Open Letter to Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens

Dear Mr. Leijtens,

Frontex is once again obstructing democratic scrutiny.

Your agency is demanding that we — a civil society organisation — pay €11,093.32 in court costs, for a legal case that arose because Frontex refused to release documents related to a clear human rights violation. This demand is an act of institutional intimidation designed to deter public oversight and silence accountability efforts.

In 2021, we filed a Freedom of Information request for documents and footage related to the involvement of a Frontex asset in the illegal interception of people in distress by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard in the Maltese Search and Rescue zone. Frontex repeatedly refused to disclose these despite their clear relevance. This forced us to take the matter before the General Court of the EU.

Although the Court dismissed the case, it explicitly acknowledged that Frontex unlawfully failed to disclose the mere existence of over a hundred of photographs. Rather than accepting responsibility or acting on its supposed commitment to transparency, your agency is now seeking to punish us for demanding what EU law already guarantees: access to information.

This is not an isolated incident. In 2023, as in 2021, the European Parliament called on Frontex “to immediately end its practice of demanding that applicants cover the costs of external lawyers in court cases related to access-to-information requests.”

When you first took over the position as Executive Director from Fabrice Leggeri, who lied to the European Parliament, prevented investigation in human rights violations and now holds a seat in the European Parliament in the far right political group, you built a campaign around a change of culture. By now it is clear that the culture of disrespect towards civil society and the European Parliament, as well as the agencies’ deliberate concealment regarding  human rights and accountability, continues under your watch.

We demand that Frontex immediately withdraw its claim for legal costs. 

Stop persecuting civil society. Drop the invoice.

 

Sincerely,

Sea-Watch e.V.

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Supported by

Access Now

All Included Amsterdam

Alternatif Bilisim

Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI)

Beim Namen Nennen

Border Violence Monitoring Network

Bürgerinitiative ASYL e.V. Jena

Campaign Against Arms Trade

CompassCollective

De:criminalise e.V.

Digitale Gesellschaft e.V.

European Digital Rights (EDRi)

End Deportations Belfast

Epicenter.works – for digital rights

Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice

FragDenStaat

Handbreit (MV Louise Michel)

Hermes Center

Homo Digitalis

MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans

Migreurop

Mission Lifeline International e.V.

Netzwerk Migrationscharta.ch

Open Arms

PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants)

Politiscope

Privacy International

R42 Sail and Rescue

Seebrücke

SOLIDAR

SOS Humanity e.V.

Statewatch

UNITED Against Refugee Deaths

Watch the Med Alarm Phone