EU border chief quit over ‘pro-migrant’ push

Leggeri resigned due to attempts to soften bloc’s stance on illegal migration, claims French news report

THE former head of the EU’S border agency, who resigned last month, reportedly left because his attempts to fortify the bloc were scuppered by “pro-migrant politicians and NGOS”, according to a French media report.

Frenchman Fabrice Leggeri, 54, quit his post at the head of Frontex at the end of April. In his resignation letter, he claimed: “It seems that the Frontex mandate on which I have been elected and renewed in June 2019 has silently but effectively been changed.”

It came on the same day as the publication of a long-running investigation into the alleged illegal “pushbacks” of migrants by border guards working under his control.

Co-ordinated by the collaborative investigations group Lighthouse Reports, it said Frontex had been involved in repelling at least 957 asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea between March 2020 and Sept 2021.

Mr Leggeri, who joined as the agency’s chief in 2015, has a history of criticising NGOS and other campaigners.

It has since been suggested that he stepped down because of their efforts to soften the bloc’s stance on illegal migration.

“We expected this resignation,” an official told Le Figaro newspaper.

“The pressure of pro-migrant politicians and NGOS, who were leading the charge in Brussels against the Leggeri line, was too strong,” the paper was told.

The source added that “Brussels did not look kindly” on its most-funded operation, with Frontex receiving a budget of €758 million (£649 million).

Mr Leggeri had regularly hit out at charities and other organisations which were operating in the Mediterranean. In 2017, he said the growing number of charities saving migrants off Libya should “re-evaluate” their work, claiming that they encouraged people traffickers to take more risks with lives.

The EU’S Olaf anti-fraud watchdog said it had also recently closed an investigation into the former Frontex boss, but refused to comment further.

According to reports, EU sources suggest the probe was into attempts by Mr Leggeri to cover up human rights violations.

Olaf ’s report has not been made public but Erik Marquardt, a German MEP, said the summary “reveals that Frontex’s management was aware of human rights violations and deliberately avoided reporting them”.

Responding to allegations, Mr Leggeri said there was “an obvious need for clarification”. He added: “I am not resigning to weigh in on this debate but to respond to a report that obliges me to defend myself.”

The EU’S Frontex agency has been repeatedly accused by refugee aid groups of illegally returning migrants back across the bloc’s borders – or turning a blind eye to national border guards doing the same.

Under Mr Leggeri’s hardline management, Frontex became the EU’S first uniformed force, with its officials allowed to carry handguns and other weapons paid for from the bloc’s centralised budget.

The Warsaw-based agency’s socalled Standing Corps entered into operation last year and is projected to grow to a unit of more than 10,000 officers by 2027.