News

The first phase of the Operation Nautilus took place in June and July 2007. The objective of it was to strengthen the control of the Central Mediterranean maritime border using technical means of several Member States and also to support Maltese authorities in interviews with the immigrants.

Assets from five Member States were deployed to this operation, air means from Germany and France and vessels from Greece, Spain and Malta. Maltese interviewing teams were supported by experts from Italy and France.

As all Frontex activities the operation was to complement activities carried out by the Member States in the region, in this case Malta. Some of the Maltese equipment was part of the operation and therefore co-finance by Frontex (1 aircraft and 3 patrol vessels).

During the operational period the total of 401 migrants were detected in the operational area and 63 migrants were detected by the means deployed in the operation outside the operational area. Out of this total number 166 migrants were rescued.

During the operational phase 316 migrants arrived to Malta. Frontex experts interviews 26% of the migrants that arrived to Malta. The main nationalities of migrants that arrived to Malta were Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

During the course of the operation a visit of the Commissioner F. Frattini, together with Frontex Executive Director I. Laitinen, to the operation was arranged. A demonstration of the equipment, short cruise on the board of the Maltese P61 vessel and the visit to the coordination centre of Nautilus took place on the 4 July 2007.