Brussels, 05/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Action by the European Union and the Frontex Agency in the Mediterranean will again be at the crux of the issue given the fact that the Italian Navy, whose Mare Nostrum operation came to a close on 1 November 2014, has had to come to the assistance over the past few days to several bogus cargo ships containing migrants. These ships had been abandoned at sea by the traffickers in human beings and other smugglers.
The Frontex Agency took over from Mare Nostrum last November, with the setting up of the “Triton” operation and the much more reduced patrol zone, in the hope of discouraging human traffickers bringing migrants to the EU. It would appear that over the past few days, however, that the strategy pursued by the member states, has proved mistaken. On Wednesday 31 December 2014, the Italian navy had to come to the rescue of a cargo ship, the Blue Sky M, containing 800 migrants and which had been abandoned in the Adriatic Sea. Two days later, a cargo ship, the Ezadeen, flying a Sierra Leone flag, had to be rescued by the Italian Navy, with the assistance of an Icelandic ship participating in the Frontex operation (450 migrants had been abandoned by their crew off the Calabrian coast).
On 2 January 2015, the Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, welcomed the work carried out by the Italian authorities but recognised that the traffickers were using new methods, particularly that of using merchant ships and new routes to bring in migrants to the EU. He said that the fight against these traffickers would become an absolute priority in 2015.
The spokesperson for the Greek Commissioner repeated the fact that the Commission was examining a new comprehensive approach to migration, which will be presented in 2015. This approach will attempt to provide a response to tackling traffickers and the considerable amounts of money they make (one crossing can cost up to $8,000 per person). The Commission, however, was unable, on Monday 5 January, to provide an exact date of when the presentation of this new approach would take place. Nonetheless, it is expected to cover a raft of different aspects, including legal migration. The Greek Commissioner has called on member states to develop a common response to tackling these challenges.
Since 20 December 2014, three merchant vessels and almost 2,000 people have been rescued. Faced with criticism, the European Commission explained that since 1 November 16,000 people had been rescued by the Frontex agency and 57 traffickers had been arrested. Over the period of a year, between October 2013 and October 2014, Mare Nostrum had rescued more than 150,000 people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. (SP)