The EU is privatizing its migrant rescue work — by default

The European Union has outsourced a large part of its migration policy to a fleet of privately run yachts searching the Mediterranean waters for asylum seekers in crisis.

In recent weeks, these boats – run by a variety of non-governmental organisations, not directly controlled by any specific government – ​​have become the focal point of a growing storm over migration as the country faces a new influx of people. are concerned about and quarrel over where they should be placed. The European Union.

And increasingly, it appears that cracking down on how these NGOs should operate is proving a more manageable goal for the authorities than harmonizing the EU’s outdated and fragmented asylum rules.

On the one hand, Italy has led a coalition of southern European countries, which has argued that NGO boats are actually encouraging asylum seekers and should be linked more closely to the (often distant) country where they arrive. are registered.

On the other hand there are countries like Germany, where many of these NGOs are registered. They fear that the southern countries really just want to drive out the NGO boats.

The EU, for its part, is simply encouraging countries to make it work, saying Brussels cannot legally make its own rules on the matter.

If countries “could develop a more structured framework like a code of conduct, yes we would support it,” Told Margaritis Sinchas, the European Commission’s top official coordinating the EU’s migration work, before a meeting with interior ministers on Friday.

The result, intentional or not, is that NGO boats are now, de facto, at the heart of EU migration policy – ​​a development that has confounded the organizations themselves.

“Outsourcing migration,” said Stephanie Pope, EU migration expert at the humanitarian organization Oxfam, “is a distraction from the issue, which is that member states and EU institutions … failed to agree on a fair and effective responsibility sharing.” Are constantly failing. Mechanism.”

Rising migration is a matter of concern

NGOs debating as EU asylum requests take a hit highest monthly level Since 2016. Diplomats also worry millions more Ukrainians could be on the way as Russia attacks the country’s electric grid amid plunging temperatures. already, 1.5 million Ukrainians are in Poland and over 800,000 are in Germany.

But earlier this month the attention turned to the NGO boats after Italy’s new right-wing government refused to let a private vessel disembark its rescued migrants. Instead, the boat was to go to France, where the organization was registered.

The move sparked acrimony between Rome and Paris. While France agreed to accept the ship, citing humanitarian concerns, it later suspended an agreement to voluntarily relocate asylum seekers from Italy. Both France and the commission accused Rome of not complying with international law.

The issue looms large in an EU-wide debate over the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the central Mediterranean from countries such as Libya and Tunisia – at least 90,000 so far, 50 per cent more than last year.

Yet, most of the conversation has focused on NGOs.

one in joint statement Two weeks ago, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta accused NGOs of operating in a “disorganized manner”.

The group argued that “the operation of these private vessels is not in line with the spirit of the international legal framework.” And he asked the “flag state” of each NGO boat – the country where the vessel is registered – to “take responsibility” for the rescued migrants.

Germany pushed back against the spirit. On Twitter, the country’s Italian ambassador, Victor Elbling, argued that the organizations are merely filling a void that EU countries are creating.

“In 2022, more than 1,300 people are already dead or missing in the Mediterranean,” he said Tweeted, “12% of the survivors were rescued by the NGO.”

He added: “They save lives where state aid is lacking.” Italian officials rejected this characterization, stressing that Italy’s coast guard rescues most migrants in distress.

Italy and migrant hardliners have accused the NGO boats of, in essence, encouraging human trafficking and perhaps even colluding with migrant smugglers.

The NGO has repeatedly and vehemently denied such allegations.

“Civilian rescue organizations have no contact with traffickers and their networks,” said Susanne Jacobi, a spokeswoman for the German NGO United4Rescue, which it helps fund. ships operating in the central Mediterranean region. “Such allegations have never been supported with evidence.”

Jacobi in a written statement whose organization was launched It was also argued, by the Protestant Church of Germany, that people would attempt the dangerous crossing into the EU whether there were rescue boats or not.

“This is confirmed by the evidence: even though there is often not a single civilian rescue ship in operation for weeks, many people escape in the Mediterranean,” she said.

Frontex, the border agency of the European Union, is Allegedly Expressed concern about these organizations’ interactions with migrant smugglers but never actually alleged collusion.

EU plan

On Friday, the European Commission presented its Central Mediterranean “work planTo the Ministers of the Interior.

Among the suggestions: enhance partnership with Libya and Tunisia; speeding up the EU’s voluntary mechanism for the internal transfer of asylum seekers; and adoption of guidelines on search and rescue operations at sea.

The proposal isn’t really anything new, showing a struggle to fully address the situation.

Despite a pledge to move 8,000 people, so far only 113 migrants have been moved under the EU’s voluntary mechanism. And working with non-EU countries poses its own challenges – the EU faced similar accusations of outsourcing its migration efforts in 2016 when it accused Turkey of sending Syrians trying to reach the EU Paid to host.

NGOs are also questioning the benefits of the new guidelines for rescue operations.

“There is already a legal framework for rescue at sea – international maritime law,” Jacobi said. “There is no need for further regulation for civilian rescue vessels as all civilian rescue vessels comply with these laws.”