Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many employees of Border Force are seconded to Kos and Lesbos; and what their (a) powers and (b) duties are.

James Brokenshire

UK Border Force currently has twelve staff deployed to support Frontex joint operations in the Mediterranean, and one staff member seconded to Frontex Headquarters, Returns Sector, in Warsaw. Eight of the twelve staff support joint operation ‘Poseidon Sea’ in Greece: two in Kos, three in Lesbos, one in Leros, one in Samos and one in Chios; and four support Frontex joint operation ‘Triton’ in Italy: two in Trapani, one in Lampedusa and one in Syracuse.

UK staff cannot exercise any powers on Frontex operations. Border Force staff debrief migrants to gather intelligence on their routing, modus operandi and any facilitators involved; Border Force staff also screen migrants to establish their identity, to aid the host member state with documentation and return of those migrants with no right of stay in Europe.