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In the southern Italian town of Gaeta, 24 border guards from 13 EU countries gathered in early December 2012. Gaeta is renowned as a summer holiday resort, but just before Christmas the weather is wet and windy, which is not inappropriate. The border guards were there to prepare for possible storms of a different kind — emergencies at the external borders of the European Union.

Through a revision to the Frontex Regulation in 2011, Frontex’s pool of Joint Support Teams (FJST) and the now-superseded Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT), for deployment at short notice in an emergency, were merged into one European Border Guard Team (EBGT) pool. To be deployable from the new pool all guards must receive training from Frontex to allow them to operate effectively and safely together in another Member State. And for these 24 police and border guards, that training took place in, and was facilitated by, the Centro di Cooperazione Aeronavale Guardia di Finanza, one of several partnership academies located in fifteen Member States that host courses organised by Frontex.

The course is demanding and diverse, ranging from study of fundamental rights and trafficking in human beings to operating on the ground according to Frontex regulations, the Operational Plan and the Frontex Code of Conduct. Students also gain a thorough grounding in the Schengen Border Code.

To achieve a uniformly high standard requires a flexible approach on the part of the trainers. The Gaeta students had diverse experience ranging from novice to more than 20 years as border guards. Some had already participated in Frontex joint operations. Thus the presenters had the challenge of creating a course that was both interesting and useful to all participants.

But it was not just a one way street. Each police officer and border guard was able to provide anecdotal stories about the type of migration issues they faced at their country’s borders, revealing both country-specific and EU-wide issues. This was especially useful in conveying first-hand the types of challenges facing Member States and in giving individuals an insight into circumstances they may face when deployed from the EBGT pool, which potentially could be very different from those they are used to dealing with at home. For example, participants were able to better appreciate what it means to be on the ground in a state that has traditionally been a point of entry to the EU rather than a transit or destination country, and vice versa.

When states propose national border guards for the EBGT pool they can select any number of thirteen possible specialist profiles that the guard is experienced in. These include such tasks as dog handling, document checking or de-briefing migrants, for which Frontex also provides further specialised training.

Shared benefits

The benefits of Frontex EBGT Guest Officers are becoming more obvious and better appreciated; so well appreciated that there are few tasks that a Guest Officer cannot undertake on a joint operation on the territory of a host Member State. Most importantly though, they have no right to refuse a person entry to the country — this authority remains with the national officer. This is not a problem since Guest Officers will usually carry out their duties alongside a national officer and operate under national law, though they wear their own uniforms (with an EU-identifying arm band) and can carry a service weapon.

The training also provided an opportunity to update officers on new tools and databases which can help them be more efficient, some of which were not known to the trainees. These included Automated Border Control (ABC), Passenger Name Records (PNR), Eurosur (an information-sharing platform still at the pilot project phase) and the Visa Information System (VIS).

Obviously crises at borders often attract the media. How to deal with such interest was something that all participants wanted guidance on. A Frontex spokesperson emphasised that border guards should not be worried about speaking to the press as long a few simple guidelines are followed. The Operational Plan also provides basic ‘dos and ‘don’ts’ for speaking to the media.

But this is not a theoretical training session. An important aspect of the training is that it is given by border guards with experience in Frontex operations themselves, including the Frontex national contact points from Member States. First-hand accounts by the participants of a variety of procedures and experiences, such as the effects of weak document checking systems by airlines or patrolling a border on a frozen lake in winter, were useful, enlightening and amusing.

And there is a hidden added benefit — the trainees quickly realised that both training and taking part in operations gives them the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences with colleagues from other countries. Such personal contacts can be invaluable in solving problems quickly at borders — a phone call to a colleague can confirm, for example, that a visa that looks outdated or unusual, is indeed valid.

From all points of view this was a successful course which generated a high level of interest and plenty of lively discussion. And at the conclusion of the sixth EBGT Frontex training course another 24 border guards left better equipped to take part in joint border operations in Europe, having forged invaluable links with their colleagues.