Triton (operation)

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The LÉ Eithne, flagship of the Irish navy rescues migrants as part of the Triton mission (June 2015)

Triton is a mission of the European agency Frontex , which, on behalf of the EU, is to secure the external borders of the European Union in Italy. It began on November 1, 2014 and was originally scheduled to run until December 2015, but lasted until February 1, 2018 when it was replaced by Operation Themis .

history

On October 31, 2014, the Italian naval operation “Mare Nostrum” to rescue refugees at sea was ended. In contrast to “Mare Nostrum”, “Triton” is essentially limited to securing the borders. The ships, aircraft and helicopters patrolling on behalf of Frontex are primarily intended for use near the coast. This restriction of operations is sharply criticized by human rights organizations.

Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said: “Europe ends 30 nautical miles off the Italian coast, until then we will help. Behind it are the international waters and international maritime law applies there. "

Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said of the responsibilities: “This international law of the sea also takes civil shipping into account. [...] Any ship that receives a call for help on the high seas must obey it. In this respect, the rules are now changing for the Triton mission. Ships that are in the vicinity of an emergency have to intervene immediately, there is no exception. ”From the start of the mission to the end of 2014, around 13,000 refugees were rescued from distress and 53 smugglers were arrested. The EU states provide ships, additional material and personnel. In early 2015, seven ships, four planes and one helicopter were involved. 2.9 million euros are available for this every month. Human rights organizations such as Pro Asyl and Amnesty International consider this amount to be too low. The previous Italian mission, Mare Nostrum, cost 9.3 million euros per month.

NGOs, shipowners 'associations and the international seafarers' union complained in April 2015 that the “burden of the refugee flows almost exclusively” had to be carried by merchant ships and warned of an impending increase in deaths in the Mediterranean. The governments should send more ships into the Mediterranean to relieve the merchant ships. In the “black week” from April 12th to 19th, 2015, a total of around 1,200 people were killed in several accidents.

On April 23, 2015, the heads of state and government of the EU decided at a special summit in Brussels to increase the funds for the mission by EUR 26.25 million. In addition to stronger satellite surveillance, there are 3 aircraft, 18 patrol boats and two helicopters available. Human rights organizations criticized the decisions of the EU summit as insufficient. Amnesty International in Europe chairman John Dalhuisen said that without expanding the scope of the mission, "migrants and refugees will continue to drown".

In May 2015, the area of ​​operations was expanded to around 138 nautical miles south of Sicily. The EU countries decided in principle in 2015 to distribute the refugees arriving in Italy and Greece. In practice, however, the distribution to other EU states has so far remained far below plan, with some EU states refusing to redistribute themselves entirely.

New strategies for tugs

For the first time since the end of the naval operation "Mare Nostrum", smugglers are also using larger ships:

  • Refugees from Syria were brought to Ierapetra in November 2014 on the Baris cargo ship .
  • At the beginning of December 2014, the angry Togolese freighter Sandy was dragged into Crotone with refugees from Syria .
  • On December 30, 2014, the Blue Sky M drifted off the coast of Corfu . The ship was later manned by Italian forces in a helicopter off Santa Maria di Leuca and taken to the port of Gallipoli , where the refugees were taken care of.
  • On the evening of January 1, 2015, the Italian coast guard discovered the driverless cargo ship Ezadeen with hundreds of refugees floating around 150 kilometers off the Calabrian coast . The operation in the Triton patrol boat used Thyr the Icelandic Coast Guard came by boat the next day to help and dragged it later in the port of Corgliano one.

After Operation Triton was expanded in 2015 and Operation Sophia to combat smugglers began, the military and border guards were able to remove several hundred boats and just as many suspects, so that there were hardly any wooden barges left in Libya. The tugs switched to inflatable boats. Some 100 to 150 people are crammed onto a boat by force of arms. A refugee with minimal knowledge of English steers the boat into international waters and makes a distress call. Then a race against time begins: will the overloaded boat hold up until lifeboats arrive? The smugglers know that EU naval units monitor the waters off North Africa and are legally obliged to rescue ships and migrants from distress and take them to a safe place like Italy.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Karl Hoffmann: Private Ships Become Refugee Rescuers , Deutschlandfunk , January 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ Refugees on the Mediterranean: The million dollar business with the ghost ships. Spiegel Online , January 2, 2015, accessed January 3, 2015 .
  3. ↑ ECRE: MareNostrum to end - New Frontex operation will not ensure rescue of migrants in international waters . October 10, 2014, accessed October 19, 2017
  4. ↑ "THOUSANDS OF LIVES WILL BE LOST IN THE MEDITERRANEAN UNLESS EU GOVERNMENTS TAKE URGENT ACTION, SAY SHIPOWNER GROUPS AND SEAFARER UNIONS" ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ecsa.eu of April 8, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ecsa.eu
  5. ↑ Christian Rothenberg: Shipowners save refugees, EU is watching . NTV, April 23, 2015, accessed October 19, 2017
  6. ↑ Oberleitner and Salomon: Whose Security? Introductory Remarks on People on the Move and the Reclaiming of Security . In: Blurring Boundaries: Human Security and Forced Migration . Ed .: Salomon, Heschl u. a., Koninklijke Brill 2017, ISBN 978-90-04-32686-6 , p. 4
  7. ↑ EU triples funding for Triton mission. Euronews , April 23, 2015, accessed April 27, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Amnesty sharply criticizes EU decisions. Zeit Online , April 24, 2015, accessed April 27, 2015 .
  9. ↑ EU triples funding for Triton mission. Euronews , April 23, 2015, accessed April 27, 2015 .
  10. ↑ FRONTEX Expands its joint operation Triton. (No longer available online.) Frontex , May 26, 2015, archived from the original on June 29, 2015 ; accessed on June 27, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / frontex.europa.eu
  11. ^ Tagesschau, redistribution of refugees , May 10, 2017
  12. ↑ Italian soldiers board freighters with hundreds of refugees. In: The time . December 30, 2014.
  13. ^ "Ezadeen" refugees paid up to $ 8,000 for passage. Sueddeutsche , January 3, 2015, accessed January 4, 2015 .
  14. ↑ ZDF: Escape across the Mediterranean Italy: 359 refugees brought by the "Ezadeen" ( memento of the original from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. January 4, 2015, accessed January 4, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de
  15. ↑ DPA: Off the coast of Italy. The cruel tactics of the ghost ship captains In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung January 2, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2015.
  16. ↑ Freighter "Ezadeen" under control. 20 Minuten , January 1, 2015, accessed January 4, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Thomas Gutschker: The deadly business with the refugees . FAZ November 21, 2016, accessed August 3, 2017
  18. ^ Michael A. McNicholas: Maritime Security - An Introduction . Elsevier 2016, ISBN 978-0-12-803672-3 , p. 199.