Frontex head discusses border protection plan for Greece

Frontex's plan to assist Greece in guarding its borders with Turkey shortly after the country filed a request for support last August was discussed in an exclusive interview by Kathimerini with the French executive director of the European Union's External Borders Agency, Fabrice Leggeri. 

From his office in Warsaw, the 51-year-old EU official spoke about his phone calls with Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis and Shipping and Island Policy Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis in late August 2019 ahead of an emergency meeting of the government's Council of Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) that discussed a surge in migrant flows to the islands of the eastern Aegean.

"They called my mobile phone and told me the Defense Council would probably decide to ask for Frontex's immediate assistance," Leggeri said. "I found their move to contact me directly very...