After debating the issue with the Commission and the Presidency of the Council of the EU on Wednesday 12 July, MEPs adopted a resolution on 13 July by a vote by show of hands, calling on the Member States and the Frontex agency to step up their resources and operations to search for and rescue migrants at sea.
The resolution also calls for a European search and rescue operation at sea to be established.
Prompted by a new shipwreck off the coast of Greece in mid-June, which claimed more than 82 victims and could have left more than 600 missing, the resolution calls on the EU and the Member States to launch “more active and coordinated search and rescue operations” and to provide sufficient resources in terms of vessels, equipment and personnel dedicated to these operations.
Member States will also have to make full use of vessels operated by NGOs.
The resolution also condemns smuggling networks and human trafficking, while reaffirming that safe and legal channels, in particular through resettlement, are the best way to avoid losses at sea.
MEPs also propose that more information on the dangers of this route be disseminated to residents of third countries.
On cooperation with third countries, the resolution calls on the Commission to provide exhaustive information on the types of support provided by the EU and its Member States to border and coast guards in third countries, such as Libya, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
Conditionality of EU funds
As rescued persons should only be disembarked in a place of safety, MEPs urge the Commission and the national authorities to assess allegations of serious fundamental rights violations by the Libyan coast guard and to end cooperation if those breaches are proven, the adopted text stipulates.
MEPs also call on the Commission to present “proposals to make funding to third countries conditional on them cooperating to manage migration flows and on the fight against human traffickers and migrant smugglers”. On this last point, the ECR group’s amendment was adopted by a narrow majority, with 285 votes in favour, 280 against and 8 abstentions.
On Wednesday, during the debate with Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the EPP Group and its representative, Lukas Mandl (Austrian), placed special emphasis on the need to counter the disinformation given by smugglers to would-be migrants.
“The start of this chain is disinformation about what awaits them in the EU, and the people smugglers pass on this information”, he noted, adding that this is “one of the worst forms of organised crime”; most of the people who arrive will not be granted asylum.
“We’re not going to give up until the Council and the Commission confronts this challenge head on”, commented Germany’s Birgit Sippel (S&D).
The Parliament will “ensure that there is a coordinated European rescue mission inspired by ‘Mare nostrum’ (the operation carried out between 2013 and 2014 by the Italian navy and also in Libyan waters)”. But “saving human lives is not one of the conclusions of the European Council! The Member States are looking the other way” and “are even preventing NGOs from saving lives”, added the MEP, calling on the Member States to discharge their “responsibilities”.
Renew Europe MEP Fabienne Keller (French) and Cornelia Ernst of The Left (German) also supported this European rescue operation, with the German MEP calling on the Commissioner to take action “against Greece, whose actions are causing” these tragedies and “against Italy”.
The Ocean Viking grounded in Italy
On 11 July, the Italian authorities detained the vessel Ocean Viking belonging to the humanitarian NGO SOS Méditerranée, which had just disembarked 57 migrants rescued at sea. It is in the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome, after the Italian authorities identified a “very limited number of technical and administrative breaches”.
This administrative measure by the Italian coastguard is for an “indefinite duration”, according to a press release from SOS Méditerranée.
The NGO is actively working with all parties involved to find solutions to return to sea as quickly as possible, at a time when 2023 has already proved to be a particularly deadly year in the Mediterranean, the press release added.
Link to the resolution adopted: https://aeur.eu/f/81x (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)