Frontex launches operation "Hermes" on Lampedusa (Update)

(updated Tuesday) 4 planes, 2 helicopters, 2 boats and around thirty experts on the ground. The European Border Surveillance Agency (Frontex), based in Warsaw, has just launched operation "Hermes 2011" intended to come to the aid of the Italian authorities who have to deal with an influx of refugees.

About thirty experts from France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Romania, Malta, Sweden, Switzerland will participate in this operation. Italy provides naval and air assets. The rest of the air resources are provided by France, Germany, the Netherlands, Malta, theSpain. " If necessary, more men and resources can be made available in the coming weeks. clarified, in Brussels2, an expert on the matter.

The operation has started Sunday with the deployment of experts in charge of debriefing and screening. Their task will be essentially to collect information and its analysis, in order to " formulate hypotheses regarding the nationalities of migrants, enable the early detection and prevention of possible criminal activities at the external borders of the EU indicates the Frontex Agency. The next step will see the provision of assistance to organize the return to the countries of origin. This mission is only a part of the European effort said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, which includes “ cooperation with the Tunisian authorities, identification of emergency financial envelopes and assistance by Europol ». The costs are covered by the Community budget of Frontex.

We can indeed have some doubts about the sudden arrival of these refugees. About 6000 refugees from North Africa have arrived in Italy in the last month, mainly from Tunisia (including 3000 since February 11, when only 14 arrived in 2011 before that date). And it seems necessary to identify the source of this provenance. Some eyes are turning in particular to Libya (which has always supported the Ben Ali regime). The flow of immigration from the south had dried up to the point that Malta had decided, at the beginning of February, not to participate (for the second consecutive year) in the "Nautilus" operation which saw joint maritime patrols in the central Mediterranean.