Nato policy not to interfere with passage of migrant boats

Nato’s Maritime Command in Naples said it will not be interfering with the passage of migrant boats unless a boat is suspected of carrying arms or mercenaries.

The Naples maritime command told refugee law expert and blogger Niels Frenzen that Nato ships will assist migrants in distress but will otherwise not ‘intercept’ seaworthy vessels that are not suspected of carrying illegal cargo or else Libyan officials.

Nato is responsible for enforcing the maritime embargo of Libya known as Operation Unified Protector, which is part of a the broad international effort to protect civilian-populated areas under threat of attack. The maritime portion of the operation foresees Nato warships and aircraft patrolling the approaches to Libyan territorial waters to reduce the flow of arms, related material and mercenaries to Libya as called for in UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

If a Nato ship is able to provide assistance to persons in distress at sea, it will “proceed with all speed to their assistance... this obligation to provide assistance applies regardless of the nationality or status of such persons or the circumstances in which they are found,” the maritime command’s spokesperson said.

So far, around 2,000 Eritreans, Somalis and Sudanese have fled Tripoli by boat to Italy and Malta in the last four days.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said he could not exclude that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was behind the sudden influx of migrants and asylum seekers to Italy and Malta.

He however expressed doubts whether Gaddafi had either the “attention” or the “peace of mind” to spare simply to “get back at the EU” at a time when he as a “civil war to handle.”

Mifsud Bonnici was responding to claims by Alternattiva Demokratika that “it was clear” that the Gaddafi regime was resorting to “known blackmailing tactics by ‘invading’ the European continent with asylum seekers.”

It is unclear what role, if any, the Libyan government may be playing in the new migratory influx. An Eritrean man who arrived in Malta from Libya earlier this week told The Times that he had been in Libya for five years and this was not the first time he had tried to escape. “The boats were organised by the same people,” he said, referring to the trafficking ring operating in Libya.

“The migrants said they paid between $500 and $1,000 for their journey – meaning that those who organised the boats were pocketing an average of $200,000.”

Mifsud Bonnici said “we would be kidding ourselves if we consider this influx as the ‘normal’ immigration Malta is accustomed to seeing.”

Mifsud Bonnici said that this was “not normal immigration” as those landing in Malta and Lampedusa are not simply “normal” migrants searching for better economic prospects, but displaced refugees fleeing from a civil war.

“It is evident from the increased presence of women and children on board the boats and the fact that some even brought suitcases with their bare necessities.”

Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil has called upon the European Commission to activate a Solidarity Mechanism envisaged in EU law in cases of mass influx of displaced persons. “EU law already provides for a solidarity mechanism that can be triggered in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons. We call upon the Commission to activate it.”