MEP lambastes Frontex head

Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil yesterday dismissed the claim made by the chief of the EU's border agency Frontex that its anti-migration mission in the Mediterranean, Nautilus III, is a failure.

Dr Busuttil, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the EU's Common Migration Policy, called Illika Laitinen's comments "clumsy" and "bizarre", accusing him of trying to shed his responsibility.

"I find Mr Laitinen's comments rather clumsy because, taken to its logical conclusion, it means that Frontex missions should be stopped. This would relieve Mr Laitinen of a great deal of responsibility but it would still leave Malta on its own in the face of a constant flow of immigration amounting to 2,000 arrivals per year. And what then?" he asked in comments to The Times.

Dr Busuttil also raised the issue with European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot during a meeting of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee yesterday.

The Sunday Times reported Mr Laitinen saying that the patrols being conducted in the central Mediterranean region, comprising the sea stretch between Sicily, Malta and Libya, are not achieving the desired results.

He claimed that, on the contrary, the EU's increased patrols in the sea off Malta and Lampedusa might be one of the main reasons why the two islands have this year received more migrants than ever. He said that traffickers force migrants to sink their boats close to the coasts of the two islands so that they would be saved by Frontex vessels and taken ashore.

Describing such comments as "bizarre", Dr Busuttil said the suggestion perpetrated by Mr Laitinen and some EU member states - that any support for Malta would act as a pull factor for migrants - was an easy way out of helping Malta.

"This would bizarrely mean that we are better off without any help at all because help might make things worse. But we all know that we need help because the burden we are carrying is disproportionate."

Dr Busuttil, who has been instrumental in getting the European Parliament to increase the Frontex's budget by 30 per cent, precisely so that the agency will have the necessary funds to carry out this year's six-month patrol mission off Malta, insisted that Frontex could be effective if it managed to persuade other countries, particularly Libya, to cooperate.

"Frontex could be much more effective if it convinced other EU member states to participate in its missions rather than leaving Maltese and Italian boats on their own," he insisted.

"Most importantly, Frontex could be more effective if it persuaded Libya to join its missions so that boat people are truly deterred from leaving Libya in the first place and intercepted boats could be redirected back to Libya."

A mission similar to Nautilus III, this time undertaken by Frontex off the coasts of the Spanish Canary Islands, is having much better results. Called Hera, the mission has the collaboration of third countries (Mauritania and Senegal) from where immigrants embark only to be immediately turned back when intercepted by Frontex.

Dr Busuttil said that, instead of taking the easy way out and stopping missions by calling them a failure, as Mr Laitinen implied, "Frontex should be getting its act together and making its missions more effective."