Warsaw 29 October - Five days after receiving a request from Greece for deployment of Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABITs), Frontex has finalised arrangements for human and technical resources to be deployed to the Greek-Turkish land border in the region of Orestiada and neighbouring areas.
In total, 175 border-control specialists have been made available by the 26 Member States and Schengen-Associated Countries participating in the first ever RABIT deployment. Joint Operation (JO) RABIT 2010 will also see an unprecedented quantity of technical equipment and other logistical and administrative support. All the costs incurred by Member States in relation to the deployment will be reimbursed by Frontex.
The specialisations of guest officers deployed will include experts in false documents, clandestine entry, first and second-line border checks and stolen vehicles as well as dog handlers and specialist interviewers, debriefers and interpreters. All RABIT officers receive mandatory human rights awareness training as part of their RABIT training by Frontex and in addition, special briefings will be held on the spot as a provision of JO RABIT 2010.
The deployment is scheduled to commence on 2November 2010, with an anticipated duration of up to two months.
The assets made available from Member States’ commitments to Frontex’s Centralised Record of Available Technical Equipment (CRATE) are as follows:
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1 Helicopter (Romania)
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1 Bus (Romania)
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5 Minibuses (1 Romania, 2 Austria, 1 Bulgaria, 1 Hungary)
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19 Patrol cars (4WD) (7 Romania, 3 Austria, 2 Slovakia, 7 Germany)
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9 Thermo Vision Vans (2 Austria, 2 Bulgaria, 4 Germany, 1 Hungary)
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3 Schengen buses (1 Austria, 2 Hungary)
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3 office units from Denmark