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Matthew Vella
Karl Stagno-Navarra
The European Union’s border agency Frontex has been warning incoming boats carrying African migrants that they will face detention and other criminal procedures, if they illegally enter the territory of an EU member state.
With the commencement of the Nautilus 2007 mission to curb illegal migration at sea, would-be refugees and migrants are being warned at their entry into Malta’s search and rescue region of the consequences of illegal entry, a Frontex spokesperson confirmed.
Mihal Parzyszek said the member states which had deployed military assets at Europe’s borders will be watching out for flagless vessels. “They will be given a life-vest and allowed to pass on, and if they are in distress, they will be saved,” Parzyszek told MaltaToday.
While there is no question on the immediate response to rescue distressed migrants, naval assets that encounter migrants will not be ordered to turn back but informed that what they are doing is illegal.
Life vests will be provided to the migrants by personnel aboard the naval assets to ensure better safety at sea, while those on boats who will insist to pass through will be granted safe passage and monitored by the AFM until they reach Italian waters. Towards the West, boats will be escorted by Italian naval assets to Lampedusa.
Meanwhile, Malta will continue to invoke the right to safe passage to migrants who will insist on proceeding towards Italy.
“We are stopping boats, but it is in open sea, which means that they cannot be stopped unless it is for a serious reason.”
Frontex is currently deploying helicopters, patrol boats and aircraft in its bid to monitor the influx of irregular immigration across the Mediterranean. The participants in the Nautilus 2007 mission are Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy and Malta.
Member State experts will be shortly deployed to Malta to establish the identity and modus operandi of the entry of migrants.
Asked if any representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will be present, Parzyszek said Frontex had not invited the UNHCR to follow its activities.
“From our experience with the Hera II mission, only a few migrants apply for asylum. The rest are not refugees but just illegal migrants,” Parzyszek said.
However, the EU sponsored operation is a far cry from the desired response to the emergency situation that is developing in the Mediterranean with constant influxes of migrant boats.
Malta, who adamantly insisted on the patrols, is providing three patrol boats and almost half of its entire maritime squadron personnel, while the German airforce has set up a logistics base at Luqa and is providing two Puma helicopters that alternate on a day-on-day-off basis with daily three-hour patrol flights.
The Greek navy is providing two patrol vessels while Spain has promised to send a naval asset next week. France is expected to provide an aircraft next week also.
Contacted yesterday, Armed Forces of Malta Commander Carmel Vassallo expressed satisfaction at the commencement of the patrols, however he stated that as far as rules of engagement are concerned, all navies are coordinating their efforts in a bid to understand how serious the problem is on the high seas in the Mediterranean and to better gauge the migration influx.
Brigadier Vassallo denied the operation is taking the form of a naval blockade just off Libyan territorial waters and insisted that as far as he knows, “no boats are being ordered to turn back.”
However, news about the commencement of the joint patrols in the Mediterranean did not hinder more migrants from desperately trying to cross the Mediterranean from the Libyan coast towards Europe.
At least three migrants, including a young boy, were reported to have died of fatigue and dehydration and their bodies thrown overboard the crowded fibre-glass boat before it was rescued by the Italian navy.
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