The European Border Security Agency has once again claimed to have “fulfilled the task of reporting to the Italian authorities”, explained the executive director of the same EU agency, Hans Leijtens, in a hearing in the European Parliament: “Imbarcazione raised questions, everything else was a decision that was up to Rome”
“The decision whether to intervene the Finance Guard or set up aSar operation it was up to them.” Frontex he returns to reiterate what his role was on the night of shipwreck of Cutro and what decisions were up to Italy. The European Border Security Agency again claimed that it had “acquitted the reporting task to the Italian authorities”, explained the executive director of the same EU agency, Hans Leijtensin hearing at European Parliamentanswering a question about the death of the 88 migrants at dawn on February 26 a few meters from the Calabrian coast.
The director highlighted that “the images” shared “in real time with the Coordination Center” they showed “a vessel which at that moment was not in danger but which raised questions” and “everything else was a decision that was up to Italy”. The plane Eagle 1 of Frontex took the photograph of the boat at 22.36 on Saturday 25 and half an hour later he sent the report to 26 Italian authorities explaining that the barge was in good repair buoyancybut signaling at the same time that they weren’t there rescue tools and that the photos taken with infrared had returned a “significant thermal response”i.e. the concrete possibility that many migrants were present below deck.
“Every life lost is one life lost too many and I think that ‘finding ways to’ save lives should be at the top of the list of thoughts,” stressed Leijtens addressing MEPs in the Civil Liberties Committee (Be). In case there is “some sign” of “danger” for “a vessel”, Frontex “launch the may-day and ensures that everyone is informed of what is happening at sea”, said the executive director, deploring the recurrence “on a regular basis of tragic accidents”. The task of the EU agency, added Leijtens, concerns “joint operations” to “cooperate with countries on the ground, in the open sea, and make a tangible contribution to what needs to be done to save lives”, and “the aerial surveillance multifunctional that we deploy around GreeceItaly and in the southern Mediterranean” for the purpose of “providing real-time information to member countries”.