I HAVE RIGHTS’ Advocacy Taskforce submitted feedback to the European Commission regarding the Recast Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard/Frontex. In our submission, we focus on Article 46 of the Regulation, which obliges Frontex’s executive director to leave an operational area where fundamental rights and international protection obligations are seriously and persistently violated. Despite the criteria in the Article being met on Samos and in Greece more generally, the executive director has failed to act. We therefore propose the suspension rather than the expansion of Frontex operations in Greece in compliance with its own Regulation.

Currently, Greece has 12 Serious Incident Reports (SIRs) under review by the Fundamental Rights Office, spanning from 2023 to 2025, all relating to alleged forced collective removals by Greek border authorities at land and sea borders, in contravention of the principle of non-refoulement and the 1951 Refugee Convention. Amid internal investigations, national judicial proceedings, and calls for accountability from civil society—including the recent criminal prosecution of senior officials of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG)—the Executive Director announced that recommendations are expected to be implemented by the Greek authorities, with potential repercussions “to reduce or cut funds for co-financed assets,” referring to a number of HCG vessels. However, no meaningful action has been taken by either party in this regard, failing to comply with the obligations set out in Article 46(4) of the Regulation. Instead, the Agency continues to cooperate with the HCG in Greece.

For this reason, and as proposed in the previous ‘Have Your Say Initiative ’ submission by IHR in 2022, this paper briefly underlines the urgency to:

  • Include civil society monitoring to enhance the independence and transparency of investigations, pursuant to Article 46(6) of the Regulation, and to include this proposal in the Recast Frontex Regulation.
  • and calls for the suspension rather than expansion of the Agency’s operations in Greece.  
Read the full submission here.