The
EP’s Directorate-General for External Policies just released an Analysis,
“Mediterranean flows into Europe: Migration and the EU’s foreign policy,” in
which it reviews the EU’s external policies and instruments relating to
migration in the Mediterranean, including the Mediterranean Task Force
established after 3 October 2013 tragedy at Lampedusa in which over 350 people
died.
The
Analysis describes the serious shortcomings of the security-driven approach
that has been taken by the EU. Noting, for example, that “it is unclear whether
the militarisation of EU border management (resulting from a tighter relation
between the CSDP and Frontex) will actually save lives or create even more
danger for migrants” and that “[t]he increasing militarisation of the issue of
irregular migration was underscored in December 2013, when the European Council
called for the establishment of an EU Maritime Security Strategy by June 2014
as well as for increased synergies between the EU’s Common Security and Defence
Policy (CSDP) and freedom/security/justice actors to tackle illegal migration.”
