Frontex rules will put more pressure on Malta, says MEP

The Green Party and Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola (EPP) are at loggerheads over amendments the MEP presented to a European Parliament report on search and rescue rules at Europe's sea borders.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Arnold Cassola hit out at Metsola for tabling amendments to the Coehlo report for new rules on the EU's sea borders, which he claims delete all specific rules on saving migrants.

On her part, Metsola says her amendments aim at overriding a Frontex guideline that obliges the member state that hosts a Frontex operation, to accept all people rescued at sea under the operation.

"Under the current guidelines, should Malta host a Frontex operation, all the people rescued at sea in that operation could be brought to Malta as the host member state, irrespective of where in the sea they are rescued," Metsola said.

"When people are drowning, this is unacceptable from a humanitarian and practical point of view. It could mean that a situation arises whereby rescued people are forced to travel on a vessel for days in order to be brought to Malta, bypassing many closer safe places. It is in the interest of everyone, particularly people rescued from the sea, that this is addressed and that rescued persons are disembarked in a suitable port or place of safety - as per the amendments I put forward."

Malta has a vast search and rescue region, but migrants rescued at sea are, according to international search and rescue rules, taken to a "nearest and safest" port of call. Under Frontex missions, a 'host state' for any operation must take in all rescue migrants.

"The issue here is not saving lives at sea [but] where the best place to disembark rescued persons is," Metsola said. "AD seems to be arguing that people rescued in a joint operation from the sea off Greece, for example, should spend days aboard a vessel travelling to Malta, as the host Member State, when there are numerous other safe places they could be disembarked in first. This is an argument that I cannot agree with."

On his part, AD chairperson Arnold Cassola accused Metsola of tabling amendmnets that delete all specific rules on saving migrants at sea, by replacing them with "a general reference to international law."

"One of the core aims of the regulation is to put an end to the different interpretations of EU member states on their international obligation on saving lives at sea. If the specific provisions are removed, the regulation is useless. Why is Roberta Metsola not supporting the common position of the EP which includes detailed rules on saving lives at sea?" Cassola asked.

The Greens are calling for full support on the Coehlo report next Thursday during the European Parliament's civil liberties committee meeting.

The legislation has come under focus since the latest tragic losses of life in the Mediterranean and the perceived failure to tackle this recurring problem.

Metsola claims her amendments enshrine international law within EU legislation, to avoid having two sets of legal instruments applicable to one situation which would serve to confuse any operation saving people's lives at sea.

"My amendments would mean that more detailed rules would be included in the operational plan agreed to by participating Member States which are designed for every operation, rather than have a one-size-fits all approach which cannot be amended despite the particular circumstances of every sea operation," Metsola said.

Cassola has insisted that the MEP's amendments "avoid any specific rules on search and rescue as well as on disembarkation in the proposed regulation."

"According to international law, a 'place of safety' is the appropriate place for disembarkation. Yet Metsola wants to amend so that people should be disembarked at either a suitable port or place of safety. There is no definition of what a 'suitable port' is. Basically, without the definition, it might not necessarily be a safe place."