Incident reports submitted
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:
- data submitted by Cyprus to the Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN), and maintained in its ICONet database, from August 14th 2019 until today. This data can be provided in excel sheet format, for convenience.
Yours faithfully,
Anas Ambri
New information regarding your application is available under this link
[1]https://pad.frontex.europa.eu/PadCases/P...
Token: 5G27XX000P
Email: [FOI #11799 email]
Case Id: PAD-2022-00339
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[2]Frontex
European Border and Coast Guard Agency
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
[3]www.frontex.europa.eu
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[2]Frontex
European Border and Coast Guard Agency
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
[3]www.frontex.europa.eu
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be
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Dear Frontex Transparency Office,
Thank you for your reply to my application for access reference
#PAD-2022-00339. Unfortunately, I find your response to my application
unsatisfactory. Therefore, I would like to file the following confirmatory
application with regards to my access to documents containing data
submitted by Cyprus to the Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN), and
maintained in its ICONet database, from August 14th 2019 until September
12th, 2022.
In your reply, you enumerate three justifications for your refusal to
provide access to the requested documents.
In indent 1 and 2, you state that the document "contains sensitive
information [...] regarding the effectiveness of border security
measures", and that "the disclosure of such information would reveal
information on the current situation regarding border security measures".
Additionally, you state that "[disclosing details of previous operational
areas] ... would provide smuggling and other criminal networks with
intelligence". However, detailed statistical analysis of indicators from
FRAN data, including detailed information on the current situation
regarding border security measures, is already public [1], and quarterly
reports have been regularly made available through Frontex' own PRD
register up until Q4 2018 [2]. As per [3], this detailed information
includes: detections of illegal border-crossing between Border Crossing
Points (BCPs); Detections of illegal border-crossing at BCPs; detections
of suspected facilitators; detections of illegal stay; refusals of entry;
asylum applications; detections of false documents; return decisions for
illegally staying third-country nationals; returns of illegally staying
third-country nationals. Therefore, it seems that criminal networks
involved in migrant smuggling and THB can already easily access
information on the current situation regarding border security measures or
operational areas, especially since, as you suggest in indent 2,
information about "the current state of play" can be easily inferred from
previous information. Therefore, I would submit that the justifications
laid out in indent 1 and 2 are not sufficient to justify refusal to
partial access.
Under indent 3, you state that the document's "release would seriously
undermine internal decision-making processes regarding current and future
activities of Frontex and Member States", adding that "[A]s no overriding
public interest that is objective and general in nature [...] is
ascertainable in the present case, they cannot be released based on
Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001". However, I would like to
point to one of the findings of the ECJ, in the case T‑540/15, where it
states that "if the institution concerned decides to refuse access to a
document which it has been asked to disclose, it must, in principle,
explain how access to that document could specifically and actually
undermine the interest protected by the exception [...] upon which it is
relying. Moreover, the risk of that undermining must be reasonably
foreseeable and not purely hypothetical". Although claiming that potential
negotiation positions could be undermined, mutual trust could be eroded,
and third parties could be enabled to draw preliminary conclusions, no
purely non-hypothetical and reasonably foreseeable risk was actually
presented as the basis of the refusal.
I would like to submit that an overriding public interest does exist:
simply put, the document requested contains information provided by the
Republic of Cyprus as part of its recent implementation of its action plan
on migration, as it relates to ensuring proper information sharing
mechanisms are in place. Specifically, a 25 million euro amount has been
allocated as part of Internal Security Fund to "improve and facilitate the
exchange of information between and within the competent authorities and
relevant bodies, services and agencies of the EU" with regards to
cross-border cooperation [4]. Therefore, in this case, the public interest
lies with increased accountability of EU funds.
Finally, I would like to bring your attention to previous requests of
access to documents that were filed with your agency, in which access to
similar documents from the same ICONet database was provided [5].
Given the information above, I would like to request a release of the
information requested.
Yours faithfully,
Anas Ambri
[1]: [1]https://prd.frontex.europa.eu/?form-fiel...
[2]: [2]https://prd.frontex.europa.eu/?form-fiel...
[3]: [3]https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/da...
[4]: [4]https://eufunds.com.cy/migration-and-hom...
[5]:
[5]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/data...
References
Visible links
1. https://prd.frontex.europa.eu/?form-fiel...
2. https://prd.frontex.europa.eu/?form-fiel...
3. https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/da...
4. https://eufunds.com.cy/migration-and-hom...
5. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/data...
New information regarding your application is available under this link
[1]https://pad.frontex.europa.eu/PadCases/P...
Token: DX92BJSD3C
Email: [FOI #11799 email]
Case Id: PAD-2022-00389
Please be informed that the link is valid until Friday, 06 December 2024
[2]Frontex
European Border and Coast Guard Agency
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
[3]www.frontex.europa.eu
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.
References
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1. https://pad.frontex.europa.eu/PadCases/P...
3. http://frontex.europa.eu/
New information regarding your application is available under this link
[1]https://pad.frontex.europa.eu/PadCases/P...
Token: EC4KC7BLCB
Email: [FOI #11799 email]
Case Id: PAD-2022-00389
Please be informed that the link is valid until Tuesday, 24 December 2024
[2]Frontex
European Border and Coast Guard Agency
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
[3]www.frontex.europa.eu
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.
References
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