For nine days, at the Eastern Romanian border was
carried out a RABIT exercise - called "DACIA 2008" - organized by
the FRONTEX European Agency.
The aim of this operation was to undertake common measures in the
field of preventing and countering illegal migration at the E.U.
external border, as well as checking and improvement of the
management of RABIT teams deployment at a Member State borders.
Within the action, together with the Romanian border policemen
participated 50 border policemen from different E.U. Member States,
belonging to the rapid intervention teams at border (RABIT Teams)
created by FRONTEX.
Iasi Border Police Directorate was the coordination center of the
operation on Romania’s territory.
During 20 - 29 October 2008, under the coordination of the experts from European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX), was carried out, at the eastern Romanian border, Dacia 2008 RABIT Exercise, in which were implied the Romanian border authorities and other E.U. Member States.
The aim of the exercise was to undertake common measures in the field of preventing and countering illegal migration at the E.U. external territorial borders, by the deployment of the Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT Teams).
Also, it was taken into account to check and improve the management of the RABIT Teams deployment at the E.U. external borders, so that - in a real situation - to have a fast reaction of the European border policemen to provide technical and human assistance for a E.U. Member State in order to prevent and counter efficiently the cross-border crime phenomena.
"DACIA 2008" was carried out in the competence areas of the county inspectorates of the border police in Iasi - Iasi Border Police Sector, in Vaslui - Husi Border Police Sector and in Galati -Galati Border Police Sector.
Participated, besides the Romanian border policemen (almost 600), over 50 RABIT teams members, belonging to the border authorities of other E.U. Member States (Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Denmark etc.).
Within this operation, the Romanian border policemen cooperated with the foreign experts in order to achieve an efficient border control, using both surveillance and control means of Romania and of other participating states.
The coordination local center of the event, on Romanian territory, was organized at the Iasi Border Police Directorate, where the FRONTEX Agency experts were present.
Background information
E.C. 863/2007 Regulation established a mechanism for the creation of RABIT (Rapid Border Intervention Team), coordinated by Frontex Agency.
According to the regulation, Frontex Agency provides rapid operative assistance for a limited period of time, in the form of rapid border intervention teams (RABIT) at the request of a Member State faced with urgent and exceptional situations, especially in the case of arrivals, in the external border points, of a large number of third-country nationals trying to enter illegally on the territory of that Member State.
RABIT backup comprises almost 500-600 border policemen from all E.U. Member States, every Member State participates in RABIT with a National Reserve of Rapid Intervention.
Romanian Border Police participate, within the RABIT backups, with 18 border policemen.
Frontex Agency organized training courses for the European border policemen assigned for the RABIT backup, including at Iasi Forming and Training Border Police School - designated as Partner Academy of FRONTEX Agency.
Until now, FRONTEX agency organized two RABIT exercises, respectively:
at the air border, in Portugal - Francisco Sa Caneiro Airport - in November 2007 (Romanian Border Police participated with an expert in the field of forgery within Henri Coanda International Airport), at land border, in Slovenia - Maribor Directorate (Slovenian - Croat border) - in April 2008 (Romanian Border Police participated with two experts in the field of border control within Timisoara and Oradea Border Police Directorates).Romanian Border Police is appreciated as being one of the most active structures at FRONTEX Agency level.