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NGO ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea do not encourage departures, the European border guard agency Frontex director, Hans Leijtens, told Euronews.

“You have never heard me saying that it’s a pull factor. So that’s what my opinion is”, he said at a doorstep in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

“The first thing for our officers is to save lives on land and at sea. What we can do also depends on resources, but at least we always promise to do it,” Leijtens added.

“I repeat: all Frontex agents have taken an oath promising to serve and protect. This is what we do, priority number one.”

Leijtens’ position starkly contrasts a confidential agency document on migration routes from Libya to Europe, never made public but reported in the press in November 2022.

It has been cited repeatedly by the Italian government in its attempts to criticise the activities of NGOs.

More attention to fundamental rights

Leijtens, director of Frontex since 2023, updated the European Parliament on the agency’s activities.

Several MEPs who spoke at the hearing noted that he seems to devote more attention to respecting the fundamental rights of migrants than his predecessor Fabrice Leggeri, who is now a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Patriots for Europe group.

In the first seven months of 2024, irregular crossings of European borders decreased by 36%, mainly due to a decline in traffic on the Balkan and Central Mediterranean routes.

On the other hand, landings on the Canary Islands more than doubled, and entries from Belarus to the Baltic countries almost tripled. UN refugee agency’s data for 2023 shows that refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Europe in record numbers last year.