CO-OPERATION WITH THE COMPLAINTS MECHANISM OF FRONTEX 5. Co-operation with the complaints mechanism of FRONTEX The EU Regulation 2016/1624, regarding the conversion of FRONTEX into a European Coast Guard-Border Guard20, aims at the reinforcement of the competence of FRONTEX in the management of the external borders of the European Union and foresees a Mechanism of Complaints that operates under the responsible officer for fundamental rights at FRONTEX.21 In the Mechanism of Complaints, those who have been afflicted have the right of direct recourse, both for actions by the officers of FRONTEX during its operations, as well as for the involved officers of the Member States, which are called upon to investigate the events causing complaint and to refer the results within the deadline of six months to the European agency, while the complaint is communicated simultaneously to the respective national mechanism for the protection of rights, namely the Ombudsman. FRONTEX has already addressed itself to the Greek Ombudsman as a national mechanism for the protection of rights, thus activating this provision of the Regulation22 regarding a mechanism of examination of complaints, in three cases during 2017, regarding incidents in readmission. It is characteristic of the trust of citizens towards the national mechanism, that, in each of these three cases, respective complaints to the Ombudsman had already been submitted. The first case that was referred for examination to the Greek authorities in 2017, by the mechanism of complaints of FRONTEX, concerned a five-member family of Syrian citizens with underage children, who were found on 20.10.2016 being held at Adana, Turkey, after an air readmission from the island of Kos, while the operation initially had as a sole starting point the island of Lesvos. They cited that they had expressed the wish to seek asylum in Greece. The claimants to FRONTEX invoked the infringement of the right of access to asylum, of the rights of children, protection from “non refoulement” and from torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, based on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.23 The Greek Police cited the commencement of an investigation from 9.11.2016 with a press release by the (then Under Minister) of Migration Policy and his counterpart for issues of 20 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32016R1624&from=EN 21 Art.72 of the Regulation 2016/1624 22 Art.72 para.4 of the Regulation 2016/1624 23 Case CMP 001/ 2017 22