Frontex has “fulfilled the task of reporting to the Italian authorities, the decision whether to have the Guardia di Finanza intervene or set up a SAR operation was up to them”. This was stated by the executive director of the same EU agency, Hans Leijtens, in a hearing in the European Parliament, answering a question on the shipwreck off the coast of Cutro. The director highlighted that “the images” shared “in real time with the Coordination Center” 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 the Italy”.
Cutro, the last images of the boat before the sinking of February 26th. Crammed inside were 180 migrants. 88 people died in the sinking, including 25 children
“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,” said Leijtens addressing MEPs from the Civil Liberties Committee (Libe). In case there is “some signal” of “danger” for “a vessel”, Frontex “launches the may-day and makes sure that everyone is informed of what is happening at sea”, reported the executive director, deploring the recurrence “on a regular basis of tragic incidents”. 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 multifunctional aerial surveillance that we deploy around Greece, Italy and in the southern Mediterranean” with the aim of “providing real-time information to member countries”.
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