“This book arose in large part from the pain I felt while serving as sea commander of Sicily, coordinating the land rescue of the Egyptian fishing boat that sank just off the Libyan coast on April 18, 2015. Raised from the seabed After 15 months, the barcone was transported to Augusta with the remains of about 900 bodies of illegal migrants. Division Admiral (r) Nicola De Felice, born in 1958, pauses for a moment and recounts those tragic days and the book he recently wrote. He has extensive experience and a top-notch military career, but certain memories remain indelible. A double graduate, a lifetime aboard the ships of the Italian military fleet, after having commanded the most prestigious units of our Navy, he has held highly prestigious positions: responsible for the development of missile programs and very long-range precision munitions; Director of the Defense Innovation Center and Head of NATO National Centers of Excellence. A publication, Stopping the Invasion, emerged from the many experiences made in the Mediterranean. The reasons for the sea blockade.
Admiral, a title that requires drastic decisions…
“A targeted intervention aimed at tackling the problem of illegal immigration at its root is absolutely necessary. The solution may be the implementation of the so-called ‘naval blockade’, understood not as a military-type blockade but as a naval interdiction intervention aimed at blocking the departures of boats linked to human trafficking. If implemented from the start, the ‘sea blockade’ would have prevented the deaths of thousands and thousands of people, including many children”.
National and European politicians have spoken of their inapplicability, both for reasons of international law and because of difficulties in applicability…
“The term ‘naval blockade’ has been misunderstood by many and exploited by some. My idea, which I explain in detail in the book, relates to a ban on seas as a one-off measure dedicated solely to the transport of illegal migrants. Departing from well-defined ports; now this type of procedure is certainly not what is envisaged in Articles 50, 51 and 52 of the Charter of the United Nations, but is practiced in time of war. It is something that is already being practiced today and in other military and civilian operations managed by the EU, I am referring in particular to “Operation Atalanta” which affects the sea off Somalia, a very large area that has been 2008 envisages the use of European military ships in the waters of the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It is an operation to neutralize piracy of merchant ships, in which, in addition to European ships, naval units of China and Japan also take part”.
Would this be enough to block an influx from different directions?
“It is a measure to be combined with what Mr Meloni has been proposing for some time, namely a measure to counter the flows of migrant trafficking on the mainland, that is a very important part. We need to think about what I call a “direct global strategy” approach, much broader than the “naval blockade,” which will use diplomatic, economic, and intelligence tools for a plan for surveillance agreements, but also for the development of countries on the other side of the Mediterranean includes . the criminal trafficking of these people, if we create economic development in their countries and in the countries from which they leave, deaths at sea are eliminated, if departures are avoided and if the hotspots on African land are financed, managed and controlled, in cooperation with local forces. A more massive and targeted engagement on African soil by the European Union is imperative, of course with the consent of the local government”.
So doable?
“The treaty of friendship with Libya signed by Italy in 2008 with the Berlusconi government indicated the possibility of conducting a mixed patrol by our Guardia di Finanza with the Libyan police forces equipped with patrol boats. the data of the landings in Italy from During this period it turns out that we have reached an all-time low, because this type of mixed patrol activity worked so well in Libyan territorial waters that departures were cancelled.Of course, there were other aspects to consider, such as the Italian investment of around five billion euros in the reconstruction of the country with Italian companies. In addition to the possibility of implementing satellite and surveillance systems to control the Libyan coasts, precisely to prevent clandestine departures, all this worked after the war arrived in Libya in Year 2011, with the story we know, triggered by another European country for its inter you… and everything changed “.
Several ports of sovereign Mediterranean countries have been declared unsafe due to the landing of migrant boats. Where from?
“There’s a lot of confusion and a certain hypocrisy on the part of a certain mindset that defines unsafe ports as places where cruise ships dock with large tourist flows…Tunisia, Egypt, Malta all have Sar (“Search and Rescue”) jurisdiction, in whose areas they are obliged to provide rescue and protect the lives of those rescued from distress at sea.The rescued are obliged to respect the SAR area of the country they are in, they cannot do as they please. .”
Are you referring to a specific case?
“I am referring to the sensational gesture made by Carola Rackete in 2019 when the Tripoli maritime authorities told her to bring the migrants back to Libya precisely because in this case the search and rescue coordinator in charge was from Tripoli, as from recognized by the UN itself and technically by the IMO (International Maritime Organization), executive arm of the United Nations at sea. Instead, Carola refused to carry out the display and steered the bow towards Italy, resulting in the ramming of a naval unit of our Guardia di Finanza, a real warship endangering the lives of five of our soldiers. The patrol boats of the Guardia di Finanza, in exercising their maritime police function, are put on an equal footing with warships without territorial restrictions, as the Constitutional Court and the Penal Cassation have repeatedly stated. .
A not insignificant element…
“There are two things that need to be clarified for those who are not experts, firstly, the flag states of NGO ships are directly involved in their specific responsibilities as they grant their flag and therefore their jurisdiction and those ships. When a ship flies a flag, for any legal problem of any kind, you have to go to that flag and then to that state Second: The flag state is responsible for the individual protection of the various illegal migrants, as well as for the eventual release and political asylum of refugees who be recognized on board that ship because the territory on that ship belongs to the flag state to which it belongs the Dublin Convention to move illegal immigrants elsewhere; this is a very important thing that needs to be underlined.
In your book you wish Enrico Mattei’s project for Africa to be realised, what does that mean?
“Africa’s best energies and best representatives are leaving the country, further impoverishing it. We must resume this Mattei project, because the naval blockade also serves to defend the rights of these people, deceived by false myths of prosperity, believing the larks of a sweetened information, they face the hopeful voyages in the hands of criminals of all kinds .Future to their country of origin Enrico Mattei’s project would give many answers and many opportunities to the young African generations would create new commercial and economic development opportunities directly in Africa, offering young people concrete opportunities for social advancement and they very often from the worst Dante groups in our withdraw society.
The African situation is also no joke when it comes to social security …
“It’s true, but while criminal traffickers launder trafficking money into guns and large batches of drugs, the men, women and children who manage to arrive on our soil often don’t stand a chance and end up in our nets organized crime women.” who are sent into prostitution, men who are employed in the drug trade while children pay terrible prices: they risk ending up either in child prostitution, in petty crime or in the hell of organ trafficking. All of this is unacceptable.