Suggestion comes as the EU’s external border agency, Frontex, prepares to assume extra powers
Deportation flights should carry
human rights monitors to check on the safety of failed asylum seekers
who have been forcibly removed, a senior EU commissioner has
recommended.
The suggestion comes as the EU’s external border
agency, Frontex, prepares to assume extra powers to charter aircraft,
buy equipment and explore satellite technology to survey the union’s
frontiers.
Research by the Warsaw-based agency on the use of
drones – unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – to patrol frontiers is being
closely followed in Britain, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has confirmed.
Although the UK is not in the Schengen agreement, which removed most EU
internal borders, it is closely involved with Frontex. The Home Office
minister Meg Hillier was present when the EU Justice and Home Affairs
Council meeting supported reinforcing the agency’s remit.
The research projects and extra capabilities Frontex is taking on include: (more on guardian.co.uk)
