Malta provides helicopter for Lampedusa mission

A helicopter from Malta has joined the Frontex mission at Lampedusa helping Italy cope with the wave of illegal immigrants from Tunisia, although the EU also has an eye on the Libyan coast, deeply worried at the possibility of a tsunami from there.

Malta is also providing experts who are among a group of 30 sent to the Italian island from Belgium, Austria, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Spain. The Lampedusa mission, dubbed Hermes 2011, kicked off on Sunday.

A spokesman for Frontex, the EU border agency, said yesterday it was very satisfied with the prompt response of many member states when asked to donate assets and personnel to the mission.

Other assets being used include planes from Germany, France and the Netherlands as well as a helicopter from Spain. Sea cover is being provided solely by the Italian navy through two patrol boats.

As the EU struggles to respond to the flow of Tunisian migrants, who at one stage reached 5,000 following the turmoil in their country, its radar is now also trained on the Libyan coast amid fears the current unrest would result in a massive exodus of Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans to the EU.

A European Commission spokesman said the EU was preparing for such an eventuality. He said one of the measures being considered was to extend the Lampedusa mission to cover also Libya, with more assets and personnel. This was only one option, he said, as the EU was working on a number of other possible initiatives.

“We are working on these plans although, despite the turmoil in Libya, no migration flows from this country have been experienced so far,” he said.

However, he admitted that things might change very rapidly and the Commission was aware of the risks. “We are very conscious we might soon have a big migration problem and we are preparing for it,” he said.

According to estimates, between 750,000 and one million Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans might be tempted to cross over to Europe because of the current crisis. In that eventuality, the countries most likely to be affected would be Malta and Italy.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini yesterday made another appeal to the EU to be prepared to share the burden as he reiterated his fear of a “massive influx”.

The issue is expected to dominate the agenda of a meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Brussels tomorrow. In preparation, the home affairs ministers of six Mediterranean member states, including Malta, are meeting in Rome today to agree on a common front.