Grande-Marlaska: 'Frontex Contingent 5 enhances the common European response to migration challenges and border control'

Fernando Grande-Marlaska highlighted the creation of Frontex Contingent 5 as "another step" along the path begun twenty years ago with Operation Hera "to build a common European response that strengthens and improves external border control".

"We are continuing on a path based on cooperation, prevention, the pooling of resources and capabilities, mutual support and shared responsibility, technological innovation and experience", the minister stated during the opening ceremony for Contingent 5. This office, led by Commander Marco Fantinato, will coordinate the EU agency's joint operations in Spain and Portugal.

In the minister's words, the new model strengthens coordination and allows for better use of Frontex agents' capabilities to provide a "swifter and more effective" response to migration challenges, "which are best tackled by working together", Grande-Marlaska emphasised.

The Minister for Home Affairs also emphasised the need to focus on prevention, "and not just on reaction", in tackling the migration challenge, and has urged Frontex to "deepen and broaden its remit" in its cooperation with countries of origin and transit. "The aim of this strategy is not to prevent people from arriving, but to prevent them from leaving", he said, adding that this is the only way to ensure that thousands of people do not risk their lives at sea.

The opening ceremony for Contingent 5 took place at the Portugal Pavilion in Lisbon, attended by Portugal's Minister for Home Affairs, Luís Neves, and the Executive Director of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, amongst other officials.

Almost forty joint operations across seven contingents

The new Frontex office in Lisbon forms part of the Agency's operational structure, which comprises seven contingents carrying out 38 joint operations across the European Union. The office designated as "Contingent 5" will coordinate the operations conducted by the agency in Spain and Portugal.

In Spain, the European agency has staff stationed in the Canary Islands, Andalusia and the port of Ceuta. The annual operation in the Canary Islands is led by the National Police and takes place in ports, police stations and Temporary Reception Centres for Foreign Nationals in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, with the aim of supporting the management of irregular arrivals.

Operation Minerva, led by the National Police and involving the Civil Guard, runs from June to September at the maritime border posts of Algeciras, Tarifa and Ceuta - key transit points between Europe and North Africa - and is aimed at document checks and the prevention of illicit cross-border activities.

Operation Indalo, led by the Civil Guard with the participation of the National Police, is deployed annually in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Alboran Sea and the western Mediterranean, in the provinces of Cádiz, Málaga, Granada, Almería and Murcia, to reinforce border surveillance with the support of air and maritime resources.

Furthermore, Frontex supports the strengthening of maritime surveillance around the Balearic Islands through an aerial pre-border surveillance service that collects and analyses information on migratory movements and potential illicit activities.

Fourth meeting with the Executive Director of Frontex

The opening ceremony for Contingent 5 marked Grande-Marlaska's fourth meeting with the Executive Director of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, since his appointment in December 2022. Their first contact took place on 3 March 2023, and they subsequently held a bilateral meeting in Madrid on 27 May 2024. Their most recent meeting took place, also in the Spanish capital, as part of the World Border Security Congress on 25 March 2025.

Non official translation