In response to the growing humanitarian and migrant crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean Sea the Irish Government has deployed the Irish Navy’s flagship, the LE Eithne to the area to assist the Italian naval authorities who are coordinating the European naval response to the crisis. The deployment of the LE Eithne marks the Irish State’s first involvement in humanitarian efforts in international waters.
The LE Eithne will join an EU wide search and rescue initiative code named ‘Triton’. The Triton initiative was set up in response to the over 1,750 deaths that have occurred in the Mediterranean so far this year. This figure represents a sharp increase on the number of deaths during the same period last year. The flood of immigrants across the Mediterranean Sea towards European shores is a result of ongoing humanitarian crises in north and central Africa and the Middle East. A thriving human trafficking market along North African shores is further facilitating the flow of migrants onto unseaworthy ships to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
The deployment of the LE Eithne takes place under the backdrop of ongoing negotiations between EU member states and the European Commission over the Commission’s amended migrant strategy. The Commission has proposed a mandatory resettlement programme for migrants that arrive into the European Union at different entry points. The resettlement programme has been proposed by the Commission under the auspices of Article 78.3 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. Under current EU law the Irish Government can opt out of this particular programme as it falls under EU justice and home affairs legislation for which Ireland has an automatic opt out. Under the programme, Ireland would accept 272 immigrants for every 20,000 that arrive to Europe. The Irish Government has not yet confirmed whether they will opt in or out of the programme.
Click here to read an article in the Irish Times on the deployment of the LE Eithne.
Click here to read an article in the Irish Times on the EU Commission’s migrant programme.