The interior ministers of Italy, Malta and Cyprus together with the head of Migration and Asylum in Athens have sent a joint letter to the European authorities on Saturday to demand that the necessary measures be taken to coordinate rescue actions in the Mediterranean.
The four point out in the text that as countries of first entry to Europe, through the central and eastern Mediterranean route, they «bear the heaviest burden of these migratory flows», while complying with international obligations and the rules of the European Union.
For this reason, they point out the slowness of the mechanism aimed at relocating migrants among all member states and denounce that the small number of commitments signed in this regard represent a «very small fraction» of the actual number of irregular arrivals they have received since the beginning of the year, as reported by ‘La Repubblica’.
«To date the mechanism has proven to be slow in achieving its stated objective of alleviating the burden to which all of us, as frontline member states, are constantly exposed, as only a small number of relocations have been carried out so far,» they argue in the brief.
The four Mediterranean countries have called this situation «regrettable and disappointing» at a time when their territories are facing increasing «migratory pressure» that is «putting their asylum and reception systems to the test», as they denounce.
Moreover, they assert that while an agreement on a new «effective, fair and permanent» burden-sharing mechanism is being reached, these countries cannot represent the only «European landing points for illegal immigrants».
Thus, they demand that the European Commission and the European Council urgently launch a necessary debate on the coordination of these operations to ensure that «private vessels respect the relevant conventions and other applicable regulations and that all flag states assume their responsibilities according to their international obligations.
In the text they also make express reference to NGO vessels, after which they have pointed out that «the ‘modus operandi’ of these private vessels is not in line with the spirit of the international legal framework on search and rescue operations, which must be respected». And they have argued that each State should be able to exercise its jurisdiction and control over vessels arriving on its shores.
This letter is sent after diplomatic problems have occurred between Rome and Paris over the ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, the ‘Ocean Viking’, which finally made its way to the French port of Toulon, after the Government of Georgia Meloni refused to allow its disembarkation. A decision that prompted the French authorities to announce that they were suspending a plan to take in 3,500 refugees arriving in Italy.
