[Image belonging to the same article - copyright euobserver.com, 11/10/2012]
11.10.2012. Frontex, the EU's Warsaw-based border guard agency, says it has no bilateral relations with Libya as things stand. "They are restructuring their whole public administration including the boarder security system," Frontex executive-director Ilkka Laitinen told this website in an interview also on Wednesday. Laitinen said that Frontex and Libya only share the most basic of information and that the agency could help the post-Gaddafi administration with training exercises if it is asked to.
Frontex wants Libya to build up its capacity before engaging in joint operations with the Libyan authorities in the future. It also foresees flying intelligence-gathering drones over the Mediterranean in the "very, very far future."
Despite Laitinen's reservations on Libya, Frontex has been taking part in rescue efforts in the region since 2008. Frontex-linked operations saved some 38 percent of people detected at sea, 23,000 people in total, in 247 cases in 2011. "Every third migrant detected in the maritime domain is in distress and saved," the Frontex chief said.
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