Best Practice Guidelines and Manuals Catalogue

By providing a structured description of the hands-on activities that the Member States and Frontex need to undertake for the effective deployment of surveillance aircraft, these guidelines provide comprehensive information on the administrative and logistic processes that such deployment entails to all parties involved. Additionally, National Frontex Points of Contact (NFPOCs) and other competent national authorities may use these guidelines as a training tool as they include basic reference material for organising deployment. Hence, this publication also contributes to strengthening the interoperability and preparedness of the competent national authorities that provide or receive aerial support.

The Handbook on Boarding in Frontex Coordinated Joint Maritime Operations: Best Practices & Guidelines sets out good or best practices in the practical conduct of boarding during the Frontex coordinated operational activities where migrant smuggling, drugs smuggling and other cross-border crime can be countered and what might lead to the boarding operations. 

Link: Handbook on Boarding in Frontex Coordinated Joint Maritime Operations Best Practices & Guidelines.pdf (europa.eu)

The CRI booklet aims to raise knowledge and awareness amongst border guard officers and participants of Frontex operational activities to potentially identify “known” Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) through crosschecks with the relevant databases. Nonetheless, the CRI booklet mainly aims to support the identification of the “unknowns”, i.e., whose details are not registered in the Schengen Information System (SIS) or other databases by referring suspects or “subjects of interest” for more detailed checks. Additionally, the booklet aims at keeping awareness on an increasing hybrid nature of the security threats. 

Link: CRI_EN.pdf (europa.eu)

The Handbook on Firearms for Border Guards and Customs is developed to support border guards/police and customs officers with their daily duties at the border and thus improve detections of firearms, its parts and ammunition in respect to passengers, means of transportation and belongings. Moreover, the Handbook allows to better profile the control measures and increase awareness on modalities of arms trafficking with a focus on smuggling methods. One of the objectives is also to provide guidelines on security measures that should be undertaken by the officers when securing and handling the firearms and ammunition detected at the borders.

Contact: HoS.LES@frontex.europa.eu 

More emphasis is to be put on victims of trafficking arriving at the external borders as well as on increasing the likelihood of participants to identify potential cases of THB. The Handbook is developed to support participants in the early identification of victims of THB of respective nationalities and perpetrators crossing an external border together with the victims, as well as to provide an overview of the trafficking processes, including information on the recruitment of victims, the modi operandi of the criminal networks, and the victims’ situations.  

The specific objectives of the study are as follows:

a) to establish an inventory of security relevant issues in the context of the application for, production, and use of electronic passports (BAC and EAC) in Europe;

b) to individuate differences among EU/Schengen member States and highlight eventual problems for interoperability when the passports are used for identification at external borders;

c) to identify best practices related to the issuance processes;

d) to suggest a set of recommendation to redress security gaps in the issuance process.

The resulting report covers not only security but also interoperability and follows the e-Passport through all the steps of its life-cycle, from application to invalidation.

The guide provides information on the core obligations of first-contact official and the rights of person who may be in need of international protection in the first contact situation. It will steer officers through the process of identification of person who may wish to apply for protection and the provision of relevant procedures guarantees and support.

This document is developed in the framework of the European efforts to achieve an effective understanding of the global land and maritime external border domain through the collection, integration and dissemination of appropriate information, intelligence and development of knowledge. The document addresses those questions through the analysis of to what extend the RPAs systems fulfil the operational requirements for maritime and land surveillance. Border surveillance operational requirements and system performances are analysed to identify best fitting solution(s), jointly with an assessment of costs.

The SQF is a framework of high-level learning outcomes that reflects all of the learning, for all border guard activities, across the EU. As an overarching frame of reference, the SQF encompasses all levels of qualifications acquired in vocational and academic education and training in the border guard field. It’s an instrument for reviewing training and for quality assurance that will lead to the development of ‘accreditable’ courses. The SQF is the platform for a coherent strategy that links all training products, from the common standards for basic, mid-level and high-level border guard training, to specialised and further training courses.

Contact: HoU.TRU@frontex.europa.eu

Link: https://myfx.frontex.europa.eu/cases/DMS4/DMS-00005/PRRequests/PR-2023-1384/1.Launch/Final%20TD/Appendix%208%20Sectoral%20Qualifications%20Framework%20%20for%20Border%20Guarding%20vol%20I.pdf#search=Sectoral%20Qualifications%20Framework%20for%20Border%20Guarding%2E%20Setting%20standards%20for%20training%20excellence%20%282013%29 

This manual presents a comprehensive foresight methodology tailor-made to Frontex’s needs and specificities. It provides Frontex with the practical knowledge required to conduct Technology Foresight (TF) studies in key technological fields and research areas. In Frontex, TF is understood as a research-driven process specifically designed for the technological assessment and identification of key future technologies for a particular subject. Unlike forecasting, TF focuses on assessing the current state of technology and identifying a wide range of plausible future consequences of technological development. Results are presented as linked to scenarios for the future.

Link: https://www.frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Research/Technology_Foresight_on_Biometrics_for_the_Future_of_Travel_Annex_I.pdf