Immigration: Joint EU maritime patrol force to combat illegal immigration, January 2003

Five EU Member States have launched a joint pilot maritime operation aimed to stop illegal immigrants arriving in Europe by sea. From 28 January 2003 boats from Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Italy will be based at the port of Algeciras, Spain and will patrol the seas of the western Mediterranean as far as Palermo in Sicily.

The operation, codenamed Ulysses, will consist of six vessels - two Civil Guard patrol boats from Spain, a UK customs ship and navy ships from Portugal, France and Italy - which will form a 'rectangular filter' of six nautical miles wide and up to 84 miles long depending on the number of vessels involved at any one time, enabling any boat within that rectangle to be detected. The crew will have the power to board any suspect vessels and escort them to the nearest EU port if necessary. The patrols are hoping to head off the flotillas that make the crossing daily from North Africa, charging would-be illegal immigrants for dangerous boat voyages. The European Union estimates that in the last decade alone 10,000 people have drowned trying to make the crossing.

The operation is one of a number of measures being promoted by Spain and Italy who argue that they are forced to bear the bulk of the cost of policing the EU's borders. According to estimates by the European Commission, there are nearly three million illegal immigrants in the European Union. The pilot scheme is being seen as a step towards a possible 'EU border police force' and a further instrument in the 'common area of security, justice and freedom'. The UK newspaper, The Telegraph, reported Spanish Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, as saying:

'We are surely seeing the birth of a common police force for the European Union to protect our borders. If we have enough success and co-ordination, this can be the base, the pillar of a future border police'

With the EU due to expand eastwards in 2004, creating a whole new set of borders and new routes for smugglers, the Member States are looking to develop tougher measures to crack down on human trafficking and illegal immigration. The pilot scheme in the Mediterranean will be extended further westwards from 8 February 2003 to cover the Atlantic since in recent years the main route for sub-Saharan Africans wanting to enter Europe has shifted to Spain's Canary Islands. Observers from Greece, Norway, Germany, Poland and Austria will also take part in the operation.

Links:
BBC News Online:
	28.01.03:	EU sea patrols target illegal immigrants
	28.05.02:	Spain's immigration 'stepping stone'
	18.06.02:	Fortress Europe
Spain: Ministry of the Interior:
	28.01.03:	Spain begins a pilot project of maritime border controls with four other EU countries [in Spanish]
European Sources Online: Topic Guides
	Justice and Home Affairs
European Sources Online: In Focus
	Asylum, refugees and immigration: a challenge for Europe, October 2001

Helen Bower

Compiled: Wednesday, 29 January 2003

Five EU Member States have launched a joint pilot maritime operation aimed to stop illegal immigrants arriving in Europe by sea. From 28 January 2003 boats from Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Italy will patrol the seas of the western Mediterranean as far as Palermo in Sicily with the aim of stopping boatloads of illegal immigrants arriving at EU borders from Northern Africa.