Based on a request from Romanian authorities, Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri decided to send additional support to Romania in its efforts to help the Ukrainian population fleeing the violence in their home country.
Frontex will send about 150 officers, along with 45 patrol cars and other equipment to Romania’s border with Moldova and Ukraine this week. The first officers will arrive in the operational area on 4 March, many are already on their way as they are being redeployed from other locations at the external border.
Frontex standing corps officers will assist Romanian authorities in processing the massive number of people crossing the border from Ukraine and perform other border control-related tasks if needed. They include border control officers and document experts.
Frontex already supports Romania as part of an ongoing land border operation at EU’s external land border (operation Terra) which takes place across 12 EU Member States and covers 62 border crossing points. The reinforcement will be part of the ongoing operation.
The agency is in talks with all Member States neighbouring Ukraine and ready to support them with officers and equipment.
Frontex is also looking at ways how the agency can support non-Ukrainian nationals who have fled the country and would like to go back to their countries of origin with return flights.