Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is launching a new operation from today Thursday in the Central Mediterranean to assist Italy in border control activities.
The new “Joint Operation Themis” will replace operation Triton, which was launched in 2014. The operational area of the new operation will span the Central Mediterranean Sea from waters covering flows from Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Turkey and Albania, said Frontex in a press release.
“Operation Themis will better reflect the changing patterns of migration, as well as cross border crime. Frontex will also assist Italy in tracking down criminal activities, such as drug smuggling across the Adriatic,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.
The security component of Operation Themis will include collection of intelligence and other steps aimed at detecting foreign fighters and other terrorist threats at the external borders.
“We need to be better equipped to prevent criminal groups that try to enter the EU undetected. This is crucial for the internal security of the European Union,” Leggeri said.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian aid organisation OXFAM said Thursday that many people are still trapped in captivity and suffering abuses in Libya a year after Italy struck an EU-backed deal with the Libyan government to stop irregular migrants.
It noted in a press release that under the Libya deal, the EU and Italy have trained and provided logistical and financial support to the Libyan coastguard. This cooperation contributes to stopping people trying to escape Libya and to sending them back there.
