The European Commission has granted Italy additional funds to help it deal with the influx of migrants and has extended the operation of the EU’s border control mission in the Mediterranean to the end of the year.
The Commission fell short of calls for it to take bold measures to replace the Mare Nostrum mission, the Italian initiative whose reach extended to offshore Libya.
It only said that it was ready to accommodate further Italian requests if need be.
Malta was not mentioned during the press conference in Brussels, where Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos announced the new measures.
Until a few months ago, Malta was spoken of in the same breath as Italy whenever the migration issue on the EU’s southern borders cropped up in Brussels. When Italy launched Mare Nostrum, the number of migrants reaching Malta’s shores declined sharply, with the population occupying detention centres plummeting.
Arrivals remain relatively meagre compared to previous years, even after Mare Nostrum came to an end and the Triton mission, coordinated by EU border control agency Frontex, took over in November. The result is that the Commission’s focus is now on Italy. “I want to send a message that Italy is not alone,” Migration Commissioner Avramopolous said in Italian, with a backdrop displaying the same message.
“We will do whatever it takes to help Italy take the necessary measures when facing these migratory flows from northern Africa,” he said.
In response to Italy’s formal request to the Commission for more help, it announced two concrete steps.
We will do whatever it takes to help Italy take the necessary measures when facingthese migratory flows from northern Africa
Triton was meant to be wound up in a few months’ time but its duration has now been extended to at least the end of the year. This requires an additional budget of €18 million.
The Commission also announced an additional €13.7 million of emergency funding to Italy to help the authorities deal better with the migratory flows.
Last weekend alone, Italian rescue boats brought 2,000 migrants ashore in Lampedusa and Sicily, and hundreds more in the previous days, many of them from 50 miles off Libya.
The Commission, however, did not respond to the request for Triton to extend its area of operation and work more closely to Libyan shores instead of in its current location off southern Italy.
Questioned on the issue, the Commissioner was diplomatic: “We will be prepared to help Italy as much as possible if and when Italy asks for this specific help.”
He reiterated that Frontex could not take on the role of member states where it comes to search and rescue operations and noted again that the agency depended on assets and personnel provided by member states.
Amnesty International de-scribed the news from Brussels as: “Right words. No solution.”
“We agree that a European solution is urgently needed.
“But extending operation Triton without increasing its assets and operational area changes nothing,” said Iverna McGowan, acting director of Amnesty International’s Brussels office.
Countering criticism that Triton is not effective, Mr Avramopoulos said that since the its launch, nearly 19,500 people have been saved, of which close to 6,000 directly due to the deployment of Triton.
EU member states are now expected to discuss again the issue of increasing flows of migrants to Europe during the next meeting of EU Home Affairs Minsters next month.