For four months, 24 border policemen within the
Romanian Border Police participated in RABIT 2010 operation
organized by FRONTEX European Agency (European Agency for the
Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of
the Member States of the European Union) developed at the external
border of Greece with Turkey.
With the support of RABIT (rapid border intervention teams)
officers, 11,809 migrants and 34 facilitators originating from
Turkey, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Palestine and Georgia were detected
while attempting to cross illegally the Greek-Turkish border.
Also, according to the officials figures of FRONTEX Agency, the
RABIT operation carried out in Greece led to a significant decrease
of approximately 76% of the daily migrants crossing the
Greek-Turkish land border.
Based on the Regulation 863/2007 and on the request of Greece addressed to FRONTEX Agency, Romania together with the other Member States of the European Union, participated with 24 experts, border policemen, during 02.11.2010 - 02.03.2011 in RABIT 2010 operation.
The Romanian border policemen selected for the RABIT teams are experts in combating and investigating the cases of illegal migration, detecting forged documents, controlling travel documents in the two alignments and detecting stolen vehicles. Also, a border policeman together with a special trained dog for detecting persons hidden in transportation means participated in this operation.
All 24 experts within the Romanian Border Police participated, together with the other representatives of the Member States, during the entire operation period, in border surveillance and control from the North-East of Greece, at the border with Turkey.
Thus, the Romanian border policemen patrolled in the high risk points as regards the illegal migration from the border between Greece and Turkey and they offered the necessary support in the identification and interviewing of migrants, in order to establish the nationality of persons without documents, as well as to collection information on networks dealing with trafficking in migrants.
The operation was also supported by the Romanian party through the detachment of a helicopter within the General Inspectorate of Aviation (Ministry of Administration and Interior) and two teams of specialists. The main objective of the crew was the air surveillance in the operational area - Alexandroupolis and Orestiada, together with the Greek officers and communicating all the time the operational aspects to the intervention forces in the field.
From the point of view of the detached technical means and endowments, the R.B.P. rendered the following:
15 patrolling vehicles Nissan Pathfinder; 2 patrolling vehicles Kia Sorrento; 1 Iveco Massif; 1 Mitshubishi L200 - for the transportation of the working dog; 1 bus with 40 places for the transportation of migrants; 1 bus with 15 places and 1 vehicle VW Transporter with 9 places for the transportation of experts in the operational area.Romania had a significant contribution in this operation, both from the point of view of technical means and from the point of view of the number, profiles and professionalism of the seconded experts, the appreciations were from the Greek authorities and also from FRONTEX Agency.
The coordination of the entire detachment of Romania in the operational area was ensured from the level of the National Contact Point FRONTEX within G.I.B.P.
The operation was financed by FRONTEX Agency.
Background information:
RABIT mechanism was created based on Regulation E.C. no. 863/2007 of the European Parliament and of the European Council, each Member State of the European Union assigning a series of experts in several fields, who could be seconded under special conditions provided for the abovementioned normative act.
From the beginning of 2007, Frontex Agency initiated a training project for the members of these expert pools. The total pool of the Agency, constituted of national pools of the Member States, reached in 2011 to 750 experts from different fields of border surveillance and control.
The national pool of Romania is made up of 25 border policemen, experts in different fields of border surveillance and control, previously trained through the participation to courses, working groups, exercises.
In RABIT 2010 operation, which was developed in the region of EVROS river, North-East of Greece, participated 175 officers sent by FRONTEX (out of which 24 Romanian border policemen) who were under the command and order of Greek authorities. The operation was started as a result of the Greek request for rapid operational assistance for a limited period of time.
According to the official data presented by FRONTEX Agency, RABIT 2010 operation led to a significant decrease of approximately 76% of the daily number of migrants crossing the Greek - Turkish land border, during October 2010 - February 2011. Thus, in the last period, the number of detected illegal migrants decreased up to approximately 40 - 50 per day, in comparison with October 2010, when an average of 245 daily detections were recorded. For four months, through the support of RABIT officers, 11,809 migrants and 34 facilitators originating from Turkey, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Palestine and Georgia were detected while attempting to cross illegally the Greek - Turkish border.
As a result of the analyses carried out in 2010 at European level, it resulted that approximately 90% of the illegal migration having an impact on the European Union before the initiation of the operation, entered through Greece.
RABIT 2010 operation is the first mission of this type organized since the foundation of FRONTEX Agency.