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Facts and Findings

FRONTEX and Migrant Smuggling

by David Fernández-Rojo

A Reinforced Operational Role of the Agency since the Adoption of Regulations 2016/1624 and 2019/1896

The current migration crisis at the Poland-Belarus border has again brought the topic of FRONTEX’s role and assistance to Member States to the fore. This paper studies the operational role of FRONTEX in preventing the smuggling of migrants. How effectively can FRONTEX today provide an independent operational assistance to Member States that are facing sudden and extraordinary migration pressures at their borders and how effectively can it participate in national migrant smuggling investigations?

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The current migration crisis at the Poland-Belarus border has again brought the topic of FRONTEX’s role and operational assistance to Member States that are facing sudden and extraordinary migration pressures at their borders the fore. FRONTEX’s role as EU decentralized Agency in such critical situations has been debated hotly and at times emotionally, particularly since the Agency’s operational powers have been reinforced. This paper provides a description of FRONTEX’s competencies in stopping organized criminal networks from smuggling migrants into the EU.

One of the components of the European integrated border management that FRONTEX shall now develop is the prevention and detection of migrant smuggling. FRONTEX’s objective consists of both, the existing deficiencies at the national level and responding effectively to exceptional and sudden migratory flows.

 

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