THE EUROPEAN UNION Parliament has passed a resolution today that will see the bloc establish a search and rescue (SAR) mission to aid boats in distress in the Mediterranean, something that has not been in place since 2019.
The resolution calls for the establishment of a “comprehensive EU SAR mission implemented by the Member States’ competent authorities and Frontex”. It was tabled by Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews.
The resolution requires EU members and Frontex to provide vessels, equipment and personnel to contribute to an EU-led search and rescue mission.
Frontex is the EU’s border agency and while it does carry out a small number of rescue operations, its remit in the Mediterranean in recent years has largely been to spot boats in distress from its planes and alert local coastguards.
The agency has faced accusations of complicity in illegal pushbacks and other covering up human rights violations. Frontex is aiming to expand its scale and staff numbers significantly over the next few years.
The resolution also calls on EU member states to cooperate with and make full use of NGO rescue boats working in the area. Many of those NGOs have complained in recent years that EU and individual state policies are directly hampering their efforts and leading to unnecessary loss of life at sea.
So far this year, 1,895 people have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean, according to UN migration organisation IOM.
The resolution also calls on the EU Commission to provide comprehensive information about the types of support the EU and its member states provide to authorities and coastguards in third countries, including Libya, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
Authorities in Tunisia and Libya in particular have been condemned by NGOs working in the area for their practices and the conditions migrants face while stranded in the two countries.
The Libyan coastguard has been shown through a recent UN Human Rights Council investigation to be a criminal organisation.
A UN report found that the Libyan authorities were implicated in a long list of human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including arbitrary detention, murder, torture, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Under current EU policy, the bloc funds, trains and equips the Libyan coastguard in an effort to stop migrant boats from leaving Africa in the first place. They also intercept and return boats that do make it to sea before they get to EU state search and rescue zones.
The parliamentary resolution comes in the wake of one of the worst shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in recent memory, when the Adriana, which was carrying about 500 people, sank off the Greek coast in mid June and resulted in hundreds of deaths.
It also comes amidst ongoing tensions between Mediterranean member states, particularly Italy and Greece, and the rest of the bloc.
Those two countries are the most common arrival points for people attempting to cross the sea. This led to the recent establishment of a system whereby other EU states can take in more asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, or pay those countries instead.
The Irish government recently opted to make the payment rather than accept more refugees.
The Journal reported last month on the situation facing those who arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos, where there have been reports of boats being pushed back to sea and masked men driving unmarked cars and intimidating people who disembark there.
The Greek government under newly re-elected prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has begun to withhold food and other services from those who do not have their asylum claim accepted and for those that do, meaning many of them end up homeless on Lesbos.
Italy introduced a law this year under the government of right-wing prime-minister Giorgia Meloni that restricts NGOs from conducting more than one rescue per trip. It also has an unlegislated policy which forces them to travel to farther northern ports instead of the nearest port of safety.
NGO rescue boats are detained for several days if they are found to violate this new law despite the fact that it contravenes the international law of the sea, which mandates that vessels respond to distress calls without prejudice.
A group of five NGOs issued a joint statement today demanding that the EU Commission scrutinise the new law. The statement was put out by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam Italia, SOS Humanity, Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and EMERGENCY.
As part of the joint statement, Giulia Capitani, migration policy advisor at Oxfam Italia said:
“Search and rescue NGOs are the ones filling the shameful void at sea left by EU member states. Rather than obstructing their work, EU member states should involve them in setting up a proper system for search and rescue activities.”
Following the news of the resolutions adoption, MSF’s search and rescue representative Juan Matías Gil said:
“Today, the European Parliament, representing the citizens of the EU, adopted a Resolution on the need for the European Union to step up its efforts in saving lives at sea and to invest in proactive state-led search and rescue activities.
“We call upon the European Commission and EU States to take this call from the European Parliament seriously and urgently invest in life-saving rescue capacities.
“The European Parliament also calls on the role of the European Commission in ensuring EU States take on their duties with regards to search and rescue, as outlined in international maritime law.
“The European Parliament’s Resolution amplifies our call for the Commission to take action and take the necessary steps to ensure the fundamental rights of people in distress at sea are respected and the obstruction of life-saving work of NGOs at sea finally comes to an end.”
Ahead of the vote, a number of Irish MEPs had called for the adoption of the resolution including Andrews who said:
“EU Member States continue to flout international law in their refusal to render assistance of those in distress. According to international maritime law, both shipmasters and States have an obligation to render assistance to those in distress at sea regardless of their nationality, status or the circumstances in which they are found, and irrespective of the intentions of those on-board.”
He had scathing remarks pointed at Greek authorities regarding the recent tragedy that occurred off the coast of Greece when a ship carrying over 500 people sank, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
“Although investigations are ongoing, it appears that the Greek authorities were informed hours before the boat eventually sank. This is nothing short of immoral and cannot be tolerated in the European Union” he said.
Following the sinking of the Adriana, which brought the situation in the Mediterranean back to the fore of EU political discourse, the New York Times reported that Greek authorities had known about the boat’s difficulties for hours before acting.
“Conditions in the Mediterranean and neighbouring shores have never been more deadly, with more arrivals each year and less assistance than ever. The Libyan authorities continue to arbitrarily detain hundreds of thousands of migrants, subjecting them to inhumane conditions.
“I felt that the time was ripe to revisit the 2019 resolution, and am very glad that this request was approved. Now the priority is ensuring that this resolution passes. The 2019 vote was a stain on the reputation of this house. I sincerely hope that the EPP group will do the right thing.”
In response to the adoption of the resolution, MEP for Dublin Ciarán Cuffe said:
“The EU’s failure to provide a Search and Rescue mission almost 10 years after the height of this crisis is utterly unacceptable. The Mediterranean is now the world’s deadliest migration route, counting over 27,0000 people missing and presumed dead since 2014.
“And still, we hear calls for a ‘Fortress Europe’ response from EU governments. If we are a Union based on human rights and rule of law, we are bound to help those in distress at sea. Anything less is an abdication of our moral duties, and legal responsibilities.”
Speaking from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEP Grace O’Sullivan said: “I travelled to Lesbos earlier this year for the trial of Irish humanitarian Seán Binder who has been criminalised for search and rescue.
“The testimony of refugees and NGOs in Greece has highlighted a culture of intimidation, illegal pushbacks and racist attacks by Greek authorities. We need a search and rescue mission that is overseen and coordinated by the EU and we need to urgently protect search and rescue workers from persecution.”
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