ROMANIA Bucharest,

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS 19% of November 2020
GENERAL INSPECTORATE OF ROMANIAN No Ft 039
BORDER POLICE

 

To:
Mr. Fabrice Leggeri, Frontex Executive Director
Dear Mr. Leggeri,

Regarding your letter no ORD/FDU/MIMI/9743/2020 of 09 November 2020, | wish
to thank you for your appreciations regarding the participation of the Romanian Border
Police personnel and technical assets deployed within the Joint Operations (JO) and
Rapid Intervention Operations (RB!), hosted by Greece, at the maritime borders.

Thus, as regards your requests, they were analyzed at the level! of our institution
and for this purpose we provide you with the corresponding details.

As it is known, Romania, through the Romanian Border Police, is an active
member of Frontex Agency, implementing the provisions of the Regulation (EU)
2019/1896 of the European Parliament and ofthe Council of 13 November 2019 on the
European Border and Coast Guard and repealing Regulations (UE) no 1052/2013 and
(EU) 2016/1624 and of the Regulation (EU) no 656/2014 ofthe European Parliament
and ofthe Council of 15 May 2014 establishing rules for the surveillance ofthe external
sea borders in the context of operational cooperation coordinated by the European
Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the
Member States ofthe European Union, both of them being supporting documents that
are governing the execution of specific activities at institutional level, both during the
internal missions and in case of external missions in which our maritime assets take
part together with the related crews, according to the commitments undertaken.

Based on the Regulation abovementioned, the Member States facing an excessive
migratory pressure or envisaging the evolution of this phenomenon as a result of the
specific risk analysis may request the support of the European Border and Coast
Guard Agency - Frontex to initiate joint operations/rapid interventions, in order to
provide technical and operational support at the EU external border. Also, along with
the launching of such missions, the Regulation requires the elaboration of an
operational plan establishing the organizational and procedural aspects, and its
provisions are legally binding for all the concerned parties.

Following the MS participation in joint maritime operations, according to the
Regulation (EU) no 656/2014 ofthe European Parliament and ofthe Council of 15 May
2014 establishing rules for the surveillance ofthe external sea borders in the context of
operational cooperation coordinated by the European Agency, the actions defining the
concept of the surveillance at sea, respectively the detection and interception of
vessels attempting to enter illegally the EU are requlated therein. The way in which
these actions are carried out is presented in accordance with the measures that can be
undertaken in case of detecting reasonable indicators and, as regards the interception
situation, the application of corresponding measures is developed according to the
status of the vessel, as provided for by the Protocol against the smuggling of migrants
by land, sea and air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against
transnational organized crime, and depending on the maritime zones established by
the United Nations Convention on the Law ofihe Sea.

Considering the cases of the migration phenomenon at sea registered in the joint
operations, which are limited to groups of persons embarked on inflatable boats,
without legal status, it is important to highlight the incidental jegal measures regarding
stateless vessels on which there are well-founded suspicions that they are transporting
persons who intend to circumvent the checks in the border crossing points or are
involved in the smuggling of migrants by sea.

Thus, pursuant to the Regulation (EU) no 656/2014, as a result of the surveillance
missions conducted by the participating units, the Member State hosting the joint
operation may authorize in their territorial sea or in the open sea, directly or with the
assistance of the Member State to which the participating unit belongs, the following
measures:

- requesting information and documentation on ownership, registration and
elements related to the voyage of the vessel, and on the identity, nationality and other
relevant data on persons on board, including whether there are persons in urgent need
of medical assistance, and making persons on board aware that they may not be
authorized to cross the border;

- stopping, boarding and searching the vessel, its cargo and persons on board,
and questioning persons on board and informing them that persons direcling the
vessel may face penalties for facilitating the voyage,

as well as if evidences confirming that suspicion are found:

- seizing the vessel and apprehending persons on board,
- ordering the vessel to change its course outside of or towards a destination other
than_the_territorial sea _or the contigquous zone, including escorting the vessel or

steaming nearby until it is confirmed that the vessel is keeping to that given course,
- conducting the vessel or persons on board to the coastal Member State in
accordance with the operational plan.

All measures undertaken must be proportionate and not to exceed what is
necessary to achieve the objectives, the international coordination center of the
Member State hosting the joint operation being responsible for transmitting the
appropriate instructions to the participating units, as appropriate.

At the level of our institution, the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights
ofthe European Union, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10
December 1948, by Resolution 217 A in the third session of the United Nations
General Assembly and implicitiy the provisions of national legislation in accordance
with the aforementioned international normative acts are applied and observed.

In 2020, Romania, at the request of the Agency, through the Romanian Border
Police, deployed two vessels within the Joint Operation Poseidon 2020 in order to
support Greece in its actions to counteract the threats at the EU external maritime
border, such as illegal migration, cross-border crime and especially the smuggling of
migrants or trafficking of human beings.

Each and every time, the actions of Romanian Border Police vessels are being
carried out in accordance with the provisions of the above-mentioned regulations,
being developed in accordance with the measures authorized by the relevant national
authorities of the hosting MS, through the International Coordination Center (ICC) of
the Joint Operation, in this case "Poseidon 2020”, which is established in Piraeus /
Athens. Here, meetings are held on a daily basis in order to analyze the ongoing
activities, the operational, socio-political or other aspects which may have an impact on
the entire joint operation in question.

Within these missions, the Romanian Border Police vessels comply with the
European and international legislation relevant to the maritime field, acting in
accordance with the developed procedural framework, represented by the Operational
Plan and its supporting documents, prepared by the Frontex Agency, in collaboration
with the hosting MS and participating Member States in order to carry out the
respective Joint Operation.

According to the Operational Plan, representatives of the border authorities of the
Hellenic Republic are permanently on board of the naval mobility assets belonging to
the participating Member States and their role is to ensure the flow of information from
the participating MS vessel, in this context the Romanian Border Police vessel, to the
Local Coordination Center and to the International Coordination Center (ICC),
respectively to inform the Romanian Border Police vessel about the measures which
has been authorized to carry out by the responsible Greek authorities.

In both reported cases, on 08.06.2020 and 15.08.2020, the Romanian Border
Police vessels were carrying out surveillance missions of the external maritime border
of the European Union in order to detect boats carrying persons and circumventing or
intending to circumvent the checks in the border crossing points or suspected of being
involved in smuggling of migrants at sea, respectively cross-border crime.

On 08.06.2020, within the surveillance mission carried out by the Romanian border
guards, a craft heading towards the Greek territorial waters was detected with the
support of the technical equipment on board, in the Turkish territorial waters and
appropriate actions were taken in order to identify the respective water craft.

The observed data regarding the water craft and the persons on board were
transmitted to the International Coordination Center through the Hellenic Coast Guard
officer who was present on board the Romanian Border Police vessel.

Having reasonable indicators that the detected water craft was suspected of
transporting persons intending to circumvent the checks in the border crossings points

and allegediy was involved in the smuggling of migrants by sea, while waiting
authorized measures to be disposed_by_ the International Coordination Center,
according to the applicable regulations in force, Romanian Border Police vessel carried

out_permanent monitoring_activities_of the respective water craft, according to the
provisions of Article 5 and Article 6 of Regulation (EU) no 656/2014, mentioned above.

The International Coordination Center informed the Romanian Border Police
vessel that it had ordered measures authorized to be carried out by a Hellenic Coast
Guard vessel, which was due to arrive on site.

As a consequence, after the arrival of the vessel belonging to the Hellenic
authorities in the vicinity of the water craft, the Hellenic International Coordination
Center requested the Romanian Border Police vessel to continue its patrol mission in
another operational area and the Hellenic authorities to take over the situation
concerning the respective water craft.

The same situation was registered on the 15% of August 2020, when similarly, the
International Coordination Center ordered the continuation of the mission by the
Romanian Border Police vessel in an adjacent area, as the identification of the
detected naval target was to be performed by a rapid intervention vessel belonging to
the Hellenic border authority, and if needed, the Romanian vessel would have been
requested to intervene to provide support to the vessels of the Hellenic border
authorities. We find useful to mention that the crew of our vessel permanently
monitored the water craft with the support of the systems on board and left the area
oniy after the Hellenic vessel arrived in the vicinity of the water craft with migrants and
took over the case In order to solve it.

Regarding the question on the use of AIS equipment which the vessels of the
Romanian Border Police are also equipped with (according to the provisions of
Chapter 5 - safety of navigation in the SOLAS Convention - 1974 on the protection of
human life at sea), we would like to mention that being Governmental vessels, their
equipment can be set so that it operates in a visible mode, in which situation the
position and movement parameters of the vessel are available on all international
civilian web platforms for monitoring the maritime traffic and, respectively, in an
invisible mode, meaning that the access to the position and movement
parameters of the vessel is allowed only to accredited users.

We mention that according to the above mentioned Convention,
Governmental vessels are exempted from the use of AIS equipment, meaning
that during the specific mission, at the request of the border authority of the
Hellenic Republic, through the liaison officer on board, the AIS device was set to
invisible mode, thus preventing the detection of own vessels by unauthorized
persons.

As regards the alleged "push back” actions, we specify that Romanian Border
Police disapproves this type of actions and did not perform or observe such kind of
actions to be carried out by any other asset involved in the joint operations coordinated
by Frontex.

At the same time, we strongly reject the allegations that the Romanian Border
Police vessels, through dangerous maneuvers, endangered persons on board the
water crafts involved in the illegal crossing of the EU external maritime border, as there
is no evidence regarding these accusations.

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