EU border agency wants more help in migrant crisis

BERLIN - Agence France-Presse

AP photo

The head of EU border protection agency Frontex on Sept. 21 urged more support from member states, warning that "the speed and dynamics of the refugee influx continues to be exceptionally high."

"What I can say with certainty is that we need more personnel support from countries -- people we can deploy on the spot, and we need them now," said Fabrice Leggeri.
 
Over half a million migrants have crossed the EU's external borders so far this year, up from 280,000 in 2014, Frontex said last week.
 
The record influx has made clear that "we urgently need to find a common European border management", Leggeri told Germany's Die Welt daily and Spain's El Pais.
 
Frontex is the EU agency that since 2004 manages the cooperation by national border authorities to secure the bloc's outside borders. Its staff work at its headquarters in Warsaw and in the field to shield the bloc against illegal immigration, human trafficking and terrorist threats.
 
Leggeri said that Frontex now had some 65 inspectors sent by member states for six-month terms.
 
"My suggestion would be to extend that period to one year," he said. "That would significantly increase our flexibility."  

He also said Frontex wants to improve the systematic registration of migrants arriving in Europe and was now working on a new system with eu-LISA, the European agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems.
 
"My vision is that in the future Frontex can offer a full registration package -- the technology, the necessary equipment and the people who operate the equipment," Leggeri said.
 
An orderly registration of arrivals at the EU's external borders would be the necessary basis for any deal to distribute migrants among the 28 member states under a quota system, he said.