Frontex vessel plays key role in rescue of hundreds of people off Lesbos 2015-10-29 Crew members tending to children suffering from hypothermia A Norwegian vessel taking part in the Frontex-coordinated Operation Poseidon Sea played a crucial role in the rescue operation off the Greek island of Lesbos on Wednesday, saving 120 of the 242 rescued migrants. Norway’s Peter Henry Von Koss was the first to arrive at the rescue site, where more than two hundred people were floating around a sinking wooden fishing boat. The Norwegian crew immediately began rescuing people, putting them ... Read more
Border Surveillance Officer 2018-01-15 Border Surveillance Officers perform border surveillance activities as crew members on board vessels, helicopters, aircraft, patrol cars or thermo-vision vans. This means that the officers keep a look-out for any irregular or illegal activities taking place in their area of patrol. This could include detections of illegal border crossings, people smuggling, or drug-trafficking. There is always a local officer from the host member state present on their patrols.While the primary objective of ... Read more
Record number of migrants enter Greece in July 2015-08-07 A record number of 49 550 migrants have arrived in the European Union through the Greek borders in July, surpassing in a single month the number of migrants detected in the region in the entire 2014. Even though Italy continues to deal with a massive number of arriving migrants, in recent months the route through Greece has taken over as the path into the EU most affected by migration flows. In the first seven months of 2015, nearly 130 500 migrants have been detected at Greece’s external ... Read more
Frontex accepts Greece’s request for Rapid Border Intervention Teams 2015-12-10 Frontex accepted today Greece’s request to deploy Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) on the Greek islands in the Aegean to assist the country in dealing with the record number of migrants coming to its shores. Following a required evaluation, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri decided to activate the RABIT mechanism.Greece and Frontex now have five working days to agree on an operational plan to be signed by the Frontex Executive Director. The RABIT deployment requires Greece to ... Read more
Body found following shooting incident aboard smuggling vessel in Greece 2015-08-30 The body of 17-year old Iraqi boy was found after a shooting incident aboard a yacht carrying around 70 migrants near the Greek island of Symi on Saturday. The incident took place after a Latvian patrol vessel deployed in operation Poseidon Sea detected the yacht on early Saturday afternoon in Symi Island’s Marathounta Bay. Upon detection by the Latvian vessel, the yacht changed course and began heading for Turkey, ignoring all signals to stop. When approached, it tried to ram the Latvian ... Read more
Rapid Border Intervention Teams In Greece 2016-01-28 At the request of the Greek authorities for additional assistance at its external borders in the Aegean Frontex launched the deployment of some 400 officers and 15 vessels to the Greek islands on 29 December 2015. Poseidon Rapid Intervention replaced Joint Operation Poseidon Sea with a higher number of officers to assist the Greek authorities in border surveillance, identification and fingerprinting of arriving migrants. The deployment also includes forged document experts and interpreters. ... Read more
Frontex and NATO to cooperate in the Aegean Sea 2016-03-06 Frontex and NATO have reached a common understanding on the form of their cooperation in the Aegean Sea. While Frontex will continue to operate in the Aegean in the framework of operation Poseidon Rapid Intervention, the two organisations will exchange information in real time. Frontex currently deploys 14 vessels and two helicopters in the Aegean, which support Greek authorities in border surveillance, detection of migrants and search and rescue operations. In total, Frontex has 739 officers, ... Read more
Frontex expands its Joint Operation Triton 2015-05-26 Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri signed the amended operational plan of the Joint Operation Triton, expanding its operational area and bringing in a number of additional experts, vessels and aircraft.The operational area will be extended to 138 NM south of Sicily. During the peak summer season, Triton will deploy 3 airplanes, 6 Offshore Patrol Vessels, 12 patrol boats, 2 helicopters, 9 debriefing and 6 screening teams.“We have dramatically increased the deployment levels in the ... Read more
Border Surveillance Officer 2019-07-23 Aleksandrs is a Latvian Border Surveillance Officer taking part in a Frontex operation in Greece. He is part of a team in a thermo-vision van that performs border surveillance activities at night. They are on the lookout for any criminal activities off the coast of the island of Lesbos. “At home, I am responsible for the inspection and monitoring of border control procedures at the external border with Belarus. Here I am part of Joint Operation Poseidon 2019 on Lesbos. It is my third time on ... Read more
Team leader of the Portuguese team working on Lesvos 2018-07-26 Meet Louis from the Portuguese Maritime Police working for Frontex in Greece:"My name is Louis, I’m an officer from the Portuguese Maritime Police. Here on Lesvos, I am the team leader of the Portuguese crew working for Frontex’s mission Poseidon.We mostly work during the night, conducting patrols. The Portuguese Maritime Police have extensive experience in Search and Rescue operations, thus this is the most important part of our job. Finding people in distress, rescuing them, bringing them ... Read more