The boss of the Frontex agency slams the door
Fabrice Leggeri tendered his resignation on Friday. The European Coast Guard and Border Guard Agency is at the heart of Swiss political debate.
Fabrice Leggeri’s proposed resignation “follows an investigation into his management of the agency by Olaf”. (File photo)
KEYSTONE/GIAN EHRENZELLER
The boss of Frontex, the French Fabrice Leggeri, presented his resignation from the European coast guard and border guard agency on Thursday, which must be “examined by the board of directors” on Friday, AFP learned from concordant sources in Paris and Berlin.
A new beginning
Fabrice Leggeri’s proposed resignation “follows an investigation into his management of the agency by Olaf”, the European Anti-Fraud Office, said a source familiar with the matter in Paris, confirming press information .
“I can confirm that he has presented his resignation” to the board of directors, and this “opens the possibility of a new beginning” for Frontex, indicated in Berlin a spokesperson for the German government questioned during a conference regular press.
“Bad management”
Executive Director of Frontex since 2015, Fabrice Leggeri was targeted by an Olaf report which, according to Le Point, essentially accuses him of “not having respected the procedures, having shown himself to be disloyal to the ‘European Union and bad personal management’.
But this investigation comes against a backdrop of regular accusations, notably from NGOs in recent years, of the practice of illegal refoulement of migrants (so-called “pushbacks”) and of complacency towards the Greek authorities, for example, on brutal returns to Turkey.
Illegal returns
Again on Wednesday, a survey published by the daily Le Monde and Lighthouse Reports showed that between March 2020 and September 2021, Frontex listed illegal returns of migrants, who arrived in Greek waters, as simple “prevention operations at the start, carried out in Turkish waters”.
In seven years at the head of Frontex, which must monitor the EU’s external borders, Fabrice Leggeri has supported the strengthening of the agency, which has been considerably beefed up and whose staff should reach 10,000 coastguards and guards. borders by 2027.
Posted today at 12:59 p.m.
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