Frontex, the European member-states’ external border management agency, initiated the deployment of 293 officers and 15 vessels to the Greek islands on December 28.
The units are assigned under a new operation called Poseidon Rapid Intervention after Greece requested additional assistance at its external borders in the Aegean Sea earlier this month.
This intervention is established to provide Greece with additional technical assistance with the goal of strengthening its border surveillance, migrant registration and identification capacity.
Poseidon Rapid Intervention replaces the Joint Operation Poseidon Sea with a higher number of officers who will assist in identifying and fingerprinting of arriving migrants, along with interpreters and forged document experts.
In accordance with the Frontex Regulation, at the request of a Member State faced with a situation of urgent and exceptional migratory pressure at its external borders, Frontex may deploy European Border Guard Teams for a limited period on the territory of the requesting Member State.
According to Frontex, the number of border guards deployed will gradually increase to over 400 officers as well as additional vessels, vehicles and other technical equipment to assist the national authorities in the management of the migratory pressure at the Greek external borders.
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