with the European Parliament and the European Commission. These are the two European institutions responsible for the control of Frontex.
