Category Archives: News

by | 27 Feb 2011 · 04:26

More Assets Dedicated to Frontex Joint Operation “Hermes Extension”; More EU and NATO Naval Forces Present in Central Mediterranean

The assets dedicated to Joint Operation Hermes Extension continue to increase, although at present there are only two coastal patrol boats (Italian) participating in the Frontex  mission.  Ten surveillance aircraft will soon be deployed.  See the table with the list of resources below.

While the naval assets dedicated to JO Hermes Extension are minimal, there is a growing number of EU and NATO naval ships in the Central Mediterranean.  Nicolas Gros-Verheyde (writing on the Bruxelles2 blog (FR)) has counted 14 naval ships from EU states that are present in the waters near Libya; the ships consist of destroyers, frigates, electronic surveillance ships, and supply and support ships.   Additionally, Turkey has two naval ships in the area.

Some of the naval ships have already been used to evacuate European and other non-Libyan nationals from Libya.  What additional activity the EU ships may engage in remains to be seen.  They may become involved in military activities (presumably with UN authority (?)) and/or they may play a yet undetermined role should there be a sudden flow of migrants and asylum seekers from Libya.  If there is a sudden and significant migratory flow, the naval ships should function in a search and rescue manner, but there is always the possibility that if faced with large numbers of migrants, the navy vessels may be used to interdict, blockade, or otherwise to try to prevent migrants from leaving Libya.

Click here for link to Frontex update regarding deployed assets.

Click here and here for Bruxelles2 postings. (FR)

Table: Resources available to JO Hermes Extension 2011 as of February 25, 2011.

Italy (HMS) 2 Coastal Patrol Vessel, 1 aircraft, 5 experts, 2 cultural mediators
Austria 1 expert
Belgium 2 experts
Denmark 3-5 experts
France 10 experts, 1 aircraft
Germany 2 experts, 2 aircrafts
Hungary 2 experts
the Netherlands 1 aircraft, 2 experts
Portugal 7 experts, 1 aircraft
Romania 6 experts
Sweden 1 expert
Switzerland 2 experts
Spain 4 experts, 1 aircraft (at a later stage)

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by | 27 Feb 2011 · 01:33

Frontex Lampedusa Situational Map

Frontex posted a situational map showing current and past information regarding migrant flows from Tunisia to Italy.  The map is dated 25 Feb. 2011.

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by | 26 Feb 2011 · 18:22

Frontex Work Programme for 2011

Frontex’s 139 page work programme for 2011 is available on its web site.  I have not reviewed it yet.  It was presented to the JHA Council earlier in the week.

Click here for the document.

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by | 26 Feb 2011 · 17:46

LIBE Meets 28 Feb-1 March with Full Agenda

LIBE will meet on Monday and Tuesday with a full and timely agenda.  I’ll try to post summaries of several of the meeting documents which are now posted on the EP LIBE Meeting Document page later today or Sunday.

Here are some of the agenda items to be voted on or considered:

28 Feb. 2011, 15.00  (room PHS, Hemicycle)

Item 4. Adoption of Draft Opinion – Migration Flows arising from Instability: Scope and Role of the EU Foreign Policy

[Frenzen’s note – the draft opinion on which the vote will be taken is dated 14 January 2011 and was prepared before the current situation in North Africa became apparent].

Click here for Draft Opinion and here for Amendments 1-53.

Item 12. Consideration of Amendments – Minimum standards on procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing international protection (recast)

Click here for Draft Report  and here for Amendments 54 – 286.

Click here for “Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on minimum standards on procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing international protection.”

Item 15. Consideration of Working Document – European Union’s Internal Security Strategy

Click here for Part 1 of the Working Document on the European Union’s internal security strategy and here for Part 2.

1 March 2011, 9.00 (Meeting with the Council and Commission – N.B. this part of the meeting will be held in meeting room JAN 4 Q 2)

Item 17. The democratic process in the central Mediterranean area, the impact on migration fluxes and the EU immigration and asylum policy.

Exchange of views in the presence of:

  • The Hungarian Presidency, H.E. Peter GYÖRKÖS, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the EU
  • European Commission representative (name to be confirmed)
  • Mr. Ilkka LAITINEN, Executive Director of Frontex (European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the EU)

No documents for this item have been posted.

Click here for the Full Agenda of the LIBE meeting and here for the Meeting Documents page.

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by | 26 Feb 2011 · 06:26

Special web page – CIR “Emergenza Nord Africa”

Consiglio Italiano per i Rifugiati (CIR) created a special web page – Emergenza Nord Africa – which is tracking migration and other related aspects of the North African crisis.

Click here (IT).

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by | 25 Feb 2011 · 07:08

Most EU States View Italy’s Concerns Over Refugee Threat As Grossly Exaggerated

The JHA Council yesterday rejected Italy’s call for a stronger EU response to what it describes as an impending migrant flow from North Africa consisting of hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers.  Several EU governments described the Italian request as one that was based on exaggerated fears.  Hungary’s interior minister, Sandor Pinter, told reporters that “we shouldn’t paint the devil on the wall until he appears.”  German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said “we shouldn’t be painting horror figures and encouraging refugees to come to Europe.”  Another accused Italy of “crying wolf.”

IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said that while Italy should not shoulder a refugee burden on its own, no Libyans have arrived in Italy to date and she rejected the Italian estimates:  “I don’t think in any shape or form you are going to see one-and-a-half million migrants suddenly flood into Europe.  That is really not going to happen at all.  That would really be fear mongering to the extreme.”

Italy has done itself and neighbouring countries a disservice by repeatedly speaking of an “exodus of biblical proportions” and by suggesting that many hundreds of thousands of migrants are poised to take to the sea to try to reach Italy and Malta from Libya.  These estimates are in all likelihood grossly exaggerated.

But even if you agree that Italy’s feared numbers are exaggerations, the fact that no irregular migrant or asylum seeker has apparently yet left Libya by sea is not at all surprising.  Libya is in chaos and few people are likely to try to depart the country by sea until the level of violence begins to diminish.  Libya has (or had) a functioning network of human traffickers and they will be ready to begin exploiting the chaos and to take advantage of desperate people seeking to flee at some point in the future.  If Gaddafi manages to remain in power, once he is no longer concerned with his personal survival, his thoughts will at some point turn to revenge.  Libya will presumably cease cooperating with Italy on the bi-lateral pushback practice, and Gaddafi will tolerate or encourage irregular migration towards Europe.  So Italy is correct in that there is a real threat of significant numbers of migrants and asylum seekers leaving from Libya some time in the near future.  The numbers could easily and quickly surpass the 6,000 who have left Tunisia for Lampedusa.  Could the numbers surpass 30,000?  30,000 asylum seekers entered Sweden last year (population 9 million – Italy’s population is 50+ million) and Sweden has not received any extraordinary EU assistance as a result.  Could the numbers exceed the hundreds of thousands that fled the Balkan wars in the 1990s?  Possible, but probably not very likely.

Click here, here, here, here, and here for articles.  (EN)

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by | 25 Feb 2011 · 05:52

AlertNet: Poor migrant workers feared unable to flee Libya violence

From AlertNet: “Tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia may be trapped by the escalating violence in Libyan cities, unable to leave the country because they cannot pay for transport to border areas, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday. … ‘We are very concerned for all those migrants who may wish to leave, but cannot,’ Laurence Hart, IOM’s chief of mission for Libya, said in a statement. …  IOM spokesman Jean Philippe Chauzy told AlertNet around half a dozen states … to evacuate their nationals from Libya. The agency says it currently does not have the funds to launch such an operation, and will make an appeal for additional contributions on Friday. …  On Wednesday, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said it had received ‘alarming reports’ Libyans were turning on refugees from other African countries, suspecting them of being mercenaries fighting for Gaddafi’s administration. ‘African refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea have told us that just being a black face in Libya is very dangerous at the moment,’ spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told Reuters….”

Click here for full article.

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by | 25 Feb 2011 · 05:38

94% Approval Rate for Refugee Status Claims Made by People Arriving by Boat in Australia

According to an article in The Australian, “the Immigration Department approved 94 per cent of all refugee status claims from people arriving illegally by boat, after initial assessments and independent merits reviews, between October 2008 and December 22 last year.  In stark contrast, the department approved only 39 per cent of protection visa requests for non-boat arrivals in the first half of this financial year…”  “South Australian independent MP Bob Such, who lodged the [Freedom of Information] request [which resulted in the release of the data], said the high number of successful refugee claims by people arriving by boat showed the federal government’s detention policies were ‘flawed’. ‘Not only is the current policy costly and harmful to their mental state, it’s costly to Australia,’ Dr Such said. ‘They’re spending hundreds of millions . . . on detaining people who are no threat at all.’…”

Click here for full article.

(As reported in the Human Rights Law Resource Centre (Australia) Human Rights News Stories for the week ending 25 February 2011.)

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by | 25 Feb 2011 · 05:14

Organisation Chart for the European External Action Service

I can’t figure out how to post a legible chart, you therefore need to view the chart on the EEAS web site (click here) to fully comprehend (if possible) the organisational structure of the EEAS.  Presumably this is a work in progress.

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by | 24 Feb 2011 · 20:48

JHA Council: Commission is Studying Different Funding Possibilities to Assist with Impact of Migratory Flows from North Africa

A Justice and Home Affairs press release summarizing today’s JHA Council meeting includes the following brief summary regarding the topic of migratory flows from North Africa:

“Over lunch, ministers discussed the situation in Northern Africa, and particularly the situation in Libya and the influx of migrants, above all from Tunisia to Italy. Since the beginning of the year, some 6000 immigrants have arrived mainly to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Following a formal request for help from the Italian Ministry of Interior, received on February 15, Frontex and Italy have started a Joint Operation in the central Mediterranean area on Sunday 20 February. Joint Operation Hermes 2011, originally planned to commence in June, was thus brought forward. Assets and experts for this operation were made available from a large number of EU member states. More information.  In addition to that, the Commission is studying different funding possibilities through various EU instruments, such as the European Refugee Fund, the European Return Fund and the European Border Fund.”

It is unclear whether the JHA Council will address this topic further tomorrow when the Council meeting resumes.

Click here for full JHA press release.

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by | 24 Feb 2011 · 16:48

ALDE: EU must be fully prepared for dealing with migrants fleeing persecution in Libya

ALDE issued a press release earlier today.  Excerpts:  “[T]he European Union must seek urgently prevent a humanitarian disaster but also prepare a contingency plan for the possible mass flux of refugees fleeing the country and seeking temporary sanctuary across the Mediterranean. Renate Weber MEP (PNL, Romania), Liberal Group spokesperson on the Justice and Home Affairs committee commented: ‘[***] It is appalling that while thousands of people are being killed, the EU is failing to show the unity and determination to force Gaddafi out due to some EU governments’ reluctance to jeopardise lucrative business deals with Libya and fears of massive migrant flows. If we are faced with a large scale influx of Libyans seeking humanitarian protection then the EU and its Member States will have to apply EU values and laws in force governing such circumstances, including international conventions, related to the protection of the life and the rights of refugees.  Art. 78.3 of the Treaty, specifically provides for the granting of temporary protection and provisional measures in case of the sudden influx of migrants. Anything else would be a dereliction of our international duty.’”

Click here for full statement.

 

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by | 24 Feb 2011 · 07:17

Italy, France, Spain, Malta, Cyprus Call for Redistribution of Asylum Seekers

The Ministers of the Interior of Italy, France, Spain, Malta and Cyprus met in Rome on Wednesday in advance of today’s JHA Council meeting and agreed to ask the EU for assistance in regard to the expected flow of migrants from North Africa.  The Ministers will call for the creation of a special EU fund to provide financial support to the frontline states directly affected by significant numbers of migrants and for the redistribution or relocation of asylum seekers among all EU member states so that the states of first arrival do not experience an unfair burden.  Michele Cercone, spokesperson for Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, noted that current European standards do not provide a mechanism for the redistribution between member states of migrants seeking asylum, other than on a voluntary basis.

Click here (IT) for article.

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by | 24 Feb 2011 · 07:12

Barroso Criticises Italy’s Use of Migration Issue to Not Support Democracy in North Africa

From the EU Observer:  “Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi is friends with Gaddafi…  Italy also has major oil, gas and arms interests in Libya and it fears a ‘biblical exodus’ of hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants and refugees if Gaddafi snaps.  The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, on Wednesday made an implicit criticism of Italian policy. ‘This question of migration, or of illegal migration, or even of refugees, is sometimes used as a way of not supporting democracy and I do not agree with that,’ [Barroso] said after meeting a top UN human rights official in the EU capital.”

Click here (EN) and here (IT) for articles.

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by | 24 Feb 2011 · 05:55

JHA Council Meets 24-25 Feb – Meeting Topics Include North African Migrants, EASO, Greek Asylum Reform, EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement, and Frontex 2011 Work Programme

The two day JHA Council meeting begins today in Brussels.  According to the Background Note, “ministers will discuss the major influx of migrants from Northern Africa, particularly from Tunisia, to Southern EU member states, especially Italy. They will also look at the state of play on three other important internal border and migration issues:  the implementation of Greece’s National Action Plan on Migration Management and Asylum Reform; [and] the EU-Turkey readmission agreement. In this context, the Communication will present an evaluation and future strategy for EU readmission agreements;…  Ministers will then have exchange of views with the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as with the Executive Director of the recently established European Asylum Support Office (EASO).”  Additionally, “FRONTEX will present to the committee its work programme for 2011.”

Click here for Background Note and here for Agenda.

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by | 23 Feb 2011 · 05:30

Italy Warns that 300,000 Migrants May Seek to Flee Libya; Tunisians Continue to Reach Lampedusa in Moderate Numbers

After a meeting yesterday of the Prime Minister and the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence,  Economy, Labour, Justice, and Interior, the government formed a standing committee to follow the crisis in Libya (“un comitato permanente sulla crisi libica”).  The committee will monitor the flow of migrants to Italy.  According to reports in the Italian press, the Italian Government believes that between 200,000-300,000 migrants may seek to reach Italy if conditions in Libya continue to worsen.  Three Italian naval ships, the San Marco, San Giorgio and Mimbelli, have been moved close to Libya in order to be ready to assist with the evacuation of Italian citizens should it become necessary.  Tunisian migrants continue to arrive in Lampedusa.  Over the past day approximately 200 arrived.

Click here, here, and here for articles. (IT)

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