For 15 days, seven Romanian border policemen
participated at HAMMER Joint Operation, organized by FRONTEX
European Agency, in several E.U. Member States, including
Romania.
In the same period, seven experts from Spain, Italy, Portugal,
France, Germany and Denmark carried out actions together with the
Romanian border policemen in three airports from Romania open to
the international traffic, in the field of prevention and fighting
against illegal migration.
The operation - carried out during September 2008 - February 2009,
in several operational phases, each with a two-week period - was
aimed to counteract the migration phenomenon at the E.U. air
borders.
During 10 - 25.02.2009, the fourth phase of HAMMER Joint Operation, organized under FRONTEX aegis, was carried out at the level of 25 airports open to international persons traffic from Austria, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia.
At the level of the Romanian Border Police, seven specialist officers in the field of travel documents at the level of airport border points as well as combating illegal migration at the air borders participated within this operation.
Six of these, together with the European colleagues, carried out the activity in the airports from Budapest, Ljubljana, Bratislava, Malpensa - Milan, Marco Polo - Venice and Bergamo, and the seventh officer was deployed to FRONTEX Operational Center in Warsaw, where participated at collecting and analyzing the data provided by the airports involved in the operation.
At the same time, at the level of the Romanian Border Police, six experts from Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Germany and Denmark together with the Romanian border policemen carried out actions in the field of prevention illegal migration. They were deployed in three Romanian airports open to international person traffic, such as: Henri Coanda Airport - Bucharest, Traian Vuia Airport - Timisoara and Cluj Napoca Airport.
Both in our country and in the other E.U. Member States involved in this mission focused on taking the joint measures in the field of combating the migration phenomenon at the air borders of the Community area, enhancing the data and information exchange operability between the enforcement authorities from these countries, as well as an efficient experience exchange between the European border policemen.
The results obtained during the operation prove its efficiency especially regarding the "behaviour" of the migration networks acting at the European air borders. It was ascertained that they "reacted" to the action mode of the authorities, thus trying to change their routes and their "operation mode" in order to fulfil their aim.
To this end, FRONTEX European Agency has in view the further organization of this kind of actions, taking into account the fact that the air traffic at the European level increased, according to the Eurostat statistics.
The Romanian Border Police was appreciated by the FRONTEX specialists for the organization of the HAMMER Operation thus being invited to participate at the further actions organized by the European Forum.
Background information:
HAMMER common operation was formed of several operational phases - each with a two-week period - and was carried out during September 2008 - February 2009.
The aim of this action was to prevent and combat illegal migration carried out at the level of the airports open to international traffic from many E.U. Member States.
In all the operational phases participated 19 Romanian border policemen carrying out specific actions in different airports from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and France.