Frontex director replies to Ombudsman: 'We're not the European rescue agency'

euronews (in English)

Hans Leijtens, the executive director of Frontex, responded on Tuesday to the findings of the European Ombudsman, who found severe shortcomings in the agency's mandate, operations and relations with member states.

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00:58 Frontex, of course, is first of all the European Border and Coast

01:00 Guard Agency, meaning that we are there

01:02 to support the member states in protecting

01:04 European borders, external borders.

01:06 And whilst doing that, of course,

01:07 we have a close eye on what's happening,

01:10 and specifically on the maritime routes, specifically

01:12 Central Mediterranean.

01:14 And then if we see anything-- and last year,

01:16 we had 2,000 sightings, of which 400 we relayed a Mayday call.

01:20 So we are very focused on what we see

01:23 and to inform the agency's task with search and rescue.

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01:31 Only if we know what happened, really

01:50 know what happened in terms of procedure and court proceedings,

01:53 we can react.

01:54 That doesn't mean that we stop communicating.

01:56 We are in a constant dialogue with member states

01:58 that have such serious incident reports

02:00 to make them aware of them, but also to pressure them,

02:03 to make them sure that they respond as soon as possible.

02:06 But we are depending on them.

02:08 (upbeat music)

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