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Policing- In Brief; France/Italy/Portugal/Spain/UK: The failure of police surveillance in the Mediterranean:

01 March 2003

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The filter system turned out to be a colander. Operation Ulysses, presented as sowing the seeds for a future European border police force, and undertaken between 28 January and 8 February 2003, (see Statewatch news online), turned out to be a resounding failure. During this period Ulysses failed to detain a single dinghy while, on the other hand, over 600 migrants reached the coasts of Andalucía and the Canary Islands. The programme directed by the Spanish Guardia Civil paramilitary police force, envisaged the participation of five frigates and patrol boats from the UK, Portugal, France, Italy and Spain, but all sorts of things went wrong. The UK withdrew on the day after the operation began. On the next day the Portuguese did likewise. The Italian ship failed to leave port due to the rough sea, and the French withdrew from the programme after six days. The obstacles they experienced included a lack of a common working language (resulting in crews not understanding each other) and incompatible communication systems. The operation cost over 1,200,000 Euros.

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