4.3. Regulation (EU) No 656/2014

Where maritime surveillance operations are co-ordinated by The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, EU law applies. Regulation (EU) No 656/2014 Article 4(1) provides that ‘no person shall, in contravention of the principle of non-refoulement, be disembarked in, forced to enter, conducted to or otherwise handed over to' an unsafe country as defined in the regulation.

Where a boat is found in the contiguous zone or territorial waters, disembarkation should normally take place in the coastal Member State. If the boat is intercepted at high seas, then the preferred place of disembarkation is the state from where the vessel departed.

However, the rescued persons are required to be given the opportunity 'to express any reasons for believing that disembarkation in the proposed place would be in violation of the principle of non-refoulement'. This means that rescued persons should be allowed the opportunity to express why their return to the state they departed from could, for example, lead to a breach of their human rights, or their persecution, and would therefore be in violation of the principle of non-refoulement.