The European Commission has announced an “Action Plan” to stem the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, prompting migrant taxi NGOs to complain it would criminalise their activities.
The European Commission announced the Action Plan this week and stated that it would be the topic of discussion for a meeting of member state interior ministers on Friday as the bloc looks to stem the surge of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea illegally.
“We cannot manage migration on a case-by-case, boat-by-boat basis,” said Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said Monday.
The plan is said to look at three main topics from stemming the flows of illegals, to coordinating search and rescue operations at sea, and making sure that the costs of taking in asylum seekers are spread equally across European Union member states along with the responsibility for them, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
Part of the plan looks to support North African countries such as Tunisia Libya and Egypt to prevent migrants from leaving as well as use other border agencies Frontex to fight against people smugglers operating in the Mediterranean.
A coordinated approach to search and rescue operations is also part of the plan and could see European Union states along with Frontex and others cooperate in rescue operations at sea, where currently migrant taxi NGOs operate.
One migrant taxi NGO, the German-based Sea-Watch, has criticised the new plan stating, “we don’t need new guidelines for rescue vessels. We need EU states to comply with existing international maritime law and human rights.”
Currently, just two of the seventeen vessels belonging to migrant taxi NGOs are even registered as search and rescue ships, with others registered as cargo ships, research vessels or even fishing boats.
Instead of new regulations for NGOs, Sea-Watch stated the EU should “fulfil their duty to rescue at sea, initiate a government EU SAR program, stop criminalizing migrants and NGOs and create safe and legal routes to Europe.”
Migrant taxi NGOs have dropped off at least 10,000 illegal immigrants in Italy in 2022 and the Italian government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to counter their activities.
The new Action Plan comes as migrant traffic along the Central Mediterranean route has surged this year, with some predicting Italy may see as many as 100,000 illegal arrivals before the end of the year, the highest number since 2017. According to statistics from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, over 92,000 migrants have arrived in Italy as of November 20th.