Mare Nostrum (naval operation)

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Mare Nostrum was an operation of the Italian Navy and Coast Guard in the Strait of Sicily to the rescue of migrants and refugees of mostly African countries . At the same time, the smugglers should be caught. It took place from October 18, 2013 to October 31, 2014.

Emergence

After more than 600 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean Sea within a few days in two boat accidents off Lampedusa at the beginning of October 2013, the Constant Vigilance surveillance operation, which had been running since 2004, was increased. Mare Nostrum started on October 18, 2013 under the direction of Admiral Guido Rando. The then Italian Defense Minister Mario Mauro said that the mother ships of the tugs should also be identified and that the refugee boats would be escorted to the mainland. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Operation Mare Nostrum saved around 150,000 people during the period of its activity.

Operation Mare Nostrum ended on October 31, 2014. Operation Triton began the following day, under the leadership of the EU border agency Frontex .

organization

Up until the end of December 2014, the Navy had an average of four ships in action. In addition to the Navy, the Italian Army , Air Force , Carabinieri , Customs and the Coast Guard are also participating in the operation.

As part of the 29º Gruppo navale , the Navy provided :

  • 1 landing ship as lead ship with contact persons from all authorities on board;
  • 1–2 frigates with associated on-board helicopters;
  • 2 corvettes or patrol boats with landing facilities for helicopters;
  • Transport ships;
  • AW101 helicopter, either on the DropShip or on land in Lampedusa , Pantelleria , Catania ;
  • P.180 reconnaissance aircraft with FLIR , based in Lampedusa.

In order to investigate and document the activities of people smugglers on so-called mother ships , the Navy also used submarines at times in cooperation with law enforcement authorities .

Under the operational control of the Navy, sea ​​scouts and air force drones were also deployed from Sigonella, Sicily .

Disputes about continuation

Italy repeatedly called for a pan-European distribution of the burden of rescuing and accommodating refugees.

On August 27, 2014, Cecilia Malmström and Angelino Alfano decided to continue the project in Europe. Accordingly, “Frontex Plus” is to gradually replace Mare Nostrum . According to research by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a non-public concept presented on August 28th speaks of an upgrade of the previous surveillance operations by Frontex. The normal work of coastal surveillance is to be expanded to include rescue operations. In contrast to Operation Mare Nostrum , there should be no rescue on the high seas, but only in the coastal area. Frontex calculates costs of 3 million euros per month. For Operation Mare Nostrum, Italy alone raised the monthly cost of 9.3 million euros for its operation.

Basic data

As part of Mare Nostrum , 900 marines equipped with amphibious vehicles, frigates and corvettes, supported by helicopters, drones and search aircraft, were deployed for a year to monitor a sea area of ​​around 70,000 square kilometers. The rescuers were in action for 45,000 hours.

100,000 people were saved and brought to Europe. 728 tugs were arrested, seven tug ships confiscated. Despite Mare Nostrum , 3,000 people died in the first 10 months of 2014 trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Refugee situation in the Mediterranean
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Number of entries across the Mediterranean 9,654 70,402 22,439 59,421 216.054 1,015,078
registered deaths in the Mediterranean 20th 1,500 500 600 3,500 3,771

Reactions to the operation

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told Mare Nostrum that it was Italy's duty to save lives in the Mediterranean. We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery. The EU must not just look the other way , said Renzi.

Criticism of the operation

The opposition party Lega Nord demanded the end of the naval operation in April 2014. This demand was justified by the fact that the prospect of rescue would increase the flow of refugees. Another reason was the cost of the operation.

There is a widespread opinion among European politicians that the operation is an additional incentive for refugees to take the risk of crossing.

According to the law professor and deputy chairman of the “Expert Council of German Foundations for Integration and Migration” Daniel Thym, the scientific study situation on the subject is thin and sometimes contradicting. So far, the studies have not provided much more than snapshots. Migration researcher Gerald Knaus from the European Stability Initiative think tank criticizes the fact that the term pull factor suggests an automatism that does not exist. However, he points out that the operation enabled a large number of people to reach Europe. This motivated more people to migrate to Europe via the Mediterranean route and thus also led to more deaths. Furthermore, the operation allegedly would have made their work easier for smugglers, because they could send refugees on their journey in unseaworthy boats.

Reactions abroad

The fact that Italy was the only European country to mobilize its navy, the coast guard and other authorities for such a rescue operation on its own initiative was recognized and supported by many people in Europe. Heribert Prantl wrote in a comment: It is shameful that the EU, which has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, is not even willing to take on the costs for the grandiose Italian rescue program Mare Nostrum. (...) Europe's politicians wash their hands in innocence - in the water in which the refugees drown.

At the end of September 2014, the German Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière , demanded that Mare Nostrum be replaced by a mission that primarily serves to return refugees. The federal government's plan emerges from a letter from de Maizière to the EU interior commissioner Cecilia Malmström, on which the ARD magazine Report Mainz reported. The letter urges the German Minister, as part of Frontex + the operations Hermes and Aeneas to strengthen. “We have to improve the implementation of our common return policy (...) within the EU with third countries. Such a work of identifying, together with the return policy, would also be an integral part of Operation Frontex +. "When asked by ARD magazine whether Frontex could not coordinate sea ​​rescue operations like Mare Nostrum , the Ministry of the Interior replied:" The agency has neither the mandate nor the resources. "

Initiatives to continue

The German network PRO ASYL made an urgent appeal to the European Parliament and its President Martin Schulz . Pro Asyl called for the EU to “end dying at its external borders and open legal, risk-free routes for refugees. A civil European sea ​​rescue must be established. The EU Parliament must immediately provide the necessary financial resources. ”Pro Asyl called citizens to support the appeal via an online vote.

In order not to passively accept the discontinuation of Mare Nostrum , the private project " Sea-Watch " has been using ships in the Mediterranean since May 2015 to document the situation of refugees with live images and, if possible, to provide help in distress.

Operation Triton

Operation Mare Nostrum officially ended on October 31, 2014 . Operation Triton began on November 1, 2014 under the leadership of the EU border agency Frontex . Triton was not intended to take over Mare Nostrum , nor to replace it in whole or in part. The primary task of Operation Triton is not rescue at sea, but rather securing the EU's external border against illegal immigration. Its operational area is essentially limited to the coastal area of ​​the EU, and its monthly budget should be a third of that of Mare Nostrum . Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Pro Asyl have therefore called for Operation Mare Nostrum to continue .

Italy's Navy supported the transition to Operation Triton in November and December 2014 with a surveillance operation in the central Mediterranean (Dispositivo navale di sorveglianza e sicurezza marittima) .

In April 2015 the budget of Triton was given at around 30 million euros annually, the former budget of Mare Nostrum at around 110 million euros annually.

Due to the termination of Mare Nostrum and the limited scope of action of Frontex and Triton, suitable sea rescue ships were lacking on site, so that merchant ships had to carry a significant part of the rescue operations. Frontex and the Italian Coast Guard were aware that the merchant ships were not suitable for such operations. When around 1,200 people were killed in two rescue attempts from commercial ships in April 2015 within a week, the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker called the termination of Mare Nostrum a serious mistake.

Broadcast reports

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Immigration: Italy launches Mare Nostrum, 400 more saved , ANSAmed, October 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/fluechtlinge-italien-beendet-rettungsaktion-mare-nostrum.1818.de.html?dram:article_id=301920
  4. ↑ Warships to lifeboats. In: sueddeutsche.de. August 20, 2014, accessed July 9, 2018 .
  5. ^ Italian Navy picks up more than a thousand boat refugees , T-Online, April 22, 2014.
  6. ^ Operation Mare Nostrum , on marina.difesa.it
  7. ↑ http://www.proasyl.de/de/news/detail/news/europas_schande_triton_und_mare_nostrum_im_vergleich/
  8. ↑ Avvicendamento al vertice dell'Operazione “Mare Nostrum” , marina.difesa.it, November 27, 2013
  9. ^ Operazione Mare Nostrum, determinante l'intervento del sommergibile Prini per il sequestro di un peschereccio e il fermo di 16 scafisti , marina.difesa.it, October 3, 2014
  10. ^ Mare Nostrum: Atlantic sorveglia barcone , aeronautica.difesa.it, June 17, 2014
  11. ↑ Extracts from the press briefing by Cecilia MALMSTRÖM, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, meets with Angelino ALFANO, Italian Minister of the Interior , ec.europa.eu.
  12. ↑ showDoc. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
  13. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Hardly any help for refugees in the Mediterranean. 29th August 2014
  14. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, Italy's refugee policy before a change of course , December 1, 2014
  15. ^ UNHCR, Mediterranian Sea Arrivals
  16. ↑ - ( Memento from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ Italy's opposition calls for an end to the rescue operation. Retrieved May 14, 2014 .
  18. ^ University of Oxford: Deaths in the Mediterranean: What We Can Learn from the Latest Data
  19. ↑ Merkur.de, Sea Rescue as a "Pull Factor"? , September 26, 2019
  20. ^ Refugee policy in Europe: "Need agreements with African governments". Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  21. ^ Paul Munzinger and Markus C. Schulte von Drach: Four proposals against mass death in the Mediterranean. Sueddeutsche.de from April 20, 2015, viewed on April 20, 2015.
  22. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Hardly any help for refugees in the Mediterranean. 29th August 2014.
  23. ↑ Press release from REPORT MAINZ: Refugee policy of the federal government, Federal Interior Minister De Maizière wants to focus on repatriation instead of rescue at sea.
  24. ↑ [2]
  25. ^ Sarah Ulrich, Christoph Hedtke: Refugee aid with the fishing cutter. Harald Höppner wants to stir up European asylum policy . In: New Germany. April 11, 2015.
  26. ↑ [3]
  27. ↑ Fine 2014: Terminano le operazioni del Dispositivo Navale di Sorveglianza e Sicurezza Marittima (DNSSM) , announcement on marina.difesa.it
  28. ↑ Stefan Kuzmany: Summit on Refugee Policy: Europe Plays Sinking Ships. Comment. stern.de, April 23, 2015, accessed on April 23, 2015 .
  29. ↑ Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani: "Death by Rescue" Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 statewatch.org