Mare Nostrum vs. Triton Emily Koller

Introduction In the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring, during the period between 2010 and 2013, an average of 28,000 migrants annually were reaching the shores of the EU from North Africa by way of the central route across the Mediterranean Sea. [...] Operation Mare Nostrum Sets Sail for A Year The origin of Mare Nostrum can be found in two shipwrecks at the bottom of the 2 Mediterranean Sea - the first occurring on October 3rd of 2013 off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa which resulted in the death of 368 migrants, with the second tragedy occurring only eight days later between Malta and Lampedusa bringing the death toll to more th. [...] Why did the EU not simply elect to provide financial support to Mare Nostrum, which was functioning reasonably well and recording considerable success in saving lives? Why did the EU, in the midst of the Mediterranean migration crisis, choose instead to establish its own response to the crisis? Even in the summer of 2014, before the Lampedusa shipwrecks and before the full brunt of the migrant cri. [...] A strengthening of return policies would allow the EU and members states to present the appearance of having regained control of their borders, and would weaken the arguments of the far-right that the asylum process is being abused and proper processing is not occurring. [...] From this investigation, the paper traced how the EU came to the decision to go with Operation Triton as its response to the Mediterranean migration crisis; and identified the lack of sufficient political will on the part of EU member states, the EU’s budgetary and project processes, and the fragmentation of EU when it comes to achieving a common asylum policy as the primary reasons behind the cre.