From the Italian Mare Nostrum Operation to the Frontex Triton Operation ( November 2014-February 2018). Italy and Search and Rescue Operations. (SAR operations)
From the Italian Mare Nostrum Operation to the Frontex Triton Operation (November 2014-February 2018). Italy and Search and Rescue Operations. (SAR operations)

Summary/Abstract: In October 2013, the Italian Coast Guard began an innovative Search and Rescue mission, known as the Mare Nostrum operation, intending to rescue migrants in distress at sea and bring to justice human traffickers and migrant smugglers. In November 2014, after only a year of activity in which all the costs were financed by Italy, Mare Nostrum was officially ended and replaced by the Frontex-led Operation Triton. This paper examines the EU’s decision to implement the European Triton operation, the main objectives of this new European mission, and for a better understanding, points out the differences between these two naval operations led by Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. Launched in the Central Mediterranean, the main focus of the Triton operation was the border management control and to a lesser extent the humanitarian scope. Being a response to continuous Italy’s calls for aid and the expanded Mediterranean migration crisis, Triton functioned in the same line as two other similar European operations: in Spain, the Hera operation, or in Greece, the Poseidon operation (since 2006). Each operation had a member state, as the sole host state which commanded the entire operation. In February 2018, the Warsaw-based Frontex launched a new operation in the Central Mediterranean, the Themis Operation, to assist Italy in the Schengen border control activity, replacing the Triton operation and removing the much-criticized obligation to bring rescued migrants only to Italy.

• Details
• Contents