Brussels, 04/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 September, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström and the director general of Frontex (responsible for the management of operational cooperation at the external borders of the EU member states), Gil Arias-Fernandez, gave MEPs in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee details of the operation that Frontex is due to lead in the Mediterranean as of November (in line with Italy's request). Malmström and Arias-Fernandez reiterated that this operation, known as Triton, will not replace the current Mare Nostrum operation off the coast of Libya, which the Italian authorities want to stop. Besides the fact that the Frontex operation will be conducted much closer to the European coast, it will not focus on rescue at sea but on monitoring and managing the EU's borders. “Our operation will be called Triton”, said Arias-Fernandez, and it will cover the operation areas of Hermes and Aeneas - two operations that are already underway and that are being conducted off Sicily, between Calabria and Puglia. The operation will reportedly cost €3 million per month. A further technical meeting is planned for Rome on Friday 5 September to continue finalising the details of this operation, Arias-Fernandez stated. “Once these details are settled, we will launch a call for the member states to participate”, he said, adding that he was confident that European emergency funds will be released for this new operation. He believed that this release of funds was “possible” and said that the operation's success would, moreover, depend on it. Triton's success will also depend on the contribution from member states and on the logistical means they make available. However, it will first and foremost be an issue of monitoring arrivals on the European shores and not, as a priority, patrolling in order to rescue migrants in distress - even if Frontex is sometimes “obviously obliged in its missions to carry out rescues at sea”.
On Wednesday 3 September, Malmström told MEPs that this mission would not replace Mare Nostrum and that the fate of Mare Nostrum was only in the gift of the Italian authorities. The operation costs Italy €9 million per month and, on Thursday morning, several voices even became raised when criticising the perverse effects of this operation - an operation that risks creating “a suction effect”. Indeed, aware that the Italian vessels patrol off the Libyan coast, traffickers are quick to put less fuel in their boats and to cut down on food and water for the migrants, counting on the fact that the Italian navy will take action.
Arias-Fernandez painted a new and worrying picture of the situation in the Mediterranean, confirming a very large rise in the detections of migrants. At the end of July, Frontex noted “121,000 cases of detection”, he said, compared with “107,000 for the whole of 2013”. “If this continues” migrant departures will even be more numerous than in 2011 - the year of the Arab Spring when Frontex counted 115,000 arrivals. At the end of July, arrivals had outnumbered the total detections in 2009 and 2010.
Most departures are made through Libya, “which no longer controls its borders at all”, said Arias-Fernandez, through the Aegean Sea (a new crossing point since the Greek-Turkish land borders have been strengthened), through Morocco and Spain. Syrians and Eritreans are the most represented nationalities. “Very few request asylum when they arrive in Italy”, and they try to go to Scandinavian countries, Arias-Fernandez continued. Many migrants also try to avoid recording their fingerprints, as they have been told about the Eurodac system, he said. (SP)