The head of the European Union’s Frontex border agency has argued that it is impossible for Europe to stop illegal migration and therefore the bloc should take a more open borders approach to foreigners breaching its borders.
Hans Leijtens, who was installed as the executive director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) in March of last year, declared in an interview with the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper that: “Nothing can stop people from crossing a border, no wall, no fence, no sea, no river.”
The Frontex chief, who with a budget of nearly 900 million euros is tasked with defending the bloc from illegals breaking into Europe, argued that there should be “an end to this superficial preoccupation with the issue” and that people should stop engaging in “alarmism” over the mass waves of foreigners — many of whom go through minimal security screening — into their country.
Leijtens said that rather than solely focusing on stopping illegal migrants, he sees it as part of his remit to seek to shift the entire debate on migration towards to being less prejudicial and supposedly more humane.
“Who am I to presume to condemn migrants? I’m sitting here in my office in Warsaw, of course I could do that – but that would be too easy.” the Dutch politician said. “This talk of ‘stopping people’ and ‘closing borders’ cannot be our narrative all the time. My job is to create a balance between effective border management and compliance with fundamental rights.”
The open borders sentiments from the man in charge of protecting the EU’s borders may throw cold water on recently passed reforms of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which say that rather than allowing all illegals into the bloc to have their asylum claims processed in Europe, migrants should have their claims assessed at external borders and if they are rejected should be deported immediately.
Prior to taking office, Leijtens vowed that Frontex would not conduct migrant “pushbacks”, saying last January: “Pushbacks, and of course I’m responsible for Frontex operations by Frontex officers, are not legal so they should be, well, they are forbidden. So I’m responsible for the fact that my people don’t participate in anything called a pushback. I think that is absolutely clear. That’s the legal framework I work in.”
The latest comments come as previously pro-mass migration governments throughout Europe are seeking to clamp down on illegal migration and ramp up deportations, including in Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden in the wake of terror attacks in Belgium and France following the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel.
The issue is set to be a focal point in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June, in which anti-mass migration parties are set to make large gains over the growing resentment among citizens against the near decade of open borders policies foisted upon them.
While liberal countries in Western Europe have allowed practically unfettered illegal migration into their countries since German Chancellor Angela Merkel “opened the gates” to migrants from the Middle East and Africa in 2015, conservative nations in the east of the bloc have taken much stronger approaches, with countries such as Hungary and Poland erecting border fences and walls.
Contrary to the Frontex chief’s declaration that it is impossible to stop illegal migration, Poland has nearly cut the number of attempted crossings of its border in half since erecting barriers along some of its borders in 2021, down from 40,000 to 25,000 last year.
A spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard, Anna Michalska said: “The permanent barrier has completely redefined the understanding of the state border protection system,” adding that a “real, physical obstacle provides a quick and precise response to attempts to cross the state border.”
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