Return operations of migrants

La solicitud fue exitosa.

Dear European Border and Coast Guard Agency,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:

A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, specifying for each operation the following:

- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.
- Affiliation of the staff involved in the operation (Frontex, Member States, international organizations...).

Yours faithfully,

Álvaro Merino

Dear European Border and Coast Guard Agency,

Here you have my postal details:

Álvaro Merino
Calle Ricardo Ortiz 61 , 1B.
28017 Madrid.

Yours faithfully,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr/Ms Alvaro Merino

We acknowledge receipt of your application for access to Frontex documents. Before we are able to process your application, we have to inform you that it pertains to a significant number of documents due to its long timespan. We would thus invite you to develop a fair solution in order to reconcile your needs with those of good administration principles of EU institutions.

We are looking forward to finding a fair solution that would accommodate your needs and enable us to organize.

Furthermore, we would like to inform you that pursuant to Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, the right of access to documents is granted to a citizen of the Union, and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State.

To confirm that you are invested in the right of access to the documents applied for, it is necessary to provide a proof of identification.

1. Preferably:
Please submit your request as an email attachment in the formats Pdf, ASICE, ADOC, BDOC, EDOC and signed electronically through a qualified esignature in line with the eDIAS Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market).

2. Alternatively:
• For natural persons: Please provide an ID card/passport/residence permit in the EU; • For legal persons: kindly submit the registration of your entity in an EU Member State and a proxy authorizing you to act on behalf of this entity.

Please submit the respective document to: [email address]

If you do not agree to submit documents containing personal data, we are unfortunately not able to process your application.

We will start processing your application after providing you with acknowledgement of receipt of the above mentioned documents and will reply within 15 working days.

Please be informed that:
• The person responsible for controlling your personal data (data controller) is the Head of the Transparency Office; • Personal data is collected for the exclusive purpose of assessing the nationality/proxy of the applicant and, if applicable, the seat of the entity represented by the applicant; • Only relevant staff members have access to your data; • Your data is deleted at the latest when you receive the final reply. Processing your application takes a maximum of 15 or 30 working days depending on the number/size of the document(s) applied for; • You are entitled to access and rectify your data during the processing of your application; • During any steps of the process, you have the right to have recourse to the European Data Protection Supervisor.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any question you may have.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office
[email address]

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.

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Dear PAD,

Thank you for your response. Regarding your annotations, I will send, on the one hand, a copy of my ID card to the email address you indicated to me within the following days; on the other hand, I am narrowing down the scope of my request to the following aspects in order you can deal with it:

A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, specifying for each operation the following:

- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

Yours sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

We acknowledge receipt of your ID and your kind suggestion to narrow down the scope. Due to the considerable period of time your application pertains to and further applications pending with the entity processing your application, would suggest to consider your application as three individual applications each to be considered back to back, i.e. once the preceding application is concluded, the next application would be registered. The provisions of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 would be applicable for all applications.

1. Application 1
A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2010 and 2012, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

2. Application 2
A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2013 and 2015, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.
Kindly inform us whether this approach would suit you.

3. Application 3
A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2016 and 12 August 2019, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.
Kindly inform us whether this approach would suit you.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office

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Dear PAD,

Taking into account that once started the process to collect all the information requested will be easier to gather it all at once, I would suggest instead to divide the application in two different requests:

1. Application 1
A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2010 and 2014, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

2. Application 2
A list of all return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2015 and August 2019, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.
Kindly inform us whether this approach would suit you.

Yours sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

Thank you. We would thus propose the below wording and a consideration of the your two applications back to back and under the framework of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001.

1. Application 1 (CMS-2019-00008-0358)
A list of all chartered flight return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2010 and 2014, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

2. Application 2
A list of all chartered flight return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2015 and 12 August 2019, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.

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PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

Thank you for your suggestion. We would propose the below approach for your two application. Kindly confirm whether you agree to enable us to register your first application.

Yours sincerely

Transparency Office

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
From: Álvaro Merino [mailto:[FOI #7209 email]]
Sent: Friday 16 August 2019 14:01
To: PAD <[email address]>
Subject: RE: PAD (CMS-2019-00008-0358): Returns

Dear PAD,

Taking into account that once started the process to collect all the information requested will be easier to gather it all at once, I would suggest instead to divide the application in two different requests:

1. Application 1 CMS-2019-00008-0358
A list of all chartered return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2010 and 2014, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

2. Application 2
A list of all chartered return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2015 and August 2019, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.
Kindly inform us whether this approach would suit you.

Yours sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

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Dear PAD,

I agree. Please proceed to register the first application.

Yours sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino

With reference to our consensus reached, your application CMS-2019-00008-0358 for

Application CMS-2019-00008-0358
A list of all chartered return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2010 and 2014, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

Is hereby registered

As your request falls under the regime of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, we will now forward your email to the responsible Units and get back to you with an answer within 15 working days.

In the meantime, should you have any questions regarding your request or public access to documents process, do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office
[email address]

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Dear PAD,

The deadline for the response has already been surpassed. When am I supposed to receive a finaln answer?

Sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

Thank you for your email. Please be informed that the 15 working days are concluded on Tuesday 10 September.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.

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PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

1 Adjuntos

Dear Mr Merino,

Please find enclosed our response to your application for access to documents.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office
[email address]

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Dear PAD,

Would it be possible to receive the information in reusable format, such as .csv, .xls or any other?

Also, could you please add to the information the cost of each Joint Return Operation?

Yours sincerely,

Álvaro Merino

PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

Your application for

A list of all chartered return operations of migrants conducted or coordinated by Frontex between 2015 and August 2019, specifying for each operation the following:
- Date.
- Country or countries (EU or not) participating in the operation.
- Country from where the migrants were returned.
- Destination.
- Number of migrants returned, specifying also their nationality, age and gender.

Is hereby registered

As your application falls under the regime of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, we will now forward your email to the responsible Units and get back to you with an answer within 15 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office
[email address]

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PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

The format of the document is subject to the extraction process from the database.

As information on the " the cost of each Joint Return Operation" did not form part of your original application and you would have to submit a new application.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.

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PAD, Agencia Europea para la gestión de la cooperación operativa en las fronteras exteriores

Dear Mr Merino,

We note that you withdraw your application CMS-2019-00008-0549 effective immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Transparency Office

Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency

www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.

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