More than 116,000 immigrants have come to the Italian coasts so far this year.
Julio García. Madrid.
The Civil Guard will participate in the operation Frontex Plus against illegal immigration in the Mediterranean with a ship, a plane and 25 agents, according to reliable sources. Spain will be one of the most active countries in the new operation, called “Tritón”, which will have the participation of several European States of the Mediterranean and whose objective is to stop the arrival of illegal immigrants to the coasts of the south of Italy.
With the “Tritón” operation, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex) tries to strengthen “Hermes” and “Enea” in the Mediterranean at the end of November. These, along with the Italian operation “Mare Nostrum”, fight against illegal immigration towards Italy’s coasts, where more than 116,000 illegal immigrants have arrived so far this year.
Spain has already proven to have experience in this kind of operations and it has been one of the countries with the greatest presence in that carried out by Frontex in waters of the Atlantic in 2006 to stop the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants to the coasts of the Canary Islands, coming by boat from the coasts of Morocco and Senegal mainly.
The flow of illegal immigrants has increased in the Mediterranean in the last years, and big tragedies have taken place with the loss of numerous human lives. This has taken Frontex to allocate European funds to face the problems that illegal immigration has caused in several countries of the Mediterranean such as Cyprus, Malta, France, Bulgaria and Greece, among others, where thousands of illegal immigrants have arrived.
Sources of the European Commission in Madrid explain to The Diplomat that the Commission values the efforts made by the Italian authorities to save lives through the operation of “Mare Nostrum” in the Mediterranean, and that, at the moment, the EU is working to define the needs and the geographical coverage of “Tritón” with the greatest accuracy possible.
Besides, it understands that the success of this new operation will depend on the contribution of the member States of the EU. “We ask the member States to use the resources out of solidarity. It is not a EU matter to assume or replace ‘Mare Nostrum’. It is a gesture of solidarity of the EU with Italy to manage its frontiers, which is a common interest”, the EC affirms.
Frontex needs greater participation from the member States of the EU, according to the Commission
Italy has been the main country benefiting from the funds of the EU for the migration, asylum and management of the borders. They estimate at more than 466 million euros the contribution needed for the period 2014-2020. The operations “Hermes” and “Enea” have a budget of 11.5 million euros for 2014 from Frontex. The EC points out that “Tritón” will need additional funds, so it will be necessary to increase the participation of other member States of the EU.
The Spanish Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, has already committed to his Italian counterpart, Angelino Alfano, to support Frontex in this new initiative at the south border of the transalpine country, with the objective of stopping the arrival of illegal immigrants, most of them coming from the countries of the so called “Arab Spring”.
