08/22/2006
print
send
printsend
A more and more frequent use of military patrollers is behind the tragedy of Lampedusa
Their names are all mythic references, but their fame shines in newspapers. They
are called Sibyl, Cassiopia, Minerva: they are the three Italian warships that
in the last ten years have been involved in incidents against ships filled with
immigrants.
Military strategies. The nth tragedy of the sea, which happened during the night between Saturday
and Sunday, has forcefully reopened the debate on the prevention (and repression)
of illegal immigration. The Sicilian seacoasts that now cope with the impact of
the wave of the desperate who now daily flow onto our beaches have replaced fortified
Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish localities where thousands of immigrants used to
arrive: 12 thousand immigrants in the first 7 months of 2006, 20% more than 2005.
What will be the counter-measures of a government that the other day—through the
voice of the prime minister—announced the candidacy of Italy as “the bridge for
Europe”? The facts answer that. A great trust is placed at this time in the program
of a new European agency for the control of the borders (Frontex) wanted by Frattini.
In September new controls and patrols will be set out on the Mediterranean seacoasts.
Ships against men. It’s the Bossi-Fini law that gives missions of patrol to the Navy, even outside
of Italian waters and even in confrontations with non-Italian ships. The activity
of the maritime police given to military ships, beyond twisting the same concept
of the frontier, will equate the immigrant intercepted on the high seas with an
enemy of war, making it impossible, for example, to ask the commander of a ship
that is not operating in Italian territorial waters,for political asylum. But,
as the New Model of Defense adopted in 1991 prescribes, the Armed Forces are qualified
to maintain an advanced presence and surveillance beyond national borders. Thus, in the Pages of Defense, one
reads that …To the Navy is assigned the job of confronting the emergency on the high seas,
that is, external to territorial waters…. The Navy is then the unique armed force
in the position to monitor from the sea the places that launch the migratory waves
and to foresee at its origin the surge of phenomena of uncontrollable dimensions. With such counter- measures, who will ever be able to cross this bridge for
Europe that our country is a candidate to become?
The long count. Ten dead and 40 lost in the episode last Sunday in the Straits of Messina (still
to be cleared up) that saw the corvette Minerva come alongside and overturn
a barge of immigrants coming from Libya. Twelve victims, and an unknown number
of missing (fifty or more) in the overturning of a boat that the ship Cassiopia
was pulling on March 7, 2002. Another hundred deaths reclaimed from the wreck
of the “Kater I Rades,” an Albanian boat rammed by the Sibyl in the Straits of
Otranto on March 28, 1997.
Military strategies. The nth tragedy of the sea, which happened during the night between Saturday
and Sunday, has forcefully reopened the debate on the prevention (and repression)
of illegal immigration. The Sicilian seacoasts that now cope with the impact of
the wave of the desperate who now daily flow onto our beaches have replaced fortified
Ceuta and Melilla, the Spanish localities where thousands of immigrants used to
arrive: 12 thousand immigrants in the first 7 months of 2006, 20% more than 2005.
What will be the counter-measures of a government that the other day—through the
voice of the prime minister—announced the candidacy of Italy as “the bridge for
Europe”? The facts answer that. A great trust is placed at this time in the program
of a new European agency for the control of the borders (Frontex) wanted by Frattini.
In September new controls and patrols will be set out on the Mediterranean seacoasts.There is a need of means to do this. This has given a great stimulus to the
production of naval mechanics. Some weeks ago the international mission Hera II
began, that for two months will see Finnish, Portuguese, and Spanish naval aerial
forces back up the Italians in the sea, who are participating with a new ship,
the patroller Eighteen of the Coast Guard.
Where will these operations lead? In the Atlantic Ocean, in front
of Senegal. The Eighteen belongs to the very new series of warships that Fincantieri
is constructing in the milieu of the international project Fremm (multimission
frigates). The project foresees the realization, among others, of ten frigates,
between now and 2010. Two patrollers with heavenly names, the Sirius and the Orion,
have been consigned to the Italian Navy in March of last year. One has been constructed
for Malta, and four others, at a cost of 80 million euros, will go in the direction
of Iraq.
Ships against men. It’s the Bossi-Fini law that gives missions of patrol to the Navy, even outside
of Italian waters and even in confrontations with non-Italian ships. The activity
of the maritime police given to military ships, beyond twisting the same concept
of the frontier, will equate the immigrant intercepted on the high seas with an
enemy of war, making it impossible, for example, to ask the commander of a ship
that is not operating in Italian territorial waters,for political asylum. But,
as the New Model of Defense adopted in 1991 prescribes, the Armed Forces are qualified
to maintain an advanced presence and surveillance beyond national borders. Thus, in the Pages of Defense, one
reads that …To the Navy is assigned the job of confronting the emergency on the high seas,
that is, external to territorial waters…. The Navy is then the unique armed force
in the position to monitor from the sea the places that launch the migratory waves
and to foresee at its origin the surge of phenomena of uncontrollable dimensions. With such counter- measures, who will ever be able to cross this bridge for
Europe that our country is a candidate to become? Luca Galassi
Topic:
Related articles:
Most discussed topics:
Most frequently used keywords:
