LIBE will reconvene today, 1 March, 09:00-10:30, to discuss “the situation in the central Mediterranean…. They will consider the democratisation process in the region and its impact on migration flows and EU immigration and asylum policy. In attendance: Hungarian Presidency representative, H.E. Peter Györkös, Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs and Ilkka Laitinen, Executive Director of Frontex, the EU border security agency.”
Click here for live coverage.
Filed under European Union, Frontex, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
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) |
Filed under Algeria, Data / Stats, European Union, Frontex, General, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
Frontex posted a situational map showing current and past information regarding migrant flows from Tunisia to Italy. The map is dated 25 Feb. 2011.
Filed under Algeria, Data / Stats, European Union, Frontex, Italy, Malta, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
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:
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.
Filed under European Union, Frontex, Libya, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
From CIR: “…[I]l Network Euro Mediterraneo per i Diritti dell’Uomo ha organizzato una missione di raccolta informazioni, che si è svolta dal 18 al 24 febbraio prima in Tunisia e poi in Italia. La missione era composta da rappresentanti di organizzazioni membro del Network e di partner e da esperti del Nord e del Sud del Mediterraneo. La missione ha potuto raccogliere testimonianze e informazioni dirette, tanto in Tunisia che in Italia.
La missione ha permesso di smentire sia la tesi della presenza massiva tra i migarnti arrivati in Italia di delinquenti di diritto comune evasi dalle carceri, sia quella di un complotto migratorio che sarebbe stato ordito dalla Libia e dai nostalgici di Ben Ali.
Nel corso della missione, le preoccupazione legate agli avvenimenti drammatici che sconvolgono la Libia hanno, in qualche maniera, soppiantato gli interrogativi che circondano i migranti tunisini.
Al termine di questa missione, il Network formula le seguenti raccomandazioni:
Alle autorità italiane:
Alle autorità tunisine
Alle autorità europee
Click here (IT) for full CIR post.
See also CIR “Emergenza Nord Africa”.
Filed under European Union, General, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean, Reports, Statements, Tunisia
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).
Filed under European Union, Italy, Libya, News, Tunisia
ECRE issued a statement earlier today. Here is the full statement:
As the situation in Libya is worsening and the world is watching the atrocities of Gaddafi’s regime, European governments are stepping up efforts to evacuate their citizens outside the country. The repression is brutal and just as British, Turkish, Egyptians and other foreigners, some Libyans and refugees from sub-Saharan countries unable to go back and stranded in Libya will need refuge from violence and human rights abuses.
At this historical moment, on the other side of the Mediterranean, the EU needs to live up to its obligations to protect those fleeing the violence.
With or without Frontex, border control operations carried out at sea cannot result in persons being returned to Libya without assessing in a fair asylum procedure whether they are in need of international protection.
Some European governments have warned of an exodus of biblical proportions. The truth is that what will happen is totally unpredictable. For the moment, those leaving the country seem to be travelling to Egypt or remaining elsewhere in the region. So far, according to the EU Border Agency Frontex, some 5.500 people, mainly Tunisians, arrived to Lampedusa in January and February. This is nowhere near the number that would make an asylum system of a country such as Italy collapse.
Even if the number of people arriving to Europe would increase dramatically, to the extent that an immediate and individual assessment of their protection needs would no longer be possible, the EU has already at its disposal the tools to ensure that people can reach a safe haven. The Temporary Protection Directive, adopted after the Kosovo crisis, allows Member States to grant immediately a protection status to persons who arrive in Europe in the context of so-called mass influx and makes it possible for Member States to better share responsibility through the relocation of refugees protected under this scheme to other EU countries.
In addition, the recently established European Asylum Support Office has the competence to deploy national asylum experts to EU Member States receiving high numbers of asylum seekers. Although the agency is not yet operational, ad hoc solutions can be found if need be.
Finally, the EU’s decision to suspend the negotiations with Libya on a framework agreement, which included cooperation in the field of immigration and asylum, is indeed the only sensible thing to do. Libya’s poor human rights record was well known when last year the European Commission agreed to offer the dictatorship € 50m over the next 3 years to reinforce Tripoli’s capacity to prevent migrants from entering the Southern border and from crossing the Mediterranean towards Europe. According to the European Commission, no money has been disbursed so far. The bloodshed in the country and the regime’s attempts to blackmail the EU by threatening with breaking its cooperation on controlling migration towards Europe, showed clearer than ever who the EU was willing to trust to control migration to Europe. This cannot go on.
Contact
Ana Fontal
Senior Press and Public Information Officer
Tel: +32 2 212 08 12
Mobile: + 32 (0) 486 531 676
Click here for link to statement.
Filed under European Union, Frontex, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean, Statements, Tunisia
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)
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.
Filed under Aegean Sea, European Union, Frontex, Libya, Mediterranean, News, Statements, Tunisia
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.
The UNHCR “welcomed the positive indications it has received over the past two days from Tunisia and Egypt that they will maintain open borders for people fleeing the continuing violence in Libya.”
Click here for full statement.
Filed under Egypt, Libya, Mediterranean, Statements, Tunisia, UNHCR
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.
Filed under Aegean Sea, European Union, Frontex, Greece, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia, Turkey, UNHCR
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)
Filed under European Union, Frontex, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
Migreurop: “Depuis le début des années 2000, l’Union européenne et ses États membres se sont appuyés sur les régimes du sud de la Méditerranée pour externaliser leur politique d’asile et d’immigration. Face aux révoltes populaires en Afrique du Nord et au Moyen-Orient, leurs réactions montrent que la « défense de la démocratie » et la « non ingérence » ne sont que rhétoriques quand il s’agit de réaffirmer les impératifs d’une fermeture des frontières attentatoire aux droits fondamentaux….”
Cliquez ici (FR) ou ici (ES) pour la déclaration complète.
Filed under Analysis, European Union, Libya, Mediterranean, Statements, Tunisia
The conclusions of the just completed EU Council meeting on Foreign Affairs were released yesterday. Not surprisingly, Libya was a major topic of discussion and there was condemnation of the Libyan government’s actions. But there is a strong difference of opinion among member states regarding what else should be done. Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb called for the imposition of sanctions against Gaddafi, his family, and Libyan government officials saying “it was hypocritical that Europe last month slapped sanctions on the Belarussian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, and his associates. ‘How can we on one side look at what’s going on in Libya, with almost 300 people shot dead, and not talk about sanctions or travel bans, and at the same time put travel bans and sanctions in Belarus?’.” Italy strongly opposed imposing sanction against Libya: Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for a “European Marshall Plan” instead of sanctions. His plan would “include political, economic, and social support” for Libya.
Among the agreed upon conclusions was the following: “The Council stresses the importance of strengthened cooperation with Mediterranean countries to address illegal immigration, in accordance with the principles of international law. JHA Ministers meeting later this week in the Council will pursue detailed work on this issue.”
Click here for the Foreign Affairs Council Meeting Conclusions.
Click here, here, here, and here for articles. (EN)
Filed under Communiqués, European Union, Italy, Libya, Mediterranean, News, Tunisia
MIGRANTS AT SEA 