ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of an Frontex Office in Italy was concluded this morning at the Department of Public Security at Viminale. The Memorandum was signed, for the Italian part, by the Chief of Police – General Director of Public Security, Prefect Vittorio Pisani and, for Frontex, by the Executive Director of the Agency, Hans Leijtens.
The Antenna Office of Frontex in Italy, which will find its headquarters in the airport of Rome-Fiumicino, will have a mainly logistic and organizational function and aims to facilitate the coordination of the operating activities carried out in Italy and in Malta, also in the field of repatriation, under the aegis of Frontex.
The Office will ensure effective management of human and technical resources, providing support to the training and training activities of the Agency’s Permanent Body and national authorities.
The office will host the Command of the fourth Contingent of the Permanent Body of Frontex, a staff of 20 people dedicated to the coordination of operations, intelligence collection, logistics and administration.
Thanks to the physical proximity to the Italian and Maltese authorities on the field, the Antenna Office will act as a nerve center for operations aimed at contrasting irregular migration flows in the central Mediterranean and repatriation, to facilitate greater effectiveness and decision-making processes faster.
The Head of Police Pisani stressed “the importance of creating a Frontex operating office in Italy in order to make the protection of the external borders of the European Union even more effective, for the coordinated management of the operations of repatriation of citizens of third countries without right of residence in Italy and for the speed of decisions”.
“The Memorandum subscription confirms the role of strategic coordination provided by the Department of Public Security in the national system of contrast to irregular immigration. I thank for their commitment to this front the Guardia di Finanza, the Coast Guard, the Carabinieri and the Navy” concluded Pisani.
“I am grateful to the Italian authorities for agreeing to host the Antenna Office in Rome,” said Hans Leijtens, Executive Director of Frontex. “The people who plan and manage our operations must be close to the national authorities and the agents involved. The closer we are to our partners, the better we can support them.”.
Frontex currently employs about 300 agents who, along with the Italian border police, are dedicated to contrasting irregular immigration as well as border controls in dozens of Italian airports and ports, including the activities of registration and identification of migrants in reception centers and the execution of repatriations. Analogues intended were concluded by Frontex with Romania, Portugal, Czech Republic and Estonia.
After the signing of the Memorandum, Frontex Executive Director participated in the work of the Frontiers’ Immigration and Security Analysis Committee (CAISF), chaired by Prefect Claudio Galzerano, Central Director of Immigration and Police of the Frontiers. At the meeting, the Executive Director of Frontex provided an update on the situation at the external borders of the European Union and on the initiatives of prevention and contrast developed by the Agency.
-Photos State Police-
(ITALPRESS).
