European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) secretary-general Patrick Verhoeven welcomed the EU action but cautions that, as Triton remains within the mandate of EU border agency Frontex, it is likely to fall short of the scale of Italy’s Mare Nostrum operation, which saved 200,000 people in 2014.
“I hope we will not be confronted with another tragedy. Within the next few days and weeks we have to see how it works in practice; whether ships can come to the rescue in time when we get distress calls, or whether we need to step up further — as we suspect may be the case,” Verhoeven told TradeWinds.
