Europa stuurt team om Italië met Afrikaanse migranten te helpen (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Some 30 screening experts, a few boats and a plane pulled from nine EU member states and Switzerland were deployed in Italy on Sunday (20 February), in order to help with the new waves of refugees from north African countries, as the unfolding revolutions undo the strong anti-emigration measures taken by local dictators.
Dubbed "Joint Operation Hermes 2011", the mission is aimed at backing Italian authorities who declared a state of emergency on the island of Lampedusa, where some 6,000 migrants, mostly Tunisians, have arrived in the past two weeks. Another 100 migrants were "intercepted" by the Italian coast guard on Sunday, according to the Ansa news agency.
The EU aid comes after a stand-off between Italian right-wing interior minister Roberto Maroni and EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom i over the slow and bureaucratic response of the commission. Ms Malmstrom said the operation was a "clear signal of European solidarity."
The task of the 30 experts will be to talk to migrants, "make assumptions" about their nationalities and enable "early detection and prevention of possible criminal activities at the EU external borders," EU's Warsaw-based border agency Frontex said in a statement.
The other aim of the Hermes operation is to help Italian authorities in organising return operations for the migrants who have no valid asylum claims.
EU's police co-operation agency, Europol, will be "actively" involved in Hermes 2011, the statement adds, notably in tracking down and arresting human traffickers.
The new Tunisian government meanwhile has started to crack down on people trying to sail to Italy, with some 40 youngsters arrested on Sunday, Reuters reports.
The move comes after Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini i visited Tunis last week looking for assurances that a deal sealed in 2009 with the former dictator Ben Ali aimed at stemming irregular migrants would be upheld by the new regime. Mr Frattini also promised aid, including a network of radars and fast boats.
Another ally of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is currently brutally cracking down on anti-government protesters and threatening the EU he will give a green light to irregular migrants if the European Union continues to support the rioters.
Last Thursday, the Libyan regime summoned several EU ambassadors and told them it will "suspend co-operation" on migration issues unless the bloc backs away from the pro-democracy protests, AFP reports. Tripoli also expressed its "discontent" after an appeal by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton i to allow "free expression" and stop killing protesters.
Human Rights Watch on Monday put the death toll at 233, ever since the anti-Gaddafi protests started last week.
The European Commission last year offered Libya up to €50 million in aid for its border police and for measures aimed at protecting refugees. Moammar Gaddafi had asked for €5 billion, if Europe did not want to "turn black."