On 7 June 2023, the Frontex Fundamental Rights Officer published the Annual Report for the year 2022. It gives an overview of the Officer’s monitoring and advisory activities performed in that year.

In six chapters, the Annual Report records the positive developments and main areas of concern and presents the results of fundamental rights monitoring conducted as part of the Agency’s operational activities, including country-specific monitoring findings. In addition, it describes recent developments and provides a statistical overview of the number and type of serious incident reports and complaints received as well as information on capacity building activities. The cooperation of the Fundamental Rights Office with internal units of the agency, the Consultative Forum, and third countries is also outlined. Lastly, the report summarizes the recommendations issued in relation to Frontex by the Fundamental Rights Office (FRO) as well as the European Ombudsman, the Frontex Scrutiny Working Group of the European Parliament (FSWG), and the Working Group on Fundamental Rights and Legal Operational Aspects of Operations in the Aegean Sea (FRaLO) that are of relevance to fundamental rights.

The last chapter includes the FRO’s planned actions and priorities for 2023:

• Enhancement of the team of Fundamental Rights Monitors through steady training and field experience as well as efficient deployment of all staff;
• Improved use of tools by, for instance, reinforcing established processes such as serious incident reporting, the complaints mechanism, and the Consultative Forum;
• Possible roll-out of new tools such as reporting tools for forced return and general monitoring;
• Work on the Fundamental Rights Action Plan, providing and following up on advice and opinions provided to the Management Board and Agency;
• Systematic tracking of response and action by national authorities in relation to serious incident reports.

The Fundamental Rights Officer is mandated with monitoring Frontex implementation of its fundamental rights obligations in accordance with EU and international law. This includes reporting on possible violations, promoting the inclusion of fundamental rights in the activities of the agency, and providing advice and recommendations.