Fabrice Leggeri

The new executive director of European Union border agency Frontex pledged Thursday to ensure that illegal pushbacks of migrants trying to reach Europe wouldn't take place under his watch.

On November 17 last year, when Hervé Yves Caniard entered the 14-floor conference room of the European Union border agency Frontex in Warsaw, European newspapers were flooded with stories of refugees a few hundreds kilometres away, braving the cold at the Belarusian border with Poland.

The European Union has finally started to see the Greek policy of pushbacks in the Aegean Sea, which has claimed many lives of asylum seekers, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on May 7.

The EU's anti-fraud watchdog, OLAF, raided the offices of Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri, as well as his head of Cabinet Thibauld de La Haye Jousselin, on December 7, 2020, as part of an investigation into allegations of migrant pushbacks, according on a document obtained by Kathimerini.

The EU's top migration official confirmed Wednesday that she retains confidence in the embattled head of Frontex, amid pressure on the bloc's border and coastguard agency for an independent investigation of allegations it was involved in illegal pushbacks of migrants.

European Union lawmakers lashed out Tuesday at the head of Frontex over allegations that the border and coast guard agency helped illegally stop migrants or refugees entering Europe, calling for his resignation and demanding an independent inquiry.

The head of the European Union's border and coast guard agency faces a grilling on Tuesday by EU lawmakers as pressure mounts over allegations that Frontex was involved in illegal pushbacks aimed at preventing migrants or refugees entering Europe through the Greek islands.

Officials in Athens are trying to make sense of what they see as erratic behavior emanating from Ankara, which on the one hand is requesting a moratorium on military exercises in the Aegean due to the coronavirus pandemic, and on the other is continuing its tactic of low-level tensions regarding the Greek islands.

EU border agency Frontex said on Friday it had deployed an additional 100 border guards to Greece's northeastern border to assist in the country's efforts to prevent migrants trapped in the buffer zone from entering its territory.

Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis and Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri were at the Kastanies crossing on the Greek-Turkish border at Evros on Thursday morning to oversee the deployment of dozens of guards from the European border agency.