Fabrice Leggeri, the Executive
Director of Frontex, visited Dakar this week and met with a range of Senegalese
authorities to discuss issues related to border management and security. He
also opened the Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community (AFIC) Plenary in Dakar.
The AFIC, which was established
in 2010, is a knowledge and information exchange network between Frontex and
African countries. It brings together Frontex border security analysts with
those of the partner African authorities. Frontex regularly conducts joint risk
analysis within AFIC focused on the situation at African borders. Senegal was
one of the first network members and remains an active participant. This is a
second AFIC Plenary held in Dakar. The first took place in 2015.
“Frontex and the EU as a
whole believe that cooperation with African partners in the area of border
security is of the utmost importance – none of us can counter threats posed by
criminal networks alone,” said Leggeri. “I had very fruitful discussions in
Dakar and I am confident we will be soon able to open a new channel for
cooperation with Senegal.”
The regulation on Frontex, the
European Border and Coast Guard Agency, which came into force in 2016, opened
new opportunities for the agency to cooperate with non-EU countries. This
cooperation includes deployment of liaison officers and launching technical
assistance projects.
Since 2017, Frontex and the European Commission's Directorate-General
for International cooperation and Development (DG Devco) are implementing a project
called “Strengthening of AFIC”. This project, with a budget of EUR 4 million,
is designed to help African authorities share information in order to better
address migrant smuggling and other cross-border criminal activities and
security threats which affect both African countries and the EU.
