Europe will triple its budget for the fight against illegal immigration

USPA NEWS - President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, asked the Heads of State and Government of the EU to make "every effort" to prevent further tragedies migration in the Mediterranean. Tusk called "sacrificing national interests for the common good" when welcoming immigrants and refugees.

Spain will contribute a ship to the deployment of the European Border Control Agency (Frontex). The reinforcement is this service was one of the resolutions adopted at the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. In it, Heads of State and Government of the 28 decided to triple the budget of the current maritime surveillance operation 'Triton', which is 2.9 million euros per month. Thus the envelope that had the Italian operation 'Mare Nostrum' can be compared.

"We decided to triple the budget of 'Triton', which already has the support of many Member States," said the European Council following the meeting. Among the countries that support the deployment are Germany and the UK, EU sources explained to USPA News. Spain also supports the operation, although the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, said they will wait until the EU make a formal request to specify the type of support they provide Spain and cost.

The role of Frontex is to support Member States towards effective border control in the Mediterranean region, and at the same time to save lives during these operations. Regulation 656/2014 establishing the rules for the surveillance of the external sea borders in the context of operational cooperation coordinated by Frontex clearly states: "border surveillance is not limited to the detection of attempts at unauthorised border crossings but equally extends to [“¦] arrangements intended to address situations such as search and rescue that may arise."

The operation is scheduled to run until at the least end of 2015. Actually 21 Member States participate with human and technical resources. Technical equipment are 4 Fixed Wing Aircrafts, 1 Helicopter, 4 Open Shore vessels, 1 coastal Patrol Vessel, 2 Coastal patrol boats. For his part, Human Resources are 65 men/months in total. An other operation, named Poseidón Sea, is active in the Aegean Islands from February 1, 2015, to September 2015.