Brussels, 01/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The agency Frontex may extend its Hermes mission, which was deployed in Italy on 20 February, to the island of Malta, to deal with a potential influx of illegal migrants from Libya. This announcement was made on Tuesday 1 March by the Finnish director of the European agency for the management of the external borders of the EU, Ilka Laitinen, during the debate in the civil liberties committee (LIBE) of the European Parliament (EP) on the consequences of events in North Africa, and Libya in particular.
Laitinen was due to sett off for Malta on Tuesday evening. The announcement was made to MEPs, most of whom were disappointed at the Council of Home Affairs Ministers of Thursday 24 January, which voiced only mitigated solidarity towards Italy, although increasing requests for the EU to deal with a possible influx of illegal immigrants to Europe and calling on the member states to move forward on the issue of sharing the asylum and immigration burden. Laitinen was also faced with MEPs who were somewhat sceptical of EU instruments and response capability in the event of an overwhelming influx of illegal migrants to the EU, and therefore raised the possibility of extending the Hermes mission on a preventative basis.
This announcement, however, still does not entirely correspond to the current situation because, while Malta has been dealing with the arrival of foreign refugees for several days, who had been evacuated by their respective countries, no illegal influx of migrants from Libya has been observed in Europe so far, said Pierre Vimont, Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), as movements of population mainly concern Tunisia and Egypt, where thousands of Libyans have taken refuge. The fears of certain member states of thousands of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa arriving from Libya also remain a hypothetical scenario at present. “According to our information, African countries such as Chad, Mali and Niger are telling us that these people are returning to the south of the continent instead”, Vimont said. This information was taken up by the director of Frontex, stressing that, at this stage, “there are return flows of Africans towards the countries of the South” of Africa. As regards Tunisia, movements have also dried up, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who described the situation as unpredictable.
During the debate, the director of the agency Frontex also highlighted the specific situation of Greece, which, due to its proximity to Turkey, could be affected by any influx of North African migrants. Greece has had the Rabit mission in place since November 2010, which is tasked with controlling arrivals of illegal migrants, particularly from Turkey, and will have the “Poseidon” mission in place in early March. This mission, which already exists in the Aegean Sea, will be extended and, therefore ,replace the Rabit mission, which is due to end on 2 March.
Regarding the concrete tools the EU can make available to the member states, Commissioner Malmström stressed the emergency envelope of €25 million, which is already available (this sum corresponds to the emergency envelopes of three European funds devoted to asylum and refugees) and said that she was prepared to find additional European money.
These measures are fundamentally insufficient, said some of the MEPs, calling for a proper short- and medium-term strategy to help these countries of North Africa, and Libya in particular, to face up to a genuine humanitarian crisis. In the view of some MEPs, European action, which has been illustrated mainly in the evacuation of European nationals from Libya, even appears “cynical”, said MEP Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), when “all this time, people are being killed”. In the view of Spanish MEP Carmen Romero Lopez (S&D), being concerned about possible flows of migrants from Libya or problems with the energy supplies of the EU is bordering on the “obscene”.
Many MEPs taxed the member states over the solidarity of the 27 in asylum and immigration matters. “The Council must act”, said Sargentini. Malmström also felt that things would be easier to predict if the European asylum system was already in place: “It would have been preferable to have an asylum system already in force today”. She went on to point out that the Council has not so far shown “any great enthusiasm” on the matter.
Although some member states might not like it, the issue will be on their table on Friday 11 March, as a special summit has been convened to take stock of the situation in Libya, by request of France, the United Kingdom, but also by Italy and the countries of southern Europe, which are also calling for greater solidarity in asylum and immigration affairs. (S.P./transl.fl)