Today 13 October 2006, after a thorough evaluation of the HERA II project by Frontex and the Spanish authorities, Mr Ilkka Laitinen, Executive Director of Frontex has decided to prolong the operation. Further details about the continuation and the resources to be allocated will follow at later stage.
During his visit to the ongoing HERA operations at the Canary Islands Mr Laitinen expressed his satisfaction with the course and the outcomes of the HERA I and HERA II projects. He discussed also the issue of reinforcing national border protection capacities in the region with Spanish authorities. During August and September about 11.000 illegal immigrants embarked for the Canary Islands. In the same period, about 2300 persons have been diverted at the Mauritanian and Senegalese coasts.
The figures of October show a drastic decrease in the flow of illegal immigrants through the area covered by the operation. Only one cayuco carrying 52 persons has arrived in the Canary Islands, whereas 250 persons were diverted at the African coast.
The Hera II operation is one of two modules provided by Frontex to assist the Spain in tackling the flow of illegal immigrants from Western Africa.
The first module (HERA I), to which several members states offered their contribution, focuses on the identification of illegal migrants who arrived in the Canary Islands as well as on the establishment of their country of origin. The first group of experts from France, Portugal, Italy and Germany, who were deployed there for one month as from June, was revealed by a second group composed of experts from Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Germany. They were later joined by experts from the Netherlands. The third group of experts started on 19 September and it consisted of experts from the Netherlands (2), France (2), Italy (2), Portugal (3) and Norway (1).
The second module of the HERA project in which Frontex coordinates the contributions of the Member States covers the joint sea patrols (HERA II). This part of the project has been carried out since 11 August involving one vessel and one aircraft from Italy and one vessel from Portugal. A Finnish aircraft, which had been offered previously, will be deployed during the prolongation.
More on HERA II operation - see our news release of 19 December 2006 - Longest Frontex coordinated operation - HERA.