Frontex | Information management

With so many member states and other partners involved in operations, and the quantity of data that needs to be sorted and analysed, information management is an important aspect of Frontex’s work. With over 42,000 km of coastline, almost 9,000 km of land borders and around 300 international airports, Europe sees around 500 million border crossings a year. The job of managing the flow of legal and illegal migration requires a clear picture of the current situation at all the EU’s external borders — from airports as well as from the EU’s other approximately 1800 Border Crossing Points both on land and at sea ports.

In response to this need, the Frontex Situation Centre (FSC) was created. FSC has the task of providing a constantly updated picture, as near to real time as possible, of Europe’s external borders and migration situation. But the FSC has more than an information-gathering function. It acts as a central point of contact and information access for all Frontex stakeholders. It is also a vital part of Frontex’s rapid-response mechanism in the event of an emergency situation occurring anywhere at the external border. To ensure this, FSC has multiple functions to fulfil within the Frontex apparatus.

Situation monitoring — This is FSC’s core function. All other areas of the centre’s activity contribute in some way to its ability to provide as detailed, accurate and up-to-date a picture as possible of the situation at the EU’s external borders. FSC provides situation and crisis monitoring, delivering early alerts and situation reports to internal and external customers.

Central point of contact — In order to ensure effective communication, FSC provides a clear point of official contact (incoming and outgoing) between Member States and Frontex as well as for other external partners.

Joint operational support — FSC processes incoming data from all fields of operation, collating and processing it into daily situational pictures of what is happening on the ground. This processing includes checking the quality of incoming data and ensuring it is available in the right format for further analysis. Frontex has developed its own specialised reporting systems that allow all participants in joint operations to share information effectively.

Media monitoring — An indispensable element of staying abreast of the bigger picture is constantly monitoring open and media sources.

Mission awareness and back-up — The aim of mission awareness is to keep the relevant Frontex staff informed about critical areas and any other pertinent information about countries outside the EU.

Crisis management support — In the event of a rapid intervention being deployed, it is FSC’s role to ensure that all in-house procedures are followed correctly and to monitor the progress of the emergency support measures.