“Your job is to take in migrants and welcome them because they come out of love. And whether you like it or not, we’re an aging continent so you have to let them in,” Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.
Two years after his departure, Fabrice Leggeri opens up about his time at the EU border guard agency, Frontex. As the boss, he desperately wanted to protect European borders against illegal migrants strictly, but according to him, this was explicitly halted by the European Commission.
Frontex, officially known as the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is an EU agency responsible for coordinating border control efforts across the European Union’s external borders. It was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Warsaw, Poland.
From 2015 to 2022, Leggeri headed Frontex. During that time, he made a name for himself as a strong supporter of a strict migration policy. However, he now says that at that time, he was actively opposed by the European Commission, which had precisely the opposite in mind.
In an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, the Frenchman explains the message he repeatedly heard from EU leadership. “Bring the migrants here and welcome them. Whether you like it or not, we are an aging continent, and that is why you must let them in,” he recalls.
However, Leggeri aimed to guard the borders, which is also the main branch of Frontex. But he felt thwarted and abandoned, he says in the interview. The French government pressured him to resign, he adds. Germany was also not very enthusiastic about his work.
In November, the European Commission launched a proposal to provide work and free language courses to illegal migrants who have no chance of asylum. Family reunification would also be possible. European Commissioner Ylva Johansson states this is necessary to address the upcoming labor shortages in European countries.
Recently, Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, claimed that the Union needs to take in one million migrants a year, and if it is not done, the Europeans will starve.
Now, French media reports that the Social Democrat allegedly ordered a former head of the European Border and Coast Guard agency Frontex to welcome migrants who make it to the Union illegally. The former head of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, claims that Swedish EU Commissioner Ylva Johannsson told him to welcome illegal migrants.
According to Leggeri, Johansson should have given a new directive to the director general in 2019, shortly after her arrival as commissioner for internal affairs.
“Your job is to take in migrants and welcome them because they come out of love. And whether you like it or not, we’re an aging continent, so you have to let them in,” she reportedly said. The EU denies that Ylva Johansson would have said that.
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