EU wants Mediterranean sea patrols after Lampedusa tragedy
The European Commission is pushing for resources to launch a Mediterranean-wide search and rescue mission to intercept migrant boats
The EU’s executive will on Tuesday push for extra resources to launch sea patrols to cope with the flood of refugees knocking at Europe’s doors in the aftermath of the Lampedusa tragedy.
The EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said as she went into talks with the 28-nation bloc’s home affairs ministers that she would propose “a big Frontex operation right across the Mediterranean from Cyprus to Spain for a big save and rescue operation.”
Frontex is the agency set up by the European Union in 2004 to police the bloc’s borders against illegal migration.
But the Warsaw-based agency, which co-ordinates and develops border management and joint operations, has seen its budget fall over the past three years and relies on donations from member states for ships, helicopters and other equipment.
The shipwreck off Lampedusa last week in which more than 300 African asylum-seekers are feared dead is expected to dominate Tuesday’s talks between the ministers.
As the ministers met, divers brought up four more bodies off Lampedusa as they resumed the search for the more than 200 still missing after their ship sank with 500 Eritrean and Somalian refugees on board.