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Frontex accepts Greece’s request for Rapid Border Intervention TeamsPrint
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FRONTEX ACCEPTS GREECE’S REQUEST FOR RAPID BORDER INTERVENTION TEAMS
2015-12-10
Frontex accepted today Greece’s request to deploy Rapid Border
Intervention Teams (RABIT) on the Greek islands in the Aegean to assist
the country in dealing with the record number of migrants coming to its
shores. Following a required evaluation, Frontex Executive Director
Fabrice Leggeri decided to activate the RABIT mechanism.
Greece and Frontex now have five working days to agree on an operational
plan to be signed by the Frontex Executive Director. The RABIT
deployment requires Greece to provide a number of national officers and
team leaders who will work alongside officers deployed by Frontex.
“The RABIT deployment will allow us to increase the number of both sea
and land patrols, which means more migrants will be identified and
properly registered soon after they arrive on the Greek islands. In
other words, launching RABIT means upscaling Operation Poseidon Sea,”
said Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.
Out of more than 700 000 migrants who reached the Greek islands from
Turkey so far this year, only one in five was intercepted upon reaching
the shore.
The RABIT deployment will increase the number of officers and technical
equipment, such as boats and patrol cars, deployed on the Greek islands.
The operation shall also have a new focus on security checks. Officers
who will conduct security checks by consulting national and pan-European
databases are to work alongside screening, debriefing and fingerprinting
experts.
The RABIT deployment will replace currently running operation Poseidon
Sea and will cover similar operational area. Currently, in the Aegean
islands, Frontex deploys 16 vessels and more than 260 officers assisting
in the registration of new arrivals, as well as border surveillance
officers, and debriefing and document experts.
The 448 officers offered so far by Member States in response to the
Frontex’s most recent request call for 775 border guards in October will
now take part in the RABIT deployment. Unlike participation in regular
Frontex operations, it is mandatory for member states to provide
officers and equipment for RABIT deployments.
RABIT deployments can last up to three months and can be extended only
once, for up to another three months.
So far, the RABIT mechanism had been activated only once, in October
2010, also by Greece. The operation at the Greek-Turkish land border in
the Evros region started in November 2010 and ended in March 2011, when
Frontex resumed Joint Operation Poseidon Land.
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