Le Pen’s No.3 in EU race accused of complicity in crimes against humanity, torture

7 months ago 28

Two NGOs are accusing Fabrice Leggeri, the former director of the EU border agency Frontex turned candidate for the French far-right Rassemblement National party, of being complicit in crimes against humanity and the torture of migrants, in a complaint filed with the courts on Tuesday (23 April).

The Rassemblement National (RN), which has Leggeri as its number three in the race for June’s EU election, is embroiled in a scandal that could affect its current lead over all other French parties with 31% in the polls.

The RN’s worries stem from a complaint lodged by the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) and the migrants’ defence association Utopia 5, alleging that Leggeri is complicit in crimes against humanity and torture of migrants in the Mediterranean and Aegean, while he supervised the work of Frontex.

As Frontex’s director at the time, he is suspected “of having participated in, either by facilitating or covering up, the turning back of migrant boats by the Greek authorities to Turkey and the interception by the Libyan coastguard of migrant boats attempting to reach Italy”, Le Monde reported.

Leggeri resigned his Frontex post after a damning report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in April 2022 but continues to deny the allegations.

According to the report, Frontex had failed to properly handle evidence of migrants being turned back at Greece’s sea and land borders between spring and autumn 2020 and had allegedly even tried to conceal it.

Serious misconduct

Turning people away is contrary to international and EU law, as it prevents any application for protection from being examined.

In a press release on 14 October 2022, Frontex management acknowledged “serious misconduct” and, in particular, the fact that these incidents had been “ignored” internally. However, it stressed that these practices “belonged to the past”.

“This complaint is a very positive sign, whereas Fabrice Leggeri’s arrival in politics raised few questions,” Lefteris Papagiannakis, director of the Greek Council for Refugees, an organisation defending the rights of asylum seekers since 1989, told Euractiv.

“The former director of Frontex was known for his political outbursts, which are, of course, incompatible with the technical tasks that a European agency must fulfil. He imposed his own agenda and was decorated by the Athens government for his action, while the Greek security forces are constantly guilty of illegal ‘refoulement'”, he continued.

EU border agency 'hijacked' by EU Commission, its former boss says

Fabrice Leggeri, the former boss of EU border agency Frontex who will run for the far-right Rassemblement National in the European elections, criticised European migration policy while touring the French-Italian border on Monday (19 February), saying Europe should “regain control of its borders”.

Leggeri vs Frontex

The 55-year-old former EU official was nominated as one of the top candidates for the RN’s election list on 17 February, as a welcome addition to its pool of experts and technocrats, even if Leggeri appeared to have devoted most of his time since then to criticising Frontex.

“The general philosophy of the asylum and migration pact is a sham”, he recently told BFM TV.

“We’re not tackling the root of the problem, which is trying to prevent migrants from putting their lives in danger, falling into the hands of traffickers, to come and seek asylum on the European continent,” he added.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that at least 30,000 people have died in the Mediterranean since 2014, including 16,272 between 2015 and 2022.

Unsurprisingly, Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of Rassemblement National, was quick to support Leggeri, criticising on X “the far-left associations, supporters of migratory flooding and accomplices of the smugglers”, while the main person concerned called on the set of CNEWS to “cut off funding” to these same NGOs and to “prosecute them if necessary”.

To support their accusations, LDH and Utopia 56 claim to rely on journalistic investigations, NGO reports and the OLAF report.

On its website, Utopia 56 points out that “according to several journalistic sources, Frontex’s involvement can be identified in almost 222 dramatic incidents involving 8,355 people between March 2020 and September 2021, either by failing to oppose the authorities concerned when it was its duty to do so, by concealing evidence of these crimes or even sometimes by providing logistical and financial support to carry them out”.