Immigration, the European Ombudsman: Frontex handle complaints of human rights violations

The border control agency rejected the request from Ombudsman O’Reilly aimed at the European Parliament: “It is unacceptable that you leave all responsibility up to the member states alone”

 Taking charge of complaints concerning the violation of migrants’ human rights should not be left only to member states but to Frontex as well. European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, makes the request, inviting the European agency for border control to adopt a mechanism for handling complaints.

The Ombudsman’s request comes after a lengthy investigation which began in 2012 on how Frontex is fulfilling its obligations under the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Ombudsman also launched a public consultation and collected contributions from citizens, NGOs and other organizations, coming to the conclusion that Frontex respects most of the recommendations but should establish a mechanism for appeal.

However the agency for border control rejected this recommendation, defining individual episodes as the responsibility of individual member states. The reply did not satisfy O’Reilly, who submitted a special report to the European Parliament to ask for help convincing Frontex to review the approach on this issue.

“Based on the Lampedusa tragedy and other recent humanitarian disasters at EU borders – explains the Ombudsman – it is essential that Frontex deal directly with the complaints of immigrants and other people affected. I do not accept Frontex’s vision, according to which human rights violations are exclusively the responsibility of member states concerned.”

 L. P.