On Thursday the Armed Forces of Malta gave details on the final phase of the Poseidon mission in Greece, on which a group of six soldiers from the AFM’s C Company will be embarking between in the coming weeks.
The mission is part of a three-phase, land-based Frontex operation in Greece for which three six-men teams from the AFM will be deployed.
Like most European endeavours, Frontex is about cooperation between member states. In the case of the Maltese troops recently sent on a mission to the island of Lesbos, the soldiers were volunteers signed up to the EU’s Rapid Reaction Force. Despite its limited size, it’s a selfless lot that takes part in Poseidon.
But African migration has represented a new challenge for the EU. Member states not attached to the Mediterranean littoral tend to be distant from the migration phenomenon at “ground zero”. But other large states also have been generous reception countries for refugees and large numbers of migrants from outside the EU.
In the end, Frontex faces a challenge as to who is ready to commit troops and equipment to save more lives in the Mediterranean and crack down on human traffickers.
Irrespective of the loud banging on the table, Frontex is at law powerless to intercept boats, unless they are carrying some illegal cargo. The right of safe passage prevents any Frontex personnel from stopping the boats crossing the Mediterranean. It is the illegality of entry into a country’s borders which constitutes a crime, not their passage. And once inside Malta, they retain the universal right to apply for protection under the Geneva Convention.
But as the AFM Commander Brigadier Carmelo Vassallo put it, Frontex has enhanced the chances of survival for many of these people crossing the treacherous sea on boats which are usually unseaworthy. By pitting the other member states’ resources in patrol missions below Malta’s vast search and rescue region, the strain on the AFM’s emergency humanitarian interventions is a little lighter.
The problem Frontex faces is, however, its lack of executive powers. CRATE, the acronym used for its military inventory, is an impressive collection of 21 airplanes, 27 helicopters, and 116 boats from various member states. But as Frontex director Ilka Laitinen says, these remain largely “on paper”. It ultimately depends on the will of member states to actually deploy their resources for the missions.
“The response was not strong at the start, but it is improving,” Brigadier Vassallo said. “We need to convince member states more on the need to deploy these resources. Frontex is something new, but gradually, more can be done to improve its response.”
But the vast Libyan coastline makes it an onerous task to monitor, and as events at the start of the week showed, with the arrival of 89 migrants in 24 hours just a day after Frontex missions resumed, the passage of boats continues unabated.
The parliamentary secretary responsible for the army, Tony Abela, claims the Frontex patrols act as a deterrent, in part explained by the fact that the navies on patrol have 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.
This was confirmed by a Frontex spokesperson at the start of the Nautilus 2007 mission to curb illegal migration at sea. 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 cannot turn them back, but only inform them that what they are doing is illegal. Life vests are provided to the migrants to ensure better safety at sea, while those on boats who insist on passing through are granted safe passage and monitored.
Abela claims the missions have allowed border guards to collect more intelligence on smuggling networks and departure points, and says that Libyan authorities have also beefed up monitoring on their coast.
“The right of innocent safe passage is safeguarded. But the AFM will intervene to save people on unseaworthy boats. In some cases, migrants have resisted being saved, but it is the AFM’s duty to do so. And in certain cases, the resistance was aggressive.”
But the challenge for Frontex is to encourage more states to contribute to the effort. Tony Abela called it a jigsaw puzzle. “We need more pieces for it to be really effective.”