A European coast guard ship participating in a Frontex operation
spots a small motorboat in the Mediterranean. It is still in
international waters but moving toward Maltese waters. The people on
board—crammed together in too small a space, creating too much weight
for the small boat—have been traveling for days, exposed to the elements
and running out of meager supplies of food and water. They are young
men looking for a better life. They are unaccompanied children. They are
women being trafficked to Europe. They are people of all ages fleeing
persecution and conflict.
What should the Frontex patrol boat do? According to the European
Commission’s recent proposal, unless the boat is in distress, Frontex
should prevent the boat from entering EU waters. It should order the
boat to change course, and if necessary escort the ship or the people on
board to the country where the boat set sail.
Frontex, the EU’s external borders agency, is already empowered to
block boats from entering EU waters under regulations adopted by the
European Council in 2010. Last September. the Court of Justice of the
European Union (CJEU) annulled them because they were adopted without
the necessary European Parliament (EP) scrutiny, but left them in place
until new regulations could be drawn up.
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