Med coastguards brace for migrant wave

Europe is facing the prospect of huge increase in migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year, according to Fabrice Leggeri, executive director of the European Union (EU) border control organisation Frontex.

Leggeri told the Italian news agency ANSA that between 500,000 and 1 million migrants are ready to leave Libya. Earlier in the week, Peter Hinchliffe, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping, warned the IMO-hosted High-level Meeting to Address Unsafe Mixed Migration by Sea that up to 450,000 people might need to be rescued at sea this year.

In his closing speech to the same meeting, IMO secretary-general Koji Sekimizu said this could mean merchant vessels will need to rescue 10 times as many people as they did in 2014. “We are just beginning to feel the potential magnitude and scale of these huge challenges the shipping industry is currently facing,” Sekimizu said.

The European Commission’s (EC’s) director of migration and protection, Laurent Muschel, revealed last week that Frontex is monitoring 12 cargo vessels that it believes people smugglers may be about to use as uncrewed ‘ghost ships’.

Muschel emphasised that the IMO must impress on coastal and flag states the need to prevent unseaworthy vessels being used as migrant ships. “The states from which such cargo vessels leave should prevent illegal access to these cargo vessels,” he said. “We cannot accept a situation where the smugglers transform rescue authorities into tour operators at their service.”

The commission is prioritising development of an EU plan against migrant smuggling, Muschel said. As part of that plan, the EU may send immigration officers to migrant departure countries, EC migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said last week.

“Libya is going to be the key element in managing migration,” noted Federica Mogherini, EC high commissioner for foreign affairs. Mogherini and Bernardino Leon, UN special envoy to Libya, both floated the idea of an EU naval blockade of Libya to prevent arms imports and illegal oil exports. However, fears persist that the presence of naval vessels off the Libyan coast will encourage further migration attempts.

Last Thursday, Sekimizu revealed that some lessons from the international community’s counterpiracy strategy are being adapted for the Mediterranean. “I would like to create an information-sharing and communication system for sea migration incidents in the Mediterranean,” he said. He reiterated the need for a joint IMO-United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime database of migrants and smugglers, but ruled out an equivalent of the Contact Group on Piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Delegates at the high-level meeting also agreed to look at creating safe ways for people to migrate, improving coastguard capabilities, boosting co-ordination of search-and-rescue operations, and launching an awareness campaign in departure countries that would warn intending migrants of the dangers of the Mediterranean passage.

As he called for more government engagement to tackle this “huge and multifaceted problem,” Sekimizu said, “This is just the beginning of our efforts.”

International Labour Organization deputy director-general Gilbert Houngbo observed, “We know migration is going to be a continued reality for many years to come.”